Threads about price vs. quantity vs. quality are common place on the board. In December, one was posted by a hobbyist and he got the typical thrashing by the ladies. I'm a firm believer in giving people the benefit of the doubt and giving them the opportunity to show that they are right so I contacted the OP and we set up an experiment.
http://www.eccie.net/showthread.php?t=346389
I am a low volume provider, but decided to forgo that for a week to see how many appointments a "typical" provider might get in a week. In the past I have been pretty inconsistent with my advertising, but for the 2 week experiment I decided to advertise like the "typical" full time provider. Both weeks I offered 9am-3pm availability. The first week I went outside of that availability twice. The second week, I went outside of that availability 4 times.
Each week's experiment and results are listed below. I am a fetish provider but only recently have advertised that on eccie & p411. I use other means to advertise that so if they were not an eccie or p411 member, I did not include them in either week's results; however, I made sure that non-eccie or non-411 clients did not interfere in any way with the experiment. I did this by offering them other available times or by letting them know I would have to cancel if I had a "vanilla" appointment come up. I had one additional non-board member fetish appointments the first week and two the second week.
Week 1: Regular advertising&pricing, but did not deny any appointments that passed screening. Usually I have a 1 per day, 3 per week limit with very few exceptions. I pay 50 in rent per appointment at my incall regardless of session length. Here is an honest breakdown of my week 1 result.
Results: 6 one hr appts at 200; 1 two hr apt at 300; 1 doubles appt at 150 (my cut) plus the following in tips: 50, 20, 75. Six of the appts were gentleman I had seen before, two were new to me.
Out of 8 appts, 2 were FS, others were not bc the client only wanted other services or we just never got that far
I paid 300 (did not have to pay rent on doubles or 1 outcall) in rent (50x6)Calculation Breakdown= (6x200)+300+150+(50+20+75)=$17 95-300=$1595
Tiredness level: I felt ready and refreshed for all appointments. Three of the appointments went slightly over but that was no worry for me and I was happy to spend the extra time with them recovering
Experience with clients: All gentlemen. Followed screening rules and were respectful. Every appointment arrived on time.
Week 2: Menu style pricing; 140/fs hr; 100/fs hh; 80/massage w/ he hr; 60/massage w/ he hh. Here is an honest breakdown of my week 1 result.
Results: Five 1 hr FS appts at 140; One 1 hr FS at 120; Three doubles appts at the following rates: 100; 140; 400 (my cut). The 3rd doubles appointment was prearranged weeks in advance. Tips included 20 & 100.
Out of 9 appts, 5 were existing clients that wisely took me up on my special pricing though it's likely they would have seen me at the regular rate this week. I paid rent on 7 appointments (50x7=350). I did not get any requests for massage appointments. Also, the 100 double was another provider's client. He was not seeking a doubles, but we talked him into a deal that he could not pass up. Three appointments went over, one by my choice (hh turned into a 1h 15mins at no xtra charge) and the other two were by their choice but no extra compensation - 20 mins & 30 mins.
Calculation Breakdown= (5x140)+120+100+140+400+(20+10 0)=$1580-350=$1230 BUT...Without the prearranged doubles at 400; My results would have been $830
Daily experience: Tuesday was a VERY heavy day for me for appointments, Wednesday there was only 1 hh appointment but was the heaviest email day by FAR.
Email/pm experience: 3 messages requesting greek at special price (one was misunderstanding of services, one stated my special was too high unless I offered greek - he wanted hh massage w/ greek for 60! (I won't post handle, but he's a pretty active member on board), one stated that if greek was not on FS menu then no appt). The rest of the messages were pretty much a blur. Even going back and trying to filter through them for anything that stood out was overwhelming in seeing how many emails went back and forth in 5 days. Most questions were relating to specific services and if that could fall under the massage with HE appointment or if I offered it. Exchanging information about specific services is the most uncomfortable thing for me in the hobby; however, this week was a necessity. I know there were quite a few emails/questions that went unanswered this week. I apologize if this happened to anyone reading this, but at least now you can understand why. This was especially true of emails or pms that were 1) sent with "call me & their number" (a large # of those but I still tried to respond to as many as I could asking them to send refs) or 2) if someone emailed back and forth quite a few dozen times without confirming an appointment time or 3) if they did not send references within the first few emails. At the end of the week I counted how many email requests (not including phone, text, or pms) that requested a lower rate than my special. This totaled 27.
Tiredness level: The main issue with tiredness this week was handling the huge increase in emails; pms; and calls. I probably would have been more exhausted on Tuesday but the 2 doubles kept my interest. OMG
Experience with clients: This was probably one of the most eye opening weeks of my life. I had 4 NCNS in one week. Before moving to SA, I had 2 NCNS in 3 years in the hobby. In SA, I typically have about 1 every other week, but 4 was a hard # to handle. There is no way I could count or keep up with the number of "potential appointments" that never booked after screening. By the end of the week I ended up having to "double book" appointments because it was almost guaranteed that at least one would not show up. I provide my phone # after screening and this seemed to be a point of frustration for many guys this week, an issue I've never had before. Probably 90% of the appointment requests were done via email. This was something that was very surprising to me. It was surprising because 1) I'm used to first contact by pm and 2) it was actually well appreciated this week due to the large volume of requests - signing into the board would waste valuable seconds. I also followed this by sending out most of my reference requests via email, phone call or text, which is not typical of me, but I needed fast replies. This week, last minute appointments seemed to be the norm, guys wanting to see me within 15 mins to 2 hours; however, screening is nearly impossible for that time frame so while I made every effort to screen them, but those appointments rarely came to fruition. For those that did get my phone # after screening, I got a lot of "what are you doing" calls/messages. Those are guys that called or emailed just about every day to check on my availability in case they had some free time, but out of the 7 guys that fell under that category, only 1 finally booked.
I understand that there are probably limitations to this experience. Those might be:
1) I am newer to the area which might work for or against me
2) I do not advertise my phone # and don't give it out until after screening
3) I pay rent by appointment instead of renting a hotel, etc; however, I would have had to rent a hotel Sunday night through Saturday morning. At about $80/night including taxes.. that would have been a higher expenditure
4) I did not include gas, babysitter costs, or "cost of materials"; however, they would have been pretty even for both weeks.
5) Perhaps the length of the experiment is also a limitation; however, I'm glad I only set it at one week because I'd probably go nuts with all the emails, etc.
6) I had to extend my special through the weekend because after running specials for the week, there was some confusion about what my actual pricing is. I only included results from M-F for both weeks. I think it might take a little while for me to get the confusion settled. Heck I'm still getting requests from the special I offered over Christmas LOL.
The bottom line: Both the OP and I were wrong. He thought lower prices = more business. I thought lower prices = less business. Some providers in the OT thought that lower prices=more business but less quality due to tiredness. The reality is that lower prices = about the same amount of business for a LOT more work, about half the $, and a LOT more rudeness. I believe that lower price gives a perceived lower quality and in my experience during these two weeks, it seems that most gents value quality over price. Week 1: $1595 Week 2: $830
After the 2nd week, I've had to change my phone #. The old number will forward for a bit but if YOU HAVE SEEN ME BCD, then PM me and I will give you my new #.
