diff --git a/playbooks/perfload.yaml b/playbooks/perfload.yaml
index 46a59cc15..8bf995f01 100644
--- a/playbooks/perfload.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/perfload.yaml
@@ -64,8 +64,9 @@
           the right output is a long string of 4000 characters containing
           'r', 'i', 'a', 't' in random order (because async).
 
-          After that are three aggregate uuids, and then the output
-          of two timed curl requests.
+          After that are three aggregate uuids, timing information for the
+          placeload run, and then timing information for two identical curl
+          requests for allocation candidates.
 
           If no timed requests are present it means that the expected number
           of resource providers were not created. At this time, only resource
@@ -100,18 +101,20 @@
               # get placement endpoint
               placement_url="http://localhost:8000"
 
+              set +x
               # load with placeload
               (
                   echo "$EXPLANATION"
                   # preheat the aggregates to avoid https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bug/1804453
                   placeload $placement_url 10
-                  placeload $placement_url $COUNT
-              ) | tee -a $LOG
+                  echo "##### TIMING placeload creating $COUNT resource providers with inventory, aggregates and traits."
+                  time placeload $placement_url $COUNT
+              ) 2>&1 | tee -a $LOG
               rp_count=$(curl -H 'x-auth-token: admin' $placement_url/resource_providers |json_pp|grep -c '"name"')
               # Skip curl and note if we failed to create the required number of rps
               if [[ $rp_count -ge $COUNT ]]; then
                   (
-                      echo '##### TIMING GET /allocation_candidates'
+                      echo "##### TIMING GET /allocation_candidates?${PLACEMENT_QUERY} twice"
                       time curl -s -H 'x-auth-token: admin' -H 'openstack-api-version: placement 1.21' "$placement_url/allocation_candidates?${PLACEMENT_QUERY}" > /dev/null
                       time curl -s -H 'x-auth-token: admin' -H 'openstack-api-version: placement 1.21' "$placement_url/allocation_candidates?${PLACEMENT_QUERY}" > /dev/null
                   ) 2>&1 | tee -a $LOG
@@ -122,6 +125,7 @@
                   ) | tee -a $LOG
                   code=1
               fi
+              set -x
               deactivate
               exit $code
           }