my rates were a set price of "per meet" rather than "per hour"

It doesn't make sense as essentially you're comparing 2 different things. a per hour rate vrs a per meet rate? How long would a "meet be"?!?

Quote from: Luvmylips on 25 July 2011, 09:27:53 pm

my rates were a set price of "per meet" rather than "per hour"

It doesn't make sense as essentially you're comparing 2 different things. a per hour rate vrs a per meet rate? How long would a "meet be"?!?

Indeed - I have never heard of anybody using such an odd pricing structure and I would never be able to maintain a diary unless I could plan my time properly (which is why I've never charged per service, either). I can assure you that the <?80 per hour ladies were very much there last year and for plenty of time before that, and I can also assure you that there are ladies (or agencies at least) charging ?300+ per hour and doing fine. What you basically saying is that you are not getting as much work as you want, and the way to do something about that is look at what you can do for your business, not worry about everybody else's.

Maybe you could try operating a booking system that punters could understand a bit more easily? You don't have to do quickie appointments if you don't want to, but not many punters are going to want to shell out ?400 to shag somebody they've never met before either; does this mean that if a client only has an hour to spare it would still be the same price? There are many more people working then there was when I first started and even since I went full-time four years or so ago, but there's really not been that much of a change in the last few months.

Last year, I charged 400 per meet which was a minimum of two hours and a maximum of six

so you were excepting 6 hours for ?400 but if a guy wanted 2 hours you'd charge him the same??

That essentialy works out worse for the guys than paying a girl who charges by the hour...  

I cant quite see what your complaint is now tbh though its standard to reduce the rate the longer they book even ?100 would work better for you and the guys which might get you more business + repeat business?

i can see guys not liking the "per meet" rate which is why no one else really does this..

Yes, I think the basic issue here is the growing knowledge of consumers - clients still take risks with every girl they see (I mean risking that they won't get on, that it'll be a bad choice for him, or she'll rip him off somehow, etc) but I think those risks are now smaller because of the vast quantities of semi-reliable information available on the Internet.

If they can check a girl's reviews and services and pictures on AW/Pnet/C69 and see that 'even though' she charges ?100 per hour, she's still genuine and good-looking and good at oral etc, they don't need to go with the whole old idea that more money = a better girl. They can look for their own perfect escort by doing detailed online searches and come up with a bunch of matches at a bunch of price points and just make a simple decision themselves - no relying on agencies or word of mouth or whatever the most common pre-AW/Pnet methods used to be.

There's just no market for vague pricing structures nowadays - everyone tends to spell out their rates and services quite specifically, aided by sites like AW that require everything to be put into separate boxes so that their search features work effectively. If a guy's looking at "I'll do x, y and z for ?abc" vs "I'll spend up to x hours with you for ?abc", and both profiles have pretty pictures etc, he'll likely go for the first one because then he knows what he's getting.

I don't think it's necessarily the fact that more girls are available now (although I'm sure there are), it's more that more accurate(-ish) information is freely available now. Clients can make shrewd and educated choices so as a sex worker, whether your rates are ?39 per hour or ?300 per hour, you need to make sure you're advertising your wares as simply and transparently as possible - men will run a mile from anything that looks vague/scammy.

I charge 200 for the hour and I'm not in London. And yes it's quieter than it used to be but overall at the end of the month I'm doin ok!

I know when it's quiet it's tempting to drop your prices but my advice is don't, I did a special offer once (knocked ?50 off  for a month) and it didn't bring much more business tbh, it did bring out all the hagglers tho and the few I saw at new price  forgot it was a special offer and thought I was ripping them off when prices returned to normal.

I would rather stick at my price do ok and be happy (when I'm quiet I take it as quality time for me) than deal with all the hagglers, they just annoy me tbh 

I dunno. This pricing arrangement 'obviously' doesn't fit in with the AW model, but that's not necessarily a marketing disadvantage, handled well. ?400 divided by six hours is not that much per hour.

We all know that as well as Mr 'I've paid for two hours, how dare you even look at a clock before 120 minutes is up' there is also Mr 'I've come now, you can go', and while it may not be a good idea to offer this to the former, the latter is going to be fine with it... provided the time before then has been good enough. It's also not that unusual a rate for 'x hours social time, y hours in bed' deals.

Of course there are clients who prefer less 'concrete' arrangements because they like a bit more of a sense of, perhaps, being just a generous boyfriend rather than a client - these guys can be lovely if they act respectfully but obviously are nightmares if they don't (as with any disrespectful client no matter his preferred methods of booking/paying).

My point was that there's been such a movement towards clients being able to find information quickly online about escorts that there's little need for them to take risks with fuzzier arrangements. That's not to say there aren't still a few of them preferring the fuzzy way.

Basically, if I went into a coffee shop and they told me to pay ?5 and have "up to 3 coffees", I'd probably still rather just stop in another coffee shop where I can get coffee and a cake for ?3.50 because I don't really want to be faffing about having "up to 3 coffees". In London, especially, where we are (in our minds ) sooo very busy with many important scheduling issues to consider! If I'm looking for three coffees, sure, the ?5 deal is great. But when does anyone spend the entire afternoon drinking coffee and doing nowt else? Occasionally, sure. But not as often as the gazillions of people who pop in, get what they want, pay what they know it costs, and then get straight back to the office/shopping/touristy stuff/home.

*runs off into the distance with increasingly silly metaphor*

Also, I fear these days that a pricing structure that leaves you almost entirely unable to use Adultwork is a definite disadvantage, especially in London. Would Pnet users be particularly enamoured with it either? I don't know.

I do actually think you could build a great business marketing this USP hard. But it would take a helluva lot of time to build up a great collection of regulars who a) enjoy precisely the services you offer and b) always want to book for 2-6 hours. There'd probably be many hiccups along the way with grumpy clients wanting more services/time etc etc, which is par for the course for any of us, but we can wave goodbye to Mr Grumpy and wait sometimes as little as fifteen minutes (in my experience!) for a new Mr Lovely to call.

Also, yeah, you will get sooo many annoying people saying, "Well, if it's ?400 for 6 hours, I want one hour for ?66 HAR HAR see wot I did there" - but the industry is full of these clowns and having a cast iron Ignoring Hat is essential for us all otherwise every single one of us would be completely mad! Or madder, anyway.

Anyway. I think there's plenty of evidence that you can find your niche and charge almost anything you like as long as you're providing services in an excellently professional fashion and making your clients happy. Buuut certain niches will be incredibly small, especially if you restrict your client base further and don't take the (much higher now?) amount of time required to really establish yourself these days.

And one thing I know for sure is that dwelling on your competition doesn't do much in this industry. Sure, follow in the footsteps of women that you know are successful and happy in the industry, but there will always be someone younger, thinner, cheaper and apparently more wildly in "luv" with male genitals than you, so you can only really focus on building your own escort brand and seeing where it takes you.

I think the general economic climate has hit everyone I'm afraid.

xx