Hey Guy's,

I think it is a little harsh to paint all venues with the same brush. Someone mentioned a 25% split to the venue being the viable option for your hard work. Well then there would not be a single venue in existence.

Remembering the venue covers all overheads, we do not work out of a flat but rather a large property with staff to maintain, clean and manage. These costs along with water, electricity, stock, phones, websites ect all add up to us taking a lot less than the lady at the end of the day.

Personally I am not afraid to lay it on the line and say my split is 50/50 with the girls, I charge no levy and am loathed to fine a girl and even then it is a ridiculous amount like R50 to get my point across after multiple infringements.

As an example of a cost a venue covers, yesterday it cost me R3500 to do multiple photo shoots for our website. This comes out of my pocket and is used to make both the lady and the venue busy.

Yes the industry is unregulated but there are some of us who understand the value of our ladies and work very hard to keep them busy and happy.

Just my 2c worth.

Regards
Sean

There is a reason why ladies work in venues, it's not about growing a pair of wings.
Venues offer a SAFE place for ladies to work from without having to implicate their personal lives by renting a flat, buying furniture, buying all the stuff you need to start up your home business, it doesn't miraculously appear there.

Most of these ladies can't afford the initial outlay for all that and are not interested in doing it and they like the idea of leaving and it's someone else's problem to stock up, maintain, clean and prepare for the next day and it remains apart from her personal lives.

Then there is the company, this is huge! having other ladies in the same business to talk to really helps to stay normal.

And if the cut was so low they would find a better deal anywhere else so no one is forcing them to be there!

Don't think that ladies who work in venues lack self value !

I support à Lady that see's her own worth!!!! Instead of BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF OWNER/VENUE!!! IF THE VENUE IS TAKING 70%, But my Personal experience Ive worked for venues (mg and.fh) ...until I finally saw my worth!!!
Non the less THIS IS MY ONLY OPINION!!!

@Sean: I know venue has huge costs and the owner needs to make good return for effort and risk. And each situation/venue differs on where the sums work out. But a 30% share for the girls cannot be fair (if true). Renting the Velvetglow house must be around R30k per month. Water and elect maybe another R10k. Other stuff another R10k. Let's be generous and say total cost R60k pm. 6 girls and 6 rooms busy 3 bookings each per day (very conservative for Velvetglow) generates R12600 pd. 50% of that is R150k pm on 24 day month, nett of R90k pm based on ultra conservative assumptions. When they take 70%, the nett rises to R150k pm nett tax free. It just seems the girls deserve at least 50% in my humble opinion. And i have been very conservative....

Thing is not everybody CAN work on their own. If you have kids or extended family residing with you its probably easier to operate from a venue rather than rent a seperate place for business. Then there's also ladies who thrive on the buzz at venues and just do better in that sort of environment. Just a pity that some venues are exploitative.

@Stommerik I have never said 30% to the girl is fair mate and agree with you totally that this is preposterous, I was just asking that we don't go down the slippery slope of painting all venues with this brush.

That said no one has confirmed for sure that this is the true split from the venue side so caution should be exercised. I have been the subject of a disgruntled girls stories to a client that landed up here on the forum and took considerable damage control. Hence a little caution in saying they definitely operate this way.

That said I felt before all venues get lambasted I would openly share my splits.

But for interest sake here are some typical costs that might blow you away, please note these are not my figures but what it costs to run a venue on average:

Rentals: 30k
Elec and Water: 18k (tumble dryers run all day and Jacuzzi)
Cleaners: 7k
Reception / manager: 15k
Stock: 12k
Phones and Internet: 4k
Garden: 3k
Maintenance: 6k (you would be surprised what breaks and this is a good months figure)
Website: 1k
Photo Shoots: 3k
Misc Expenses: 5k

Total: R98 000

On an average of R250 per a booking (excluding special days) this equates to 392 bookings. This means on an average of 24 days a month your first 16.33 bookings are for expenses.

A little more scary when you begin looking at it that way. Then venue owners do that other thing, it is called improvements.

For instance the dance room at Divine cost R 40 000, on your calculations this would mean all the profit in a month was taken.

It is not easy running a venue, especially since all of us are to scared to raise the prices one cent. Yet the costs keep spiraling.

Once again just a little insight into how it works, understanding again I take 50 percent with no levy and fines once a month if that from a single girl here or there.

Regards
Sean

@SeanDivine. Very very smart move!

As a venue owner I can confirm what Sean is saying regarding venue expenses but its a bit more expensive at this side of pretoria.

At The Ultimate Touch we also have a 50/50 split. Every venue however has a few tricks on how we keep our ladies with us and happily so. Some venues like velvet glow I imagine, supplies the girls with their consumables, pays for their adds, and supply them with outfits for the adds. And charge no or low levies

At a venue I worked before we were forced to have 4 internet adds per month at our own cost, the cost came to over R1500 per month, each photo shoot required a new outfit at around R600 per outfit, you had to get your own consumables that came to about R500 or more per month and you had to pay R400 per week levi. This is one of the venues that had a 50/50 split.

I am proud to say that we are one of the venues that, just like Karin, have at least one owner thats been done in by venue owners before ... come on people, the ladies wont stay if they were mistreated. I speak from experience.

On the issue of time management I am rather not going to comment. That should be addressed in my opinion by the venue owner.

Thanks Nikita & Sean. I think you have put a nice perspective on the numbers. I still feel that with Velvetglow's volumes the owners are making a killing as my assumptions was very conservative. But that's the free-market and if they can (sustainably?) pull it off, it is their absolute full right and well deserved. No problem.

But I do wonder as many has hinted, whether it will ultimately be sustainable if the girls feel they are getting screwed (pun not intended). As Nikita suggested, maybe Velvetglow offer other incentives, unknown to us. If not, sustainability might become an issue. In time the market will tell us (ie girls stay, or move).

So the 30% share that girls get not confirmed. Also understands when setting up the business, one is unsure of the volumes, and one should as owner be conservative to make sure it is profitable. But if volumes turns out to be better than expected, should some of that not be shared with the girls? I.e., should the 30% rate not be a sliding scale that rises as the girl brings in more revenue after a certain point? (On the first 3 clients she gets 30%, on the rest 50% for example).

My original gripe on TIME MANAGEMENT remains. Due to the high volumes they rush thru, the advertised hourly rate is FALSE. at best you get 45 - 50 mins, which increases the advertised R700/hour to an effective R840+. That's just not fair.

And to enforce this, VVELVETGLOW fines girls for not pushing out guys 5mins BEFORE the hour has elapsed!!
I'D LIKE KAREN TO TELL ME IF THIS IS NOT TRUE! (I know you are reading this!)

At least then advertise that it is R700/45 mins. That would be fair - i make a decision based on that, but not "buying 60 mins" and getting 45-50 mins.

I repeat again, I love VELVETGLOW's venue and girls - absolutely the BEST, but give us FAIR deals - i.e. If the rate is quoted for an hour, give us the FULL HOUR. If not, change the add and state that it is for only 45 or 50 mins.

Wow. All the comments here really gave me something to think about especially that I do luv my massages and they becoming more frequent. Privacy,shortened than advertised time will definetly be noted on my next visit which will be shortly. And than how venues operate ie splits between venues and masseuses from variety of venues.