When to start booking - NYC

[rmike]

Hey guys,

I'm going to be in NYC for less than 24 hours on August 7. I have a bunch of things I need to get done in the city, but I probably have 2 hours to spend on our little hobby. As a result, reliability and advance planning is going to be a benefit.

So my question is - how far in advance should I start trying to sort out providers? I haven't been doing this long enough to figure out the sweet spot of "early enough to make plans" but not "so early the provider isn't willing to commit."

What are your thoughts?

[Luv2play]

1 hour ago, rmike said:

Hey guys,

I'm going to be in NYC for less than 24 hours on August 7. I have a bunch of things I need to get done in the city, but I probably have 2 hours to spend on our little hobby. As a result, reliability and advance planning is going to be a benefit.

So my question is - how far in advance should I start trying to sort out providers? I haven't been doing this long enough to figure out the sweet spot of "early enough to make plans" but not "so early the provider isn't willing to commit."

What are your thoughts?

My suggestion would be to contact a provider you are interested in and tell him the day and time slot you would have available to meet. If for two hours, that would make it more interesting to him.

Some will tell you, call me when you are here. Others might say confirm closer to the day. I don't think many will confirm this far out from August 7 unless they already know you.

The problem is that many will not want to commit to a specific time and day when something else might come up in the meantime that is more lucrative, such as an overnight or an extended engagement over several days.

[RyanDean]

In my experience, an early message (typically 7-10 days in advance, but sometimes even farther out) can work wonders. I typically say something like "I'm thinking toward my upcoming trip to your city on dates... will be looking to connect for a couple hours on day/date/time [ie saturday, 8/7, early afternoon]... do you expect to be in town and available then?" 

Sometimes an appt gets penciled in right then; other times the gent says "no I'll be away that weekend" or something similar; sometimes the gent clarifies how far in advance they are (not) willing to consider booking; sometimes they inquire about particulars; sometimes there's no reply. But whatever the response, I have usually found it a useful effort.

And of course: clarity, brevity and courtesy are essential.

[Kevin Slater]

8 hours ago, Luv2play said:

The problem is that many will not want to commit to a specific time and day when something else might come up in the meantime that is more lucrative, such as an overnight or an extended engagement over several days.

It's not that a better offer will come along, it's that the likelihood of a new client actually panning out is inversely proportional to the amount of contact (and the amount of time) beforehand.  Especially in a highly visited place like NYC, we get a ton of guys wanting to set something up weeks away (unfortunately often accompanied by a daily text with a new question or request) just to find out, wouldn't you know it, the day of... the trip gets cancelled.  The less time out, the more serious I take the booking. 

If your constraints require you to lock things down weeks in advance, a deposit via Venmo goes a long way to reassuring me that this is actually going to go down.  And of course, once we've actually met, I'll take future bookings a lot more seriously. 

Kevin Slater

[Cliff]

1 hour ago, Kevin Slater said:

It's not that a better offer will come along, it's that the likelihood of a new client actually panning out is inversely proportional to the amount of contact (and the amount of time) beforehand.  Especially in a highly visited place like NYC, we get a ton of guys wanting to set something up weeks away (unfortunately often accompanied by a daily text with a new question or request) just to find out, wouldn't you know it, the day of... the trip gets cancelled.  The less time out, the more serious I take the booking. 

If your constraints require you to lock things down weeks in advance, a deposit via Venmo goes a long way to reassuring me that this is actually going to go down.  And of course, once we've actually met, I'll take future bookings a lot more seriously. 

Kevin Slater

Well said, Kevin Slater.

[BuffaloKyle]

I agree a week or so beforehand. I like to message guys around that time frame when I know I have a specific date and time already in mind so they don't make other plans. Nothing worse than waiting and then finding out they had someone else book them in the meantime. Message the guy I know it's a week away but I really am interested in meeting up with you and wanted to inquire about your availability before you possibly made plans. I'd like to meet up at my hotel or your place on Aug. 7 at X time for a 2 hour session. Plus you don't want to wait too long because it can take awhile sometimes to get a response so if they are not free you don't want to be scrambling for another provider and be racing the clock.