'Gold' membership on Rentmen

[Boink]

Is the 'Gold' membership on Rentmen something a provider can purchase for himself?  Or is is usually 'bestowed' upon him as a gift from an appreciative client?  What if the provider is contemplating retirement? Does the 'Gold' gift membership keep his ad alive whether he wants it or not?  Even if he's no longer accepting appointments?  I've seen one ad for a 'Gold star' escort who hasn't logged on to Rentmen in over a year.

Is the 'Gold star" supposed to imply some kind of higher level of professionalism or trustworthiness? (Because so far, for me, it signifies "least likely to respond in any way to a polite and respectful inquiry.") 🙂

[+ DynamicUno]

All a gold membership means is that a provider has paid extra for gold membership (or someone has gifted it to him).  It gives them a higher rank in the search order, which helps them in the busier markets.  I do use it as a positive indication their account is active, since they do not explicitly mark expired accounts.

I'm not sure what they do if a client tries to buy a gold membership for a provider whose account is expired.  I imagine the provider would have to go in and freeze their account or cancel it completely if they were not wanting to engage in business if that happened.

 

[NJF]

After a certain period, an expired account will be invisible by search. It can only be accessed by directly typing the account name. 

[Guest]

Regular memberships and gold alike will cease to appear in searches by location when they expire. An escort can also hide their profile from searches at any point. 

@Boink, I don't think there's much to be read into it. Reach out to the escort(s) you're interested in, regardless of membership status, that's my advice. The inactive gold member is probably an anomaly. 

[Luv2play]

 I don't know all the details but I regard Gold status as fairly regular. The Platinum status elevates the providers to the front of the listings for each city. The Golds follow.

In my experience the two are interchangeable and don't guarantee performance in either category. It's just advertising.

[jeezifonly]

The premiums esp Platinum bump the profile to the top in ANY city mentioned in the profile, including as “Available Now” when the “Now” might be 2000 miles away…. In their profile maybe they’re coming to your city in 4mo.  The ranking is only for the Provider’s use, not for any inference the potential client may assume of precious metals’ value.

It can be fixed but will not be. 

[italianboyph]

Both. Someone can gift it to you but you can also purchase it 

[jtwalker]

I have noticed that sometimes, for reasons I do not understand, certain non-gold providers do not show up in the "Near Me" results when they will show in the specific city where they are listed.  I suspect that Gold / Platinum get more exposure.  Rates being what they are, I imagine that upgrading would pay for itself as it only costs a client $99 to make someone gold for a month.  I don't know the rates on the other side.

[Beancounter]

3 hours ago, jtwalker said:

I have noticed that sometimes, for reasons I do not understand, certain non-gold providers do not show up in the "Near Me" results when they will show in the specific city where they are listed.  I suspect that Gold / Platinum get more exposure.  Rates being what they are, I imagine that upgrading would pay for itself as it only costs a client $99 to make someone gold for a month.  I don't know the rates on the other side.

Several years ago I purchased a $99 gift renewal membership for a provider as a Christmas gift.  I texted the provider what I had done and made a comment to the effect that he would be saving $99 next month as a result of the gift.  He thanked me but indicated to me that he could purchase the same level of membership renewal for $39 or $49 I believe.  That told me RM pocketed a huge portion of the $99 as a commission.  Since then I haven’t given any renewal subscriptions on RM.  
 

Whether the provider was being upfront with me or not I’m not sure.  However, he was one of my regulars and had always been honest with me before. 

[jtwalker]

21 hours ago, Beancounter said:

Several years ago I purchased a $99 gift renewal membership for a provider as a Christmas gift.  I texted the provider what I had done and made a comment to the effect that he would be saving $99 next month as a result of the gift.  He thanked me but indicated to me that he could purchase the same level of membership renewal for $39 or $49 I believe.  That told me RM pocketed a huge portion of the $99 as a commission.  Since then I haven’t given any renewal subscriptions on RM.  
 

Whether the provider was being upfront with me or not I’m not sure.  However, he was one of my regulars and had always been honest with me before. 

A provider once requested that I pay him in a gift subscription as he didn't have a card to pay.  He indicated the $99 was $79 on his end, so that is the only time I ever did that.  If I ever had to cancel last minute, I'd probably use this to compensate.  Other than that, I think it is just a gimmick to make RM more money.

[nate_sf]

On the provider's side a Basic listing is $29.95. Gold is $79.95 if monthly recurring, or $99.95 for a one-time one month listing that does not renew. So if the gift membership is for one month, it's comparable to what the provider would pay if not recurring.

I've tried the Basic listing, but in a crowded market like SF it relegates you to the last of many, many pages of listings. Almost nobody will see you. So you pretty much have to get the Gold membership just to have a fighting chance.