I normally charge the cost of gas but I’m realizing that a 7-hour round trip drive to Dallas is a lot and that I’m spending more time trying to get there than actually being at the session. Do you ask for a flight in that situation?
I say that I only drive up to 3 hours to a location.
$20 for a one hour drive $40 for a two hour drive $80 for a three hour drive (because 6 hours of driving is intense)
Honestly, if someone is really hung up on me driving 3 hours to them, I feel like that amount of driving deserves more than $80 but I’m fine with it for now, as long as they book a long enough cuddle. Before I drive to a new cuddler that’s over an hour drive, I have them send me a deposit. I’m not driving 2-6 hours for a no show.
I myself wouldn’t trust someone I don’t know paying for airfare and me flying to meet them. I e had plenty offer that and I’m sure some of them are nice people but I’m not flying hours and hours away from my home and where I’m comfortable to meet with someone I don’t know. I just can’t get myself around that.
@Sheena123 Thank you so much for your insight! This is similar to what I have been offering price-wise and I agree that it definitely should be a higher price if you're traveling for 6 hours of travel, my goodness. The deposit is a smart move and I have been doing that recently and it has been fantastic at keeping bookings! I've only started offering it due to so many people wanting to book me for 4-6 hours then ghosting, smh.
I don't think anyone should be taking flights, tbh. It feels so unsafe to me I'm glad you turn them down! I've turned down a few myself for similar reasons.
Interesting, I've had a couple of pros ask me to fly them to me. I was in Vegas once and this pro wrote to me and ask if I would fly her from her state to Vegas so she could see her girlfriend and in return she would give me an overnight session. I turned down that offer and others because it didn't seem safe enough and at the very least I could've gotten scammed if not worse. I would do that with somebody I had a rapport with but in my experience it's hardly worth it because of the big expense and usually the places I traveled to (pre-pandemic) always have pros available and I'd rather see a local.
@cuddleversed yea, that seems slightly scammy to me. I think if pros asked for permission from the mods to do a swap of cuddles for flights, it might work but there’s probably a thin line to that 😖
Don't just charge for gas - charge for the overall vehicle costs too! The IRS mileage rate is an easy way to do that (I use it for >20 miles).
I would also charge for my time for more than an hour spent driving or flying each way. At least $20/hour, if not more, especially if you don't particularly enjoy driving. (Of course, it depends on where you're located - I'm in a metro area, so I don't limit myself by doing that).
Isn't it also common to require that a session be at least as long as the round trip travel time?
@mtp that’s definitely preferable 🌸
@mtp yes that's what I do for a local client. I travel all the time to cities for cuddle clients I just charge a flat fee per hr when I host or drive more than 30 min from my city. I enjoy the clients very much
@desi_babe when you do your taxes you have the choice of the standard mileage deduction OR itemized expenses such as car payments, insurance gas, tolls, repairs etc. If you cannot deduct both mileage and itemized expenses on your taxes I don’t know if it makes sense to do both for a client. I used to use toll guru to calculate the cost of gas and tolls and then charged the client for it. Now that I have a hosting space I have had to raise my hourly rate so I use that increase in rate to go towards travel costs when doing an outcall.
@xandriarain, @desi_babe is referring to the IRS mileage rate. It’s a rate that estimates not just gas, but also wear and tear on the vehicle. She is saying that instead of just charging gas, to calculate to the total expense of operating the vehicle using the irs mileage rate.