Shawn Monroe

Like everyone has said, you won’t find a divinitie answer. Every city is different. Abs every trip to every city is different. Abs this goes for every escort. My best advice is to travel to cities where you stand out a little. But it may just be worth it to travel to see which cities stick.

Always so interesting to hear what clients think is happening vs. what is actually happening. The one interesting caveat I see is the increase in work from home, especially when I travel. In some cities, especially smaller ones, I could take a half day off work, get in Friday afternoon/evening and guys would see me after work. Now I’m getting multiple guys in every single city asking me how early I’ll get in on Friday and are able to see me up until 5. Interestingly enough, I’ll still get guys worried about coming to see me during rush hour because of the traffic. All That said, I tend to see the same things you see. @Jarrod_Uncut

Yup! I have my address input to mine. But you can’t see that on the front end - it just helps give a general location of where I am considering it’s an urban district.

I will also add that we are able to input an actual address, a city, or just a GPS point. When we are traveling to a city (or if you just enter a city) it picks the city center. Often times guys will update to an actual location when traveling to be more accurate, since the big sites are still bad at locations.

As others have said asking HIV status is fine but it’s ultimately up to you - not a provider, or anyone else - to protect your health. Now on the topic of vaccines which no one has touched on. It’s fine to ask, but if you’re basing a decision to hire on whether a provider has been vaccinated then you may be hiring prematurely. Most states are still prioritizing essential workers, first responders and medically fragile over the general population - and we won’t be prioritized until much later. Even though I know you said you don’t plan to hire until after you’ve had your second vaccine.

I’ve often said that this business is putting on clothes To take them off again To put them on again To take them off again. I *half* see where he’s coming from.

Back to the original question. What would make the business better: - massage table rental services. - massage tables that could fold down to the size of an airplane carry-on (flying with a massage table is an exercise in patience. - more Americans knowing what to do with foreskin - bad behavior. I wish we didn’t have to let bad behavior go unchecked or validate so much of it. Or get talked about or over, lest we decide to say something.

Good question! And definitely the type we like to answer. A lot of us travel for a few reasons. - it gives you the chance to be the new boy in a new city, and newness is a factor. - it gives clients the chance to see something new (or perhaps build a relationship with someone new). - if you’re based in a city, it makes clients in that city develop a sense of urgency (“Shawn isn’t always in town; I need to make sure I see him when he’s home). - it gives you the chance to see new cities. To answer your other question, besides the thing you mentioned, I travel often to see live music. Before the pandemic, I’d often plan my schedule around concerts, especially when I lived in Oklahoma and the concerts I wanted to see didn’t Always come to Oklahoma. But it’s nice to have something to look forward to and keeps me from working too much. There are some cities I love. I love dc and always like going back home to Texas (dallas, austin, San Antonio). @benjamin_nicolas has said it best, but the best cities are the ones you stand out in a little. There aren’t a ton of cities I hate, though cities with a saturated market of providers I stay away from. Why travel there when all you have to do to see someone different is click to page 2 of results?

I’m with @Jarrod_Uncut - I prefer hotels for the reasons mentioned. Plus perks at hotels are usually better and can better roll into other programs (points at airlines, etc). If you travel with a table it can generally be easier to find a hotel with room, as most Airbnb (or homes) aren’t set up in that fashion. Same on towels - most Airbnb’s I’ve stayed at simply don’t have enough towels (1 for a week?) and I end up having to buy them. At hotels it’s easier to get them. Depending on the Airbnb I’m always worried about neighbors or even hosts (or concierges) spying on frequent activity. Also depending on the city, hotels can be within walking distance of food and shopping. Also as Jarrod said, I like Airbnb for group travel. Or, if the city I’m staying in will be expensive or a heavy travel season (Seattle hotels in July can run 350 a night. Staying for a week is cost prohibitive). But generally j prefer hotels.

Just got this joke ;-) On that note it really bugs me when people go to masseur finder dot com or rent masseur dot com or reply to a thread about “masseur best practices” and tell us they’re looking for a masseuse. It is in the name.

Another perspective. For those of us who travel, the big sites don’t allow you to show one set of prices to one city and one to another. And very few clients read profiles. when I lived in Oklahoma I tried to charge a hometown rate for a while since I wouldn’t have to factor in overhead, but it doesn’t work in practice. Some guys will charge a different rate based on the city, and some even say in their profile “posted rates are for the city im in”. But imagine the taste that leaves in your mouth when you realize you’re being charged more than a guy in a smaller city. I’ve found it’s just easiest to charge around the median, as it works for most cities.

Booking a few weeks ahead of time is one thing. Booking 9 months ahead of time (IE next year) is completely different.

So we did discuss this in a thread last year, for a few additional answers: https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/kissing.146575/

I’ll say one of the great things about this business is that you’re free to run your business as you see fit. And that generally means in the way that brings you the most peace. when I first started I’d stress over needing to take every appointment, but now I know I need adequate sleep and time to eat. So if someone calls me at 9:45 and I cut it off by 10, I don’t stress over it. I know other guys have restrictions too, whether it be not taking appointments on certain days of the week, ample notice for appointments or something else. like the saying says, you can’t trip over dollar bills to pick up pennies, and if the pennies are the guys that book same day and no-show, and it brings you peace to get rid of them, it’s all you!

While you hire and are free to do this, most STDs take longer than 3 days to show antibodies - usually 7-10 days. That’s why they say if you feel like you’ve caught something, to not get tested immediately and wait a few days after. So if you want to do this, 3 days may not be a big enough window. and while it may calm your nerves, the only way this is really foolproof is if you require the boys you hire to abstain from sex from the time they get tested until the trip. That may be the harder part.

Since you’re wondering about a client touching a provider’s hair, wondering why this wasn’t asked in the “ask an escort” section. Asking if a provider likes his hair touched is no big deal and should be asked about even if you like it, especially when many like to make sure the one you’re with is enjoying it too. Not liking hair being touched isn’t always a sign of high maintenance. In fact, many Black men do not like having their hair touched. As the texture of our hair is different, touching or pulling it often makes it frizzy and affects the curl pattern. even though I let him, I have a client ask every time before touching it because he knows this. I’m with @Storm4U here. But instead of engage, you all kind of talked over him.

I’d also agree with this. With the acceptance of gay marriage, and gentrification of gayborhoods, this means less gay bars in general and less gogo boys. dallas used to have tin room, bjs/crews inn, zippers, and tmc for dancers, with s4 and roundup offering them occasionally. Now it’s down to tin room and tmc really. Atlanta has BJ roosters and swinging Richards. not to mention some gay men are generally uncomfortable with gogo boys in general. its slowly becoming a thing of the past.

Fwb = friend with benefits. km is a typo that was meant to be home.

Last year, instead of visiting my family for thanksgiving in Houston I opted to stay km Atlanta and fly in for Christmas. I ended up doing thanksgiving with one of my fwbs, his husband, his parents, and one of his couple friends. As if having thanksgiving with a FWB, his husband and his very Morman elderly parents wasn’t awkward enough, unbeknownst to anyone, I had given a massage to one of the couple a few months earlier and it didn’t click until he started talking. We all played it cool and just acted like nothing happened, but I had to let him know my real name since it would have been awkward otherwise.

These are very abnormal times so everything is out of whack right now and you can’t use it to gauge. But I will say that I usually try to stay in town for holidays because people have the extra time. Memorial Day especially, as that’s the first 3 day weekend of the year for a lot of people. I’ve also had a memorial day where I had a family emergency, and turned down about 7 appointments on the drive home. Labor Day is always a toss-up - people travel but a lot of people traveled in August and use Labor Day to wind down. so it’s not always a wash. but like I said right now is a terrible time to gauge anything.

Yep, back when I lived in Oklahoma. Congrats!

I couldn’t think of how to properly word this, but you worded it perfectly.

I’m not even sure what you’re asking. Are you asking us to answer for why one escort wasted your time and didn’t think it was valuable? Are you asking us to validate your frustration? I understand you’re asking us for input but what you’d like input on isn’t clear.

I actually love this question. I'd say that us as providers are at huge disadvantages compared to other gays. At the very least, we may or may not be able to tell potential friends what we actually do. Providers have to have some level of availability. Having a lot of friends doesn't leave a ton of time for that. Some say you should find friends by joining activities, which gives you less time for appointments. By having less time, people will begin to exclude you from activities since you won't be able to do them. [*]For us who travel, being out of town a lot leaves less time to find and develop relationships. [*]I've tried saying "befriend other escorts - they'll get it". But escorts are competitive (we've heard of the mafias in cities), and they may think you have an ulterior motive. [*]Related to what has been said above - many gay relationships are based off of sex. As we get paid to have sex, it can be hard to want to base relationships off of that. It's funny - when people would ask "How're you doing during COVID?" I'm like "Well I've learned to spend long periods of time by myself in largely one room." Now I won't go into some of the dismissive, divisive and heteronormative comments made above. But two reasons why it's easier to form relationships with clients because: The transactional nature means the expectations are out on the table Those clients you see on a regular repeating basis it can be easy to befriend just by the repeating nature of it.

I think one thing to remember is that some guys are not always looking for as many clients as possible. Some are looking for enough business to sustain themselves without going crazy. If he screens his clients for age and ethnicity it doesn’t matter if it offends you or not; if his business is sustained from those not offended by it then that is wonderful for him; it’s one less person he has to deal with. It’s the opportunity for one more that isn’t offended, and he’s found enough clients to sustain his business.