Shawn Monroe

Sure! Here is my profile on rentmasseur, my masseurfinder, and rentmen.

So many Atlanta threads popped up today! (By the way, I recently relocated from Oklahoma to Atlanta if anyone has been looking...)

As much as I know, he’s on Instagram under the handle @RobSobe. He’s a hairdresser and fitness instructor in south beach. He’s no longer in the adult industry and I’m almost positive he’s no longer for hire. He was one of my faves too because of his look, and still looks amazing in a suit though.

When I used to hook up, I had too many bad experiences where neither one provided anything, so any experience I now bring anything I’d need to feel comfortable. Any provider should have everything and figure out how to get it there. In fact, i tell clients I’ll have condoms, Lube, poppers and the works, but if they have anything that they prefer to feel free to bring it. Once I had a guy that was like “lube? You came prepared!” And I was so confused.

I believe it comes down to what you just said - the market, and traveling. Sometimes different cities command different rates. When I used to live in Oklahoma, the going rate was about 75/hour for massage. But now that I live in Atlanta, or when I’d travel to cities with higher cost of living (literally anywhere outside of Oklahoma) the rate is nowhere near that. Different cities command different rates, and when you travel, there’s no great way to rectify that. Clients get understandably upset, and changing rates all the time isn’t great business practice. After trying tactics that didn’t work, i finally decided to keep the rate the same regardless of traveling or not. I lost business at home in Oklahoma, but it wasn’t worth the headache.

I think what it comes down to is this: the provider is trying to communicate with you in the best way they can get the information across, based on past experience. I know everyone here has shared their experience; I’m better at email communication and have hated talking on the phone since I was a teenager. In my experience, talking on the phone hasn’t been great with clients. It feels like people think out loud on the phone, they’re trying to get a gauge of your personality (and I come off better in person and in text) or they’re jacking off and want dirty talk. I do concede often, but if someone prefers to talk on the phone, I like to be prepared with a text or email first. It can also be overwhelming trying to keep up with communication systems. We are asked to communicate on phone, text, email, WhatsApp, Skype, Kik, instagram, and the advertising platforms themselves. A provider may just be trying to simplify communication. Plus the email on RentMen / rentmasseur is buggy and doesn’t always work. And it may just be easier to switch to another medium.

I honestly think porn has something to do with this. A lot of guys in porn for promo pics have their skin pulled back so far that it looks uncomfortable. It wasn’t until recently that that started to change. Men’s “Uncut Legends” series was the first mainstream professional gay porn I saw where foreskin was appreciated and made the forefront. Maybe guys see this and think they should always have it down. It could also be that when playing with guys that are cut and they more often than not pull the skin down, they may be under the impression that having it down is normal. Could also be that they don’t have enough skin to cover the head and it’s more comfortable down. Just throwing all those out there. The confusing thing to me, is when I’m with another uncut guy and they pull my foreskin down avd go directly at the head. I want to ask them who taught them that.

Oklahoma City, you say? But I get trip anxiety for sure. A bad experience being stranded on I-45 during a flood, and side effects of escorting (mild claustrophobia) give me flying anxiety for sure. Add to that too many times being crammed in the back corner, turbulence and such and I don’t like flying. I get a lot of trip anxiety related to flying. Chelated magnesium pills help a lot.

Nope.

I think it may take into account both guys who plan to travel to the area in the coming 30 days, and guys who list it in their near travel. And being in NYC, that could mean scores of guys. That’s why I’ve always said I hate that RentMen does a terrible job of distinguishing these three groups of providers. It’s a bad experience for everyone.

I will say that having my home base be a smaller Midwestern market (or southern, depending on where you think Oklahoma falls) I've seen all of this since the beginning. It may be that in smaller cities if you're not in more places, you're not viable, but I've essentially run into all of these problems since the start. It's not the overwhelming majority of my interactions, thank goodness, but that portion of the interactions can definitely be frustrating. All that said, with enough bad behavior from clients on the front end, I've - and I bet you have too - learned how to spot a lot of that on the front end, too. Knowing when to stop a conversation; taking a booking, but knowing from the conversation they'll probably no-show / cancel; remembering you need to eat too, and not speedboating through your dinner to make a buck; or many other things that happen. I know, at least for me, that the most frustrating part is that we have no recourse. If a client decides to skip a booking without telling us, or behave in a bad way, it's no skin off their back. Sometimes I see things here, and I'm like "that shouldn't be okay..." and if you ask how to deal with it or say something, many are like "that's part of the business! if you don't like it, find something else to do!" But if we have a bad day or aren't 110% positive 110% of the time, we're perceived as being negative. Even on this forum, If we say a slightly negative thing, complain about a client, (or a city) etc. it can lead to us being publicly badmouthed at best, or blacklisted at worst. Or at least how to retain your sense of self when something bad happens. I still get frustrated, but that 2-hour no-show just gave me time to shower, actually get a bite of real food to eat, and get off my feet if I've been standing all day. All that said, you're allowed to complain, even though many times it may feel like you can't. I still call my BFF Jeremy Davis in DC and he has to talk me down sometimes. We'll never figure out completely why some people act the way they do. Just don't let it ruin your composure.

Unfortunately Gushers has been closed since the early 2000s. My BF was actually working on a project that would have been included in a buy/remodel of the hotel. But the hotel is under contract to be sold right now. So we’ll see what happens to it in the coming months...

I would hope, if advertising on sites with masseur in the name - rentmasseur/ masseurfinder et al. - that he’d know the difference...

All good points here. To add: What you wear matters. You may think that since you’ll be naked and taking your clothes off anyway, that sweats is fine, but it generally isn’t. Look nice when you open the door. Also confirm rates and amount of time spent before hand. Especially on masseurfinder, Some guys don’t click through to individual profile pages from the city page, and may ask think that your rate for everything is the rate that it says “starting at”. Heck - some don’t look at rates at all before they contact you. Make sure that all expectations are taken care of beforehand. Be open to accepting different types of payment. Cash, the cash app, Venmo, square, etc - you’ll get asked about them all. Also make the massage your own / special / unique. If I can think of anything else I’ll add it, but these are some of my experiences that I’ve learned that haven’t been said already. I’ve akso learned some things here, so that’s cool.

I’ve done a few “extended period of time” arrangements, the longest being Friday at 1am (about when my flight got in) to Saturday at 7am (enough time for me to fly home and get to Texas for a wedding). Though there was a lot of discussion and lead time, we didn’t discuss too much of the specifics before, though some was implied. Started with a massage and HE. then we slept in, breakfast in bed, he showed me some of the city, then dinner and a comedy show, then more some more fun. So I think we both got off twice. No down time for me. In a few instances where I’ve had a longer arrangement, an event - something where I was a companion like a concert or comedy show - worked well. But it does at least work to have some of the arrangemeents worked out beforehand.

Alrighty. I’m from Houston, and I like Kansas City as a city. And I’ve been going there regularly since 2016 - my last trip was in March; I’m not saying this based off of one trip. And I’ll most likely visit the city because bbq (q39 and charbar) concerts, and the general feel of the city. And it’s a straight shot up 35 from OKC so I can be there in no time. But Not every city is great for every guy, as @Mocha has pointed out. And some of the cities he points out I agree with but some I don’t. Not to mention, that’s exactly what mocha is doing, so to call me out singularly seems odd. I’m sayinv I’ve had great success in nearly every city I’ve been to. But sometimes the factors for success in one city can outweigh the others.

Its not a countdown clock. Its just a huge clock that uses the whole display of my phone. Either way, I’m sorry that being respectful of you and other clients time is considered unprofessional. Hiding behind your blank profile must be nice, Though I’m not sure if discussing this here is the appropriate place place for this.

If I, in general have at least three appoints before I make the trip then I’ll keep it. Everything else will fall in line at that point.

I was more getting st the doors to the rooms at the hotel. As in don’t stay in a motel in most cases; stay in actual hotels. Like @MichBoyBlake said, it provides some buffer. Not only that but it gives off the impression of being a little classier. Even clients have said “don’t stay in a hotel where the doors are outside” so they may look for it too.

Oh the dallas mafia... Maybe I’m in the wrong here, but I’d never base a trip completely off of one client. And overnights / multiple-hour clients can be harder to come by than you make it seem. I have a few but they’re the overwhelming minority.

Traveling can be a headache, but I find it ultimately rewarding. If you can figure out how to navigate it and stay sane the perks will outweigh the benefits. I will say, though, that there are a few counterintuitive things that come with traveling. First off: summer isn’t the best time. Clients are usually traveling themselves, and there are lots of events and pride festivals happening. August is basically a wash. You can make summer work, but make damn sure there’s not any event happening where you plan to travel. You don’t always need the best most expensive hotel. The doors need to be on the inside, but besides that, location within the city matters much more (and i kill myself over this more than anything). Time of week matters a lot too. Another counterintuitive thing: weekends can work, and if they’re the only time you can travel (like in my case) you can make it work. But in many instances some combo of weekday and weekends work best for travel spans. Also, drum up interest before hand. It can be a pain, but pick your travel cities and advertise them in advance, put them in your headline and your body text, and put them here. Having advanced appointments will save you some headache and give peace of mind that the trip is worth it. In many instances, traveling to a city more than once is better as people know you’ll get there fairly regularly. And if you end up canceling the trip, you won’t be out much, or you can keep the trip and end up seeing something new (OR SLEEPING).

Traveling can be a headache, but I find it ultimately rewarding. If you can figure out how to navigate it and stay sane the perks will outweigh the benefits. I will say, though, that there are a few counterintuitive things that come with traveling. First off: summer isn’t the best time. Clients are usually traveling themselves, and there are lots of events and pride festivals happening. August is basically a wash. You can make summer work, but make damn sure there’s not any event happening where you plan to travel. You don’t always need the best most expensive hotel. The doors need to be on the inside, but besides that, location within the city matters much more (and i kill myself over this more than anything). Time of week matters a lot too. Another counterintuitive thing: weekends can work, and if they’re the only time you can travel (like in my case) you can make it work. But in many instances some combo of weekday and weekends work best for travel spans. Also, drum up interest before hand. It can be a pain, but pick your travel cities and advertise them in advance, put them in your headline and your body text, and put them here. Having advanced appointments will save you some headache and give peace of mind that the trip is worth it. In many instances, traveling to a city more than once is better as people know you’ll get there fairly regularly. And if you end up canceling the trip, you won’t be out much, or you can keep the trip and end up seeing something new (OR SLEEPING).

I feel like we all have that one city that we can’t deal with. For me it is Kansas City and Houston.

It’s not easy for us to be generally available 24/7 either as most of us do have other things we like to do outside escorting, or to deal with different communication styles and preferences of providers. I do appreciate that you at least try to stay within the bounds of the escort as many guys don’t. But it seems that the overwhelming majority of us prefer appointments to be booked in advance. In fact, I’ve cancelled trips if I didn’t have enough advance appointments booked in advance, and the guys that like to book on a whim would text me and ask why. All that said, I find it odd that anyone would object to an advance booking - it’s easy enough to schedule it and reconfirm closer.

Congrats! *screams* one of us! One of us!