How to Charge Premium Rates in Assisted Living
Jul 01, 2026
Have you ever wondered how some assisted living homes charge $10,000, $15,000, or even $20,000 per month? It can seem impossible until you understand what people are really paying for. The good news is that premium pricing is not about having the fanciest building. It is about creating an experience that the right residents truly want. Want the full breakdown?
Watch the video below👇
Premium pricing starts with serving the right people
Many people think higher prices come from luxury finishes or expensive marketing. That is only part of the picture. The real reason people pay premium rates is because they see value in what they are getting.
I have found that premium buyers usually fit into one of three groups:
âś… They want to fill a missing need in their life.
âś… They want to maintain the lifestyle they already enjoy.
âś… They have always dreamed of living in a certain type of community.
When you understand which of these motivations drives your ideal resident, you can build a home that meets those expectations instead of trying to appeal to everyone.
Ask your future residents what they actually want
One of the biggest mistakes new operators make is guessing what people want.
Instead of guessing, ask questions.
Talk to potential residents and their families. Learn what matters most to them. Find out what kind of care, amenities, and daily experience they expect from an assisted living home.
đź’ˇ The answers you receive become your roadmap for building your business.
If families tell you they value chef-prepared meals, personalized care, beautiful outdoor spaces, or wellness activities, you now know exactly where to invest your time and money.
âś… Build your services around what your ideal customer tells you they value.
Stop trying to attract everyone
This is one of the hardest lessons for many new assisted living owners.
Not every resident is looking for a premium experience, and that is perfectly okay.
I primarily operate Medicaid homes, and that model works extremely well. But if your goal is to charge premium rates, you have to focus on a completely different customer.
Trying to serve everyone usually means you end up serving no one especially well.
The more specific your ideal resident becomes, the easier it is to attract them.
âś… Define exactly who your home is for before you build your marketing.
Deliver an experience that matches your price
Premium pricing comes with premium expectations.
If you are charging more, your operations have to support that experience every single day.
That may mean:
âś… Higher staffing levels
âś… Better resident experiences
âś… Exceptional customer service
âś… Premium amenities that your residents actually requested
The goal is not to spend money on things people do not care about. The goal is to invest in the experiences your residents and their families value most.
I have seen operators spend thousands on advertising while overlooking the daily experience inside the home. Great operations create happy residents, happy families, and strong referrals.
Market the outcome instead of the building
Beautiful photos are helpful, but they are not what convince someone to move into your home.
Families are looking for peace of mind.
Residents want comfort, dignity, independence, and a lifestyle they can enjoy.
That is what your marketing should communicate.
Instead of talking about granite countertops or fancy furniture, explain the outcome your residents will experience. Show families how your home helps their loved one feel cared for, comfortable, and valued.
đź’ˇ People buy the experience, not just the building.
When your messaging reflects exactly what your ideal residents have been asking for, your marketing becomes much more effective.
Wrap Up
Charging premium rates in assisted living is not about simply raising your prices. It starts with understanding exactly who you want to serve, asking what they value most, and creating an experience that delivers on those expectations. When you build what people truly want and clearly communicate that outcome, premium pricing becomes much easier to justify.
If you need help creating a business plan for your assisted living business, check out the Free Business Plan Checklist.
And if you’re ready to figure out your next step, join me for the next Roadmap Challenge where I’ll walk you through how to get started.
Show full transcript 👇
Transcript
00:00:00
Have you heard about people charging like just huge rates for assisted living? 8, 10, 12, 15, 20,000 dollars for assisted living and you're like, "How in the world can somebody justify charging that much money for assisted living?" And it's just like it's blowing your mind cuz you're like, "There's no way. How could anybody ever pay for that?" Um and why would somebody even want to pay for that? Well, in today's video, how to charge premium rates in assisted living, I'm going to walk you
00:00:30
through exactly how you can justify charging that and why people will pay a premium for that type of service in assisted living because it's possible. And I want to make sure that it makes sense to you. Hey friend, I'm Brandon Gustafson with Assisted Living Investing. I help healthcare workers start their own assisted living business so that they're not stuck trying to figure it out and they know exactly what to do next. Now, let's start talking about it. How do you charge premium
00:00:56
rates in assisted living? Because I was talking to a person a few months ago and he's in a very affluent town and was like, "I you know, we know we could charge 15,000 dollars per month for our rates. Like we know we could. They wouldn't even be hard. We'd fill our beds up quickly. We know that we could do this." And I was like, I was that it kind of blew my mind a little bit. I was like, "How? Hmm. Let me give some thought to that." And I was listening to one of my coaches. His name
00:01:23
is Myron Golden. He teaches people how to coach. He's like a coach's coach, right? So, he's he's just awesome. And he was talking about charging premium rates for coaching programs. And in there, this is the secret sauce. Yeah, I'm going to just peel back the curtain a little bit and help you understand. You can charge premium prices for something for really three different reasons. One is they have a perceived void. Like something that they've been missing their entire life. Something that
00:01:56
they've always wanted to do. Like maybe they they lived and they were middle class and they're like, you know, I've always wanted to be in this really nice house and have all the things and have a butler and all of those things, right? It's been a a perceived void that they've had. Okay? So, that's the first one, a perceived void. The second one is a pursued value, something that they want right now. Like, I just want it. I I want to have a nice spot. I want to have this thing. I've always lived in
00:02:21
really nice places and I know that I need assisted living services and I really want to not reduce my quality of life, okay? And the third one is a pursued virtue. So, it's just something that I really want to have. It's something I've always dreamed of. When I am older, I want to live in the nice Golden Girls place and I don't care how much it costs because that that's what I've always wanted to. It's something it's a a pursued virtue that I have and that's something that I want to have.
00:02:45
When you hone in on one of those three things, and with assisted living, what's cool is you can get all three of them or any one of the three, and help people along that path. But, you can charge premium prices to people that want that experience because they're out there. Not everybody's going to want it and that's totally fine and I personally think Medicaid is the best kept secret in all of assisted living. You can be very profitable as a Medicaid facility. I think it's a great way to do
00:03:09
it. Now, as a person that does primarily Medicaid, that $15,000 a month person is not the person I'm catering to and that's totally fine. But, if I wanted to shift and start working towards those people, you need to figure out exactly what it is that they want so that you can serve them, so you can meet their needs. So, how do you figure that out? You want to be like, you know, defining their lifestyle and the the type of care that they want and the amenities and their expectations. The best way to figure
00:03:39
that out, by the way, is to actually ask people what they want. So, I don't know how many of you have gone and taken my quiz, ALIquiz.com. We'll have a link for it down right here. I think it's where it's at. Um on that quiz, I ask you a few questions cuz I want to know if I can help you out. But also, I want to know what's going on, what you actually need help with. And that helps me design my content for you and help me design coaching programs that are going to best fit you and how to get started, right?
00:04:07
And so, when you take that quiz, it gives me super valuable information. I'm asking you for some guidance and you're telling me and I appreciate it. So, if you haven't yet, go take the quiz. It takes you 30 seconds. Um eliquiz.com or just scan the QR code that it's going to be down right here. And well, when you do those things, it gives me value and then I'm able to reciprocate and create value that you want, right? So, why would I not do that if I wanted to help you out, which I do? Uh why would I not
00:04:32
use your information that you're giving me to create stuff that you actually want? Okay? That's going to make you like the video and subscribe and do all those things or uh join me in my program. So, if you are interested in that, type in foundation down below and we'll we'll give you uh information on the foundation builder program. It's all designed to help you start your assisted living business if you're feeling stuck and overwhelmed and confused and don't know how to get started. That's what I
00:04:53
teach you in the foundation builder program is how to get beyond that and build your foundation, okay? So, that's how you figure out what these people want. You ask them, "What types of amenities would you like? What type of care do you expect? What type of extra things uh would would this home look like?" And then, once you figure that out, you create the facility that provides them with those things. And then you say, "Hey, you told me you wanted a private chef and you also
00:05:20
wanted to make sure we had a hot tub and uh that we had a pickleball court in the back. And guess what? I got all those things, right? We have it all. So, come stay at our facility. Haha. Yes, it's expensive, but we have all the things that you want. That's how you do it. When you stop trying to attract everybody, right? As a person that does Medicaid, that's what I do largely is uh we we try to attract everybody. It's fine. That's the model that we do in our homes right now. But if I want to attract a
00:05:48
high-paying $15,000 a month resident to my facility, then I need to do the things that they want, and then I need to really hone in on that and stop trying to attract everybody, because what I do in that facility does not make sense for somebody that's on Medicaid. Does not make sense for somebody that doesn't want those things. Why would I waste my time trying to attract them to come to my facility when I know they can't afford it, and it's not really what they want. They don't care about all those
00:06:15
extra things. What I need to do is now focus on a population that wants those things. So, then I got to go find them, but, you know, it's a lot easier to find a small population than it is to try to attract a large population. Um the more niche you get, and I've I told this to a ton of my students, the more you niche down, the more successful you're going to be, because you are just you're clearing out the noise and you're focusing on very specific people. And when you do that, you're attracting
00:06:43
them, and they're going to find you, and then you're going to fill your beds. And it allows you to be so much more successful. Okay? Not only are you trying to attract residents with those three P's that we just talked about earlier in the video, but you're also trying to do the exact same thing with their families, right? You're trying to attract them, and you're trying to create an atmosphere for what they want for their loved one. And when you do that, that's what's
00:07:06
going to allow you to be a lot more successful, because you are honing in and you're talking to them about the things that they want. What you need to realize with assisted living is not always does the resident pay for those services. It It doesn't always happen. Sometimes it does, sometimes they have money and they're able to do it themselves because of stuff that they've built up, but sometimes it's the family that wants to do that, and they are putting their parents in a home that has
00:07:29
all of those things, because that's what they want for their parents. They want to give back, and they want to serve them in that way, for whatever reason. And so, when you have those things, you're going to be able to cater to that population. So, you need to understand is there alignment between my resident and my resident families about what they want and what I'm providing? And if there is, and you're providing that service that they want, that's how you can charge those premium rates. So, you
00:07:55
need to pay attention to who you're marketing to and what their desires are. Those premium rates are also likely going to require some additional follow through. So, when you're working on your numbers, if you need some help with that, type in calculator down below give you access to my underwriting calculator. But, you're going to want to factor in, "Hey, there's probably some extra operational stuff we've got to do if we're charging higher prices." So, you know, do we need to make sure our
00:08:20
staffing numbers are up? Do we need to make sure we have, you know, like a private chef or more staff or, you know, more housekeepers or whatever it is that you need because those things and honing in and making sure those things fit the way that you're operating your company are way, way more important than having fancy marketing. You don't need to spend, you know, thousands of dollars per month in marketing materials for this. What you need is a really sound process for how you're going to meet those needs.
00:08:52
Invest in the operations. Invest in the people that are going to create the experiences that these people want and then create referral networks. That is how you're going to bring people in and justify charging the premium rates and why people will line up to be in your facility when you do those things. That's how you do it. It is not about you know, the the biggest marketing budget and having your ads on TV and all over on Facebook and Google and whatever. The more that you can cater to
00:09:18
that person, that that is what is going to bring them to you and allow you to charge those premium rates. So, when you do that, you're going to be a lot more successful. And the other thing is you probably will want to do some marketing at some point, whether that's through actual ads or some kind of marketing collateral or just referral marketing or whatever it is that that you're trying to do, you're going to need something, but you should not be marketing. You should not be marketing the building
00:09:45
and the cool things that you have there and how nice it is and these beautiful pictures and those types of things. Sure, have them in your collateral, but what you need to be marketing when you do this is the outcome, the experience, the thing that they want, that they are desiring. That's the thing that you need to hit on with your messaging. When you hit on those things, that's when people are like, "Oh my gosh, that is exactly what I have wanted my entire life." And how did they know that? And it's
00:10:13
because you asked them questions, right? They told you. That's why I'm hoping, if you type in foundation down below, I would love for you to go check out the foundation builder website for that program because I have spent so much time trying to hone in on exactly who you, the the viewer of this video is and what you need and and building a program around that. Not because I think it's fun, which I I do, by the way, but because I know what you need and I'm listening to the things that you
00:10:45
say you need and I'm building a program around that. This is kind of a microcosm of what that looks like. So, if you're interested in learning about that and seeing a little bit of how this works in action, just type in foundation, we'll get you the link to it and have you go take a look at it because I want you to see how you can go from this mindset of, "How do I actually create something like this that people want?" and then doing it and that's going to attract those people. And when you
00:11:10
market and speak to the outcome that they want and you hone in your messaging around that, that is going to attract more people into what you're trying to build than anything else that you do. So, ask them the questions and then build what they want and then tell them that you built what they want. That is how you are going to attract premium buyers, premium prices for your assisted living facility. That is how you're going to do it. Are you curious about assisted living, but you're not sure how
00:11:44
to get started? At Assisted Living Investing, I help healthcare workers start their own assisted living business, so they're not stuck trying to figure it out and know exactly what they should do next. I would love to help you out wherever you're at in the process to help you make progress as you're trying to just figure things out and how to get started. Type in foundation if you want to learn more. Would love to help you out with that. But, I want to encourage you that when you take steps and you take the right
00:12:10
steps and you do it step by step by step, consistently and persistently, you are going to be successful. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
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