Is Cuddling dying?

cuddletime222cuddletime222
in General

Seems very few cuddlers stay long (probably because they are not getting business) and clients because of cost. I used to cuddle a lot more. But prices are out of reach when cuddlers want 100-150 to cuddle and another 40-60 to travel an hr or so (because they don't host). 150-200 for an hr of cuddling has put it out of reach for many in my opinion. The suggested CC price of 80 for the hr was at least more reasonable.

I know the responses to this...people can charge what they want, people pay what they think it's worth, etc. But I think the direction it's going is going to price a lot of people out and in turn will see many cuddlers leave because of no business. Just expressing my opinion. So if you want more business, keep the prices down. You don't have to agree.

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Comments

  • [Deleted User]ClubSamwiches (deleted user)

    Business is booming for me 😊

  • GallowglassGallowglass
    edited March 2022

    The fact that professional cuddlers are posting those rates, is because it works for them. So, from a professional perspective, clearly pro cuddlers are successful and that form of cuddling insn't going away.

    [edit] I feel I should mention that I do see a regular, pro, cuddler. All the boundaries are established. We've built a rapport that I find healing and I cherish it. I don't see that going away either. Fixed parameters, predictable, healing, respect. Things I don't have to negotiate-for, like I would do, in a personal relationship. [end edit]

    I have an abundance of non-pro, non-"relationship" cuddling, that has nothing to do with this or any site, and I don't see that drying-up in spite of my age, weight, lack of hair. So, to answer the question, I don't think cuddling is an option for very many people due to their circumstance. But, no. I don't think cuddling is dying.

  • MCcuddles2MCcuddles2

    I personally think that poor people shouldn't be allowed to cuddle.

    Let them eat cake.

  • [Deleted User]WriterGF (deleted user)

    Well, if the pros do leave as you suggest, the site will be back to what it started out as -- enthusiasts. Alternatively, this may simply winnow out the people who are just into this for a quick buck and don't understand the concept that if you are not getting business at your current prices, you may have to lower your prices to build a client base.

  • ShaneSchruteShaneSchrute

    It’s a free market. Pros will charge what the market can bare. If there was a $200 an hour pro and that service wasn’t any different from an $80 one no one would see the $200 one. In my area there’s a whole range of prices. And Pros with lower prices are typically not as great as ones that have higher prices. Just like any other services.

    Also men breaking boundaries and trust push pros out.

    I think cuddling is alive and well.

  • RadiantHugsRadiantHugs Mod
    edited March 2022

    It's certainly not going away anytime soon. Yes sessions are expensive but I treat it as any other similarly priced service, like talk therapy, for example. I plan carefully, think ahead of time exactly what I want from the session and am very intentional about what I ask for. That way I can book the shortest session possible and make the most out of it.

    No, not everyone charges the prices you are suggesting. Some cuddlers charge considerably less than that and many offer discounts for multi hour sessions.

    As a general rule, anybody not hosting but still charging a travel fee isn't someone I personally will see. It's a lot of work and expense to host, so if people don't host they should be willing to absorb travel fees for reasonable distances. Of course for long travel times, this doesn't apply.

  • GallowglassGallowglass

    BTW Cuddling is a service like lawyering is a service. You don't see high-priced lawyers, "keeping their prices down to attract more business".

    They get paid what they get paid because of their reputation and their track-record of success and because the good ones are easy to work-with and they take your interests to heart.

    Every professional but 1, that I've seen, had my interests (mostly my healing), in heart.

    As long as cuddlers of any kind, are wanting the best for their cuddle partner and as long as there are people who realize a need to be cuddled, it's not about to go away.

  • [Deleted User]LolaCats (deleted user)

    Prices never drive away business, in any business. If they want it, they will pay. Especially if you have good quality product. Look at Apple for example. If you build it, they will come.

  • UCpaaHVg6u0UCpaaHVg6u0

    Given what cuddlers have to maneuver in order to conduct a business offering this service, $80 seems rather low. Also, the market for this service may be very thin outside of large cities. Within cities, I wonder how the presence of other providers might affect a pro. I would hope that they find each other supportive. A guild-like atmosphere could help promote the cuddle movement.

  • Mela_BMela_B

    Business is going very well for me. Perhaps the problem you're experiencing isn't what you think it is.

  • [Deleted User]solo80 (deleted user)

    I love this, all of a sudden everybody went from everybody deserves love and cuddling to free market capitalists. Keep that same energy when it comes to everything else. 😂😂😂.

  • CaringSoulCaringSoul
    edited March 2022

    I don't travel to clients location. I host ONLY. My cuddle space is impeccably clean, safe & very comfortable with perfect soothing ambiance. I put a lot of time & effort into making each & every clients of mine feel comfortable, safe & nurtured. And I'm rewarded by so many clients both local clients & those who travelled far away mostly from other States for my in-person cuddle sessions always. I'm thankful that my business is going well, 4+ years still going strong.

  • KempistKempist
    edited March 2022

    How is it dying? When a moderator shut down a recent thread on rates, the moderator said people waitiing for rates to go down will be waiting a long time because some pros can get over 160 different people requests a month and when first joining can get up to 70 different people requests the first day or two. Even if after a few years people get tired (I'm not saying everyone or even most people do, I only know my own experience) of paying someone hundreds of dollars to cuddle there will always be new people coming along who think it's worth it at least for a while. There will always be many more willing to pay to cuddle than there are desirable cuddlers willing or able to be paid for cuddling. To be uncharitable it can be said there's a sucker born every minute. To be charitable it can be said people truly think it's worth the rates. I'm not exempt from either because I paid thousands of dollars to cuddle over the years, though the rates were much lower than current rates.

    To anyone taking issues with rates remember your issue should be more with the people willing to pay those rates than with the people charging them. People are motivated by greed and will get as much as someone is willing to pay to them. That's not a moral judgement. It's a realistic assessment. The much said truism for success in the stock market is to understand that people are motivated by two things mainly, fear and greed. That applies beyond the stock market to most businesses, though there can be other more humane motivations that are not purely money making as in the case of the stock market. We can't look into hearts of people, and in matters of the heart people can fool others but they can't fool to themselves.

  • Midnight01Midnight01

    I think some pros are taking advantage of clients in this environment. I had a great session about a month ago with a pro. She's about 30min away with no traffic, and our session was around midnight during the week. Doesn't host, so she charges for Uber. Fair enough. She tells me it will be $50 for Uber before our cuddle. OK, she charges $100 an hour and 2 hours minimum. So $250 for 2 hours. Awesome session at my place. As she leaves, I give her the cash, and she says its $300. $300? Yeah, she says Uber is $100. I let it go bc it was a great session. I recently text her for another session and say if its ok if I drive and pick her up and drop her off when its down. She says yeah, thats fine. So it'll be $200 total for 2 hrs right? She says yea. I'm happy. She then says that won't leave us a lot of time to cuddle though. I'm like, you are counting the hours in the car as part of the session? She says yes because its part of her time. I'm like, hey, it's my time too! I'm putting the miles on my car and gas. I just don't want to spend $100 on Uber fees. She says, well, the time she spends in Uber is time she's working and she doesn't want to ignore me. I'm like, you can work as I drive, I'm really just like an Uber driver really, ignore me all you want and work. She's says that ignoring me is unprofessional and rude. Jeez.

  • herby357herby357
    edited March 2022

    Finding a good cuddle partner has always taken a bit of an effort for me. During the height of the Pandemic my financial situation changed for the worse. Before that I could afford to pay whatever I wanted.

    So, now I'm reaching out to enthusiasts exclusively since I feel that it's safe to cuddle again. And with the limited number of enthusiasts in my area (and in general) it's much more difficult.

    In my experience, the platonic cuddle community is thriving, particularly in the professional realm.

  • ShaneSchruteShaneSchrute

    @Maurice112 there are lots of things we have the right to have but that doesn’t mean providers of those things have a moral obligation to give them away.

    I provide a service to lots of nonprofits. They do different things like give a voice to the voiceless. Should I be giving away my services to better help their cause? And then eventually go broke because no one is paying me?

  • Lev136Lev136

    I think the pandemic caused a stoppage for awhile. Now that things are getting back to "normal" I'm seeing more new cuddlers again and others reappearing. The cuddlers who quit usually are those who thought being a cuddler wouldn't be too hard and not work.

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    Get busy cuddling or get busy dying.

  • GallowglassGallowglass

    @Lev136 " The cuddlers who quit usually are those who thought being a cuddler wouldn't be too hard and not work."
    This site would serve as a crucible. I hadn't thought of that before. I think this is a really valid point to the turnover.

  • achetocuddleachetocuddle

    @MCcuddles2 Hilarious!

  • ThomSSIThomSSI

    Absolutely not!

  • RezzRezz

    Pros leave for a number of reasons. These are a few that I've heard from pros who have left. Many frequently leave and come back after a hiatus.

    • not enough work to take time away from another source of income.
    • wanting to focus on their primary job
    • consistently being groped and disrespected by their clients
    • inappropriate offers
    • discovering that cuddling is actual work and can often be depleting of your energy
    • can't host and find it's more difficult to book consistent clients who also can't host.
    • too competitive or oversaturated with pros in their area.
    • once they set firm platonic boundaries their client numbers drastically decrease.

    Members leave because many find another source of touch whether it's a relationship, a new job, a newfound social outlet or a simply wanting a break from the site. Many leave because they don't want to put in the time and effort it takes to cultivate a respectful relationship rewarding them with a cuddle enthusiast.

  • CatloafCatloaf
    edited March 2022

    @Rezz for me it was personal circumstances, and then…

    *not enough work to take time away from another source of income ✅
    *wanting to focus on their primary job ✅
    *consistently being groped and disrespected by their clients
    *inappropriate offers ✅
    *discovering that cuddling is actual work and can often be depleting of your energy
    *can't host and find it's more difficult to book consistent clients who also can't host.
    *too competitive or oversaturated with pros sex workers and sex coaches and others who provide information or services rooted in human sexuality getting involved and blurring the lines all because they see an opportunity for more earnings in their area ✅ <- I have been witnessing this becoming more prevalent, including in the cuddling community where there is an opposite effect of established (if not infamous) pro cuddlers moving towards sex coaching, sex surrogacy etc. as other services they may provide…and I truly don’t know how to feel about that because it is sending a mixed message to most people whether we like it or not.
    *once they set firm platonic boundaries their client numbers drastically decrease ✅

    *** To clarify there is a huge Venn diagram covering this field, sex work, and sex coaching, and where I live people are more apt to hire sex workers for touch needs…in addition to coaches who primarily educate in sex, but dabble into cuddling and blur lines by sending mixed messaging or providing ambiguous services…providing no real knowledge or understanding of what professional cuddling actually is, and is not)

    I will get called out for saying that sex workers and sex coaches should maybe try and not offer platonic services if the majority of their services revolve around sex, or maybe not move into sexuality-heavy work if they have been invested in this community. To expect the general population to be able to approach these individuals (often priced $100+ per hour) and understand the difference between services is somewhat naïve, and I see more and more in the community trying to bridge the gap between worlds. I don’t think that should be happening when we are trying to standardize and bring this industry to the mainstream, which already has a hard time separating itself from the myth that cuddling and sex are almost one and the same.

    Genuine massage therapy did not join forces with trafficked individuals or Nuru spas where folks do consent to work there (nothing wrong with consensual sex work at the end of the day). Neither did it join forces with tantric or etc types of therapy. As an industry, massage therapy solved much of the problem of society’s negative perception of massage by isolating itself as its own, dissimilar entity.

    So I don’t know why there is this pressure to support people who are Machiavellian enough to have a continuous foot in one pond each.

    Also yeah just in case people see me lurking again…I’m back, just kind of focusing on my day job. I have not had the kind of energy I want to put into this lately. I’ll get back to messages soon. 😄

  • cuddletime222cuddletime222

    I did a search today for Cuddlers in Fort Myers (50-mile radius). There were only 6 cuddlers who have been online in the last week and only 1 from Fort Myers. Not a huge selection from a fairly large city.

  • RezzRezz
    edited March 2022

    @cuddletime222
    A little over a month ago I went to Florida for a vacation and posted my travel notice for Fort Myers as it's my hometown I wanted to revisit. The requests I received were either all inappropriate or I was met with silence when I explained my sessions are platonic.

    The SW's as @Catloaf explained push out the truly platonic cuddlers.

  • ShaneSchruteShaneSchrute

    @FunCartel nobody believes me but Bob Dylan said that.

  • Nemesis1Nemesis1

    I love the idea of this site, but clients do want more and that turns me off. I’m in a vulnerable situation being a female coming to their home or hotel, and the man is making his ulterior motives clear. I let my last potential client know I was strictly here for cuddling and he said ok, and then cancelled the next day. I am really here for the right reasons, but some people on here make it hard. My time comes with genuine care and empathy. Having been a lonely person myself, even though I don’t have to be, I know how important that is. That’s what I want to offer to people that have felt like I have at times.

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    @Syins You are in part correct. Bob’s actual lyric:

    “That he not busy being born is busy dying”

    But I was thinking of Andy Dufresne’s line of

    “Get busy living or get busy dying.”

  • KozyKimKozyKim

    @Rezz I think the reason my clients dropped off is because I revamped my profile. It has a few more boundaries, and still doesn’t seem like enough. When I 100% specify platonic, I feel like I lost customers. But I have to do that with my Conscience especially if I have to cuddle married men or men with girlfriends.

  • BrendanCaseyBrendanCasey

    Cuddling people that are in relationships seems like it would be a bad idea more often than not. It would be fine if both people in the relationship were aware and consented and were fine with it, of course, but I'm guessing that a lot of those guys leave their wives or girlfriends in the dark?

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