It would be nice if regulars would get discounts since they aren’t bringing along the same level of risk.
@dave31415 they do I'm one of them, I get %25 discounts. Negotiate once you see them couple of times, I'm very glad I have amazing pros who also support me
@Riskycuddle Do you have to sign a long term contract like when you buy a phone?
@dave31415 you don't have to, it's about trust and how regular you come, like 2 or 3 times a month I guess, its regular income, also you will be thier favourite client + get treatment better than those who pay more and don't come regularly. Most pros, massage therapist, businesses etc love regular clients. But it can't happen stright away like messaging them, it's once you see them more than 2 times and they trust u more likely to happen.
@cuddlewho it is a luxury service in the sense for those who are paying. It’s not a front market item. You can’t find pro cuddlers at the dollar tree. It’s a service being provided to people it’s not like paying your light bill. You arnt required to appease our needs.
It’s like going to the spa, you could buy a massager at home and do it yourself but when you go the spa you have some else To focus on you. The whole sense of professional is to focus on you it’s not about us. If that’s the case then one should Focus more on finding someone who shares the mutual wants. We do not necessarily concern ourselves with our own NEEDS. Do I enjoy when someone ask me do I mind being cuddle this way .. OF course but the part of being PRO is we gear that energy exchange to be focused on the person we are with. For me as well as to be a pro cuddler we aren’t supposed to discriminate against anyone that would like to cuddle .. that in its sense is apart of the luxury. If someone feels like hey why am I paying this person when I can find someone then you should focus on finding someone who WANTS to be freely cuddling with you. If you don’t understand me that’s totally COOL. But the gripe makes no sense because there is clearly a difference. It’s almost like people feel we should be free and I don’t get that.
For me it's been work it.
Oh yay another one of these wheel spinners woot woot
As is evidenced by the existence of this wal mart sized mega thread,.this topic.has been done to death. There is nothing more of value to add. Either hire a cuddler or dont . If it were 20 an hour people would still say its too much, and on the other end of the spectrum if someone charges 1300 an hr there would be some rich asshole who hires them just because he can . It's a free market and pricing is subjective
I don’t think cuddling in and of itself is necessarily a luxury, but cuddling on demand certainly is. Certainly prices are bolstered by risk and care and attention and all of the other things pros and their clients thoughtfully cite, but the main thing you’re paying for is access and availability.
Pro cuddlers set aside time to cuddle when YOU want to and often travel to you at your convenience or provide a safe clean place to host you.* In this way, the restaurant comparison is apt. I love to cook and will cook for friends, family, and often even clients for no charge and enjoy the experience. But if someone had an expectation that I should forego other activities and cook on demand for them, they’re gonna have to compensate me somehow.
You can either “pay” with your wallet or “pay” by putting in the time, attention, and care to form a mutually satisfying relationship. Pro cuddling lets you skip the preliminaries of relationship-building and get to the snuggly part right away.
I think this is the disconnect that many clients don’t appreciate. Making it “all about you” doesn’t mean that cuddlers don’t appreciate mutual affection and enjoy their appointments, it just means they’re not asking for you to do any of the emotional labor of building that initial relationship.
@AintMisbehavin you are so articulate.....love your observations! One thing I would add...."all about you" includes for many of us clients that the provider is engaged and enjoying as well. Not specifically for their benefit, but rather for the benefit of the client. It's a difficult concept, almost paradoxical......but for the empath, it's completely understandable. YOUR literal enjoyment of the comfort/pleasure of the other creates the authenticity we seek in a session, that we are seen, loved, accommodated (within the boundaries shared by the pro).....and in such sessions, clients not only feel held, but also met, and that's (at least for me) the price point; how good is the pro at THAT? Can she show up not only with skill, confidence, and affection, but also with the capacity for spirit/soul recognition? For connection? For mutuality?
Thus all this price talk from clients who simply regard reasonable pricing in abstract terms based upon comparisons with other work, or times, or their affordability is absurd. Meals prepared at a restaurant, or home, that include not only excellent product, but also perfect preparation, in a conducive environment, with love and attention is incomparable to a fast food experience, or even a mediocre restaurant/cafe. Some don't like these comparisons, but I find value in them. I will pay more, much more, for memorable experiences.....whether they are found in travel, restaurants, hotels, or a cuddling session. But I do understand the resentment from clients who find that whatever the going price is in a particular city is applied universally there without regard for the uniqueness that true excellence demands.
So I notice that most cuddlers use a 5 or 10 pricing, such as $75, $80, $85, $90, $95, $100 per hour. But some post unusual figures, like $98 or $111 per hour.
Is there an advantage to posting such prices, like it comes up in search results differently or something? I was thinking that maybe it's just a way to make one's profile stand out as a bit more memorable.
PS - please, please, please don't turn this into a thing about how high or low prices ought to be. The numbers I'm using are just illustrative examples.
Just a thought.... It could be that they have worked out the number they want to earn, plus the commission, so it may come up as an unusual figure.
A lot of pros do that off type price to pay for the 15% fee the site takes off
What @Sheena123 said. They are setting their hourly rate to reflect what they want their take home rate to be.
Some people have surprisingly strong feelings about certain numbers, or certain types of number. These are not necessarily connected to the truth about the number. For example, some people like even numbers and dislike odd numbers, but this is based more on a feeling that the arithmetic. In other words, if a number 'feels' odd to them they don't like it, even if it's technically even.
Such people may set their pricing at what to the rest of us seem unusual numbers, but it just makes them happier. So hooray.
My best guess is what @penguin34 said.
Although what @penguin34 said is most likely, sometimes, in some businesses, people will specify an off price so that it seems “considered” or “thought out” rather than just arbitrary.
I chose my number to offset the cut the site takes, plus it felt like a good amount based on the emotional and energetic output, plus it felt fun. I don’t think it helps with search result visibility, but I don’t know 🤷🏼♀️
I scheduled with one cuddler who charged $69 per hr.....when she arrived, I asked why she chose that amount to charge, and she said she was just starting out and wanted an entry number that was low and easy to have multiple hours. I asked her if she had any inquiries that were for "more" due to that price, and she looked at me quizzically, wondering why I might be asking. She said she had, but just thought it was part of the territory.
I explained why, and she had an epiphany moment..."Of course", she said, "Why didn't I think of that?" She wasn't kidding, just a sweet and a little naive cuddler.....in Las Vegas, of all places!!!
She abruptly changed her pricing to $79, by the way, and finally to $89
Helloooooooooo Cuddler’s of every varient!
I’m making this post to both inform and learn about the cause and affect of cost and affection on our population.
So I made my pricing a number I thought was memorable. Eye catching. A number that gives you the subconscious wow why not? Instead of just why?
So I chose $111. A unique number. Out of that CC take $16.65
For just 4 hours in day ( 2 sessions) that was 67.30 I usually have that many hours booked a day at least. If I work 6 days that’s almost $400. 4 weeks a month that’s $1200 a month just to be on this site.
My question is…
Is that fair?
The flip side is that you're making $81,600/year and this being a legitimate business you could deduct CC fees along with 58.5¢/mile of travel expenses on your Schedule C.
Yes, it's extremely fair. In fact I would describe it as 'incomprehensibly cheap'.
Your acquisition cost for a lead is zero.
Your acquisition cost for a purchasing customer is capped at 15% of the sale. This is very, very low. There are hardly any non-bricks & mortar industries that can do that.
I get a lot of my tutoring clients through an agency and their fee is around 40%. That's pretty standard for a freelancer model of this type. It's usually between a third and a half. In other words if the fee was doubled, then it would be fair.
How much would it cost you to acquire the same number of clients without using the site?
15% is very reasonable and fair. Other cuddle sites charge as much as 35-50%.
Something to keep in mind. New pros are always busy and in high demand. The fees you're paying now may seem like a lot if you're booked x hours a day multiple days a week. This falls off over time as new pros sign up and your regular cuddlers will frequently reach out to other local pros. The likelihood you will be booked enough to pay $1200 in fees every month is very unlikely.
Keep receipts for gas , tolls and other expenses as these are deductibles from your gross income come tax time. 🤗
I know less than nothing about this, other than 15% has always seemed really reasonable. It would never have occurred to me to think this was high and I am a thrifty person.
15% is definitely fair 👍🏻👍🏻
@Rezz - Isn't it a standard deduction per mile if you drive for business? (Plus any tolls or parking fees). I have to keep track of miles when I drive for Grubhub and in 2023, the deduction is 65.5 cents per mile.
If you give them your receipts for gas, I don't know how they separate that from business and personal use.
@CuddleDuncan I don't understand. You actually keep paying the tutoring agency 40 percent year after year for the same student?
When a recruiter finds me a job they take 30 percent of my salary for the first year but that's it the next year they get nothing unless they find me another job. Something doesn't seem right with your tutoring agency if they can keep taking such a huge cut from the same old lead they gave you a year ago.
Your analogy flies flat on its face, @Melancholy......CC continues to provide an important service for the cuddler, whereas the "tutoring agency" does not. Many cuddle pros use the site to update pricing, pictures, location, and services, allowing for favorites to continue to know the current status of their preferred pro. I'm sure the site requires maintenance, updating, and other services, including the monitoring of trolling and rules violations. The 15% fee is also for advertising on a continuous basis. I'm sure the owners understand that regulars will often not book on the site after the 1st visit, thus they must absorb that aspect of providing a free service, in the hope that at least all initial sessions provide revenue.
But the status of "repeat client" requires a booking on the site, thus bringing at least that advantage to both pro and enthusiast. They also know that extended sessions are rarely reported with additional compensation.....so they are depending upon the use of the site by trustworthy, grateful humans.
@Melancholy @beaubliss in my particular case the tutoring agency does provide important ongoing services, such as billing. That also means they deal with most of the foolish billing queries - it's only if it's serious that it gets throught to me. It's also the case that only a minority of clients last as long as a year. Some are quite short term and there's no doubt that, even though it's a successful placement, the agency has made a loss.
However, in my mind the thing I really pay them for is the filtering. Dealing with the nightmare clients who never actually book a lesson. They do an amazing job on that, and virtually every placement I get is with a decent client. It's very rare - although I did have one recently - that you get a client who has one lesson and then decides that they don't want tutoring after all. (Once or twice they have decided they want a different tutor, but that's fair enough.)
I do have direct clients, and while some are lovely to deal with some are .... less lovely. Other than the money question I'd much rather work with the agency and even at 40% it's worth it.
I think it should’ve be up to the professional cuddler to select their price range as other therapists do.
I feel like the more training and experience you have you may select to charge more. Again it’s a decision between client and professionals.
Just as the client has a Right you choose the therapist that feel most comfortable and happy with a professional has a right to select the their price.
@beaubliss I'm talking about the tutoring agency, not cc. I compared it to recruiting services....not cc. So no my analogy comparing tutoring and recruiting does not fall flat on its face. your comment makes no sense.