I honestly am super picky as well primarily because of what i look for, which admittedly is in the minority of most clients. In LA I've found that even escorts who quote as high as $450/hour when meeting for the first time, will also do $500 - $600 for two hours, $700 - $750 for three hours and then $1,200 - $1,500 for an overnight (12 hours plus). And yes that is high for most (perhaps low for a few others).
I quite often am quoted higher but haven't ultimately paid more than $300/hour on average. But my intent going into it is to repeat and we always figure something out and come to an arrangement on mutually agreeable terms.
In my experience if you become very interested in someone specifically, done your homework and pretty much know from communication and/or reviews etc.. that you're a good match expectations wise, it's worth it in the long run to pay more for the 1st encounter to establish trustworthiness and reliability. I've found then that we both mutually feel comfortable negotiating from there on out on a go forward basis.