A new cuddler asked some questions and I thought of a few things that I wished I had read before my first few clients. The following is what I posted on a different thread:
Hey pillow! One thing that I have done is given an extra hour to clients that have to get a hotel room JUST so they can see me. I would let the potential clients know about the hotel room that is only $60 and close by. If you charge $80 an hour and are willing to give them an extra hour for free, if they will pay for the room, then they actually would be saving money.
I host at my home but was initially concerned about having someone come to my place. I have super close neighbors that have dogs that are very alert. I actually can tell whenever anybody is outside my door or nearby because my neighbor's dog barks like crazy no matter what hour it is. He actually is a very good alarm system! LOL I also have two dogs of my own. I also live in a gated community and have become friends with the 24 hour security guards that travel around the community. Even with all of that I'm still considering putting up wireless security cameras. (It also helps to protect against theft.) I always have my dogs with me in the room that I am cuddling in so I feel safe. I have my emergency contact people that I let know when I am having a session, with who, how long it is supposed to last and where it is happening. If the session extends I make sure to send a text and let them know how long it has been extended for. I also let them know when it has ended. I DO NOT contact them that it has ended until after the person has driven away and I am safely in my house with my door locked. I also occasionally have safe words that I can incorporate in sentences easily. One is for I'm OK and one is for I need help. Between all of this I feel pretty safe. ( Especially because of my dogs! )
I have been stalked three separate times in my life. Once in high school and twice in college. Luckily none of them were violent. All of them were pretty intense though. They actually freaked out my friends, family and coworkers more than they did me. ( I got pretty weirded out myself though. )
Personally, I would promote the savings that your clients will receive if they pay for the $60 hotel instead of having to pay for a two hour cuddle session. Even with that you still might not get a lot of clients. Once your place is furnished, organized and you have everything in there that you need, I would make sure to make some friends with my surrounding neighbors and throughout the community. When you have people close by who know and care about you it is a lot easier for them to look out for you. It is also easy for you to look out for them too. (Also if your neighbors know who you are, they won't be as hesitant to contact you to make sure that you're OK. It also makes it a lot easier to borrow things from each other in case something breaks or if you run out of baking ingredients and don't have time to get to the grocery store! LOL ) Always have an emergency contact person! Screen your clients! I meet my brand-new clients at a Starbucks that's very close to me. I also have lots of contact with them before we meet. I also will NEVER have an overnight session with ANY client that I haven't seen MANY, MANY, MANY times! I have to trust them like crazy before I will do an overnight session! But to be honest, if you don't feel comfortable having people come to your home really promote that $60 hotel! After you feel comfortable with them, then you can consider whether or not you feel comfortable ENOUGH to have them in your home. I'm a teacher and an ex- Navy spouse so I strongly believe in being overprepared and not need it, than being under prepared and not knowing how to handle something. One more thing, decide AHEAD of time where your physical boundaries are on your body. Look in the mirror, put your hand on yourself and see how close it is to different parts of your body. THEN decide if you are OK with it being that close or not. YOU touching YOUR OWN body and seeing where your hand is located will make it much easier for you to differentiate whether someone is too close or not. When you feel it and see it in the mirror it becomes MUCH clearer as to how obvious it is that it is too close. If your client has "oozing" hands the physical touch that you did on yourself will dramatically help! ( ...along with never hesitating to say no and/or correcting your client when they say or do something that you're not comfortable with/is inappropriate. ) If you have any other questions, concerns… Feel free to PM me! I hope this helps! HUGE HUG!!!!