Building the Perfect Club: Part 4, Lapdance Lane and VIP Alley
inno123
(Note, there are computer renderings that go with these articles and there are several new ones to go with this article. To access them click on my name and select pictures. When viewing one of the renderings you can right click on a picture to download a higher resolution version. There are several new pictures with this installment.)<br />
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Review: I have been thinking (some would say far too much) about strip club design and management and designing a sample club as an illustration. The parameters are: 4000sf storefront with 10 ft ceilings, lap dances and VIP allowed but no alcohol. Club can run with as few as 3 non-dancers at slow times. The primary design goal is to maximize opportunities for interaction between dancers and customers and thus sell dances.<br />
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As I previously observed in clubs under these rules the primary money makers are the lap dances and VIP rooms. So I first have to remind myself about whether I am designing a fantasy club or a real world one. Because in strip club heaven lap dances are in completely curtained off booths and VIP dances are in rooms as large and well outfitted as a hotel room with a solid lockable door. But I am trying to keep this exercise grounded in the real world. And in the real world four or five typical VIP rooms would yield more per month than the one super-suite. Also if the Lap Dance area is too nice, roomy and private it cuts demand for the VIP.<br />
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So we are going real-world. This leads to a tough question; how many lap dance and VIP booths to include? Square footage is not free but your ultimate maximum revenue per hour will be capped by how many premium spaces you have. One very small club I recently visited had six couch slots and 14 curtained VIP booths. And this was a club where I only saw three dancers on a Friday night! Clearly they were engaged in wishful thinking when they laid out the club.<br />
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Eventually for the sample club I decided on ten lap dance seats and six VIP rooms and a layout that would allow the owner to lease either the space to the left (for more lap dance booths) or to the right (more VIP Rooms) without messing with the basic layout.<br />
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I believe that it is important that the design of the club should emphasize a transition between the ‘ordinary’ part of the club and the ‘premium’ part of the club. In the sample design this is done with an archway central to the club highlighted with two wall sconces to give kind of a ceremonial entryway feel. This archway also serves a functional purpose. On the left side of the archway is some storage spaces for clean-up materials and other dancer necessities. The right hand side contains the computer that is used for tracking dances.<br />
Most clubs have to employ a ‘floater’ whose job is to insure that the dancers follow the rules and to track the number of dances each girl gets and for which she owes the club. The floater is completely overhead and usually a nuisance to dancers and customers. Some clubs, particularly the Deja-Vu chain, have gone to automatic timing devices. I have to figure that with all the components in these (bill reader, rfid device to identify the dancers, display screen, lights, etc. that they probably run thousands of dollars each. Other clubs I have seen ‘non-floaters’ that doesn’t float but stays at the entrance and you pay them on entering. That works, but it means that If you have to buy extra dances she has to carry the money back to the gatekeeper. So I am going to try to find a simpler and more centralized way of eliminating the Floater. The observation part of the floater’s job will be done by cameras. The tracking part will be done from the computer. The screen will show which dancers are in which lap dance spaces or VIP rooms. There will also be a list of all the other dancers on shift. The dancer clicks on her name, clicks on a vacant space or room and the system marks it as occupied and begins the timer, which will continue until she checks out. The software running on the PC can be quite flexible, including a grace period for getting to and from the space, and even adjustments for time of day, day of week and so forth. Of course the VIPs cost more per minute than the Lap Dance areas. Ultimately dancers are billed at the end of their shift for minutes used.<br />
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But won’t the dancers try to cheat the system? Not for long. The PC area will be monitored by cameras and the one thing that will absolutely get a dancer fired is cheating the club. In addition if a dancer does not bring in enough money she will be dropped from the schedule. The system has the additional benefit of not requiring the dancers to have to search for which VIP rooms are filled and which they should take.<br />
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Now I believe that the overriding design scheme of the private dance areas is this: The Lap Dance area should be a spectacle and the VIP rooms should be a mystery. The customers should be envious of what those in the Lap Dance booths ARE getting but curious about what the guys in the VIP room MIGHT be getting! The dancers of course will highlight this with their reminders about how the VIP rooms are ‘so much more private’. This does not mean though that the customers getting lap dances should have to feel completely exposed. You can convey what is going on in the lap dance couches without being able to show every detail. A hazy view will tell well enough if not even better.<br />
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So the plan is to put a sheer curtain between Lap Dance Lane and the rest of the club. In addition the stations themselves are illuminated by a pair of pin spots positioned to illuminate the dancer but not the customer in the chair. The chair is surrounded by enough poles so the dancers can steady themselves and the individual couches are visually separated by a heavy curtain so while you might be able to hear the other guy being given a dance just inches away you won’t have to see him.<br />
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If heading to the VIP rooms instead of turning left or right to lap dance lane one continues straight ahead and down three steps toward a wall sculpture and VIP alley. The only lights in VIP are a pin spot above the curtain for each entrance and a pin spot on the sculpture. The goal is to give a feel kind of like entering a posh secret cellar. (The sculpture is primarily there to provide a reference point when returning to the club.)<br />
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As to the VIP rooms themselves needless to say they are small. Given the choice of four sort of small rooms and six really small rooms the choice was obvious, take the 50% increased potential revenue. Besides, these rooms for two people interested in being close together. Still they should be large enough for both the dancer and customer to be standing in there at the same time and, for example, take off a jacket or remove shoes. So the trick is how to make these spaces seem more ‘VIP’ than plain booths without having to spend any extra floor space on them. To reduce claustrophobia a couple of old decorator tricks were used. First I dropped the solid color walls for patterned or textured wallpaper. Then I mirrored one wall and the ceiling. Mirrors help a lot and give you extra viewpoints on the action but you do not want parallel surfaces to be mirrored since it creates vertigo-inducing perpetual reflections. The combination of patterns plus mirrors gives scale and forces perspective. The wallpaper was chosen to give each room a particular theme. There would be a cave room and a forest room and a 60’s pop room and so forth. There might be some extra accessories in each room to match the theme like a lava lamp in the 60’s room or an artificial fern in the forest room, but not too much since space is limited.<br />
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There was also a decision between couch dances and bed dances in the VIP. I decided to split the difference and have a chaise that looked more furniture like but allowed the guy to put his feet up. Finally the rooms are lit with just a pair of pin spots on where the dancer is likely to be. Each room has its own local speaker on a 70 volt circuit with a volume dial near the door. There is also a jack that if a guy wants to plug in his music player and get a dance to his own favorite songs he can (after being reminded that he is paying by the minute, not how long HIS songs are!<br />
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One thing that I believe for the safety of the dancers that a VIP room should have is a hidden security call button. If a customer is not taking no for an answer and getting abusive the dancer can of course shout, but will she be heard over the noise, how long will it take for them to get here, and how might the customer retaliate in that time? So a discreet way of calling security I regard as a must from the standpoint of the dancer’s peace of mind. Money wise injured dancers are medical costs and lost productivity and frightened dancers quit. Inevitably your best dancers are the first to quit if working conditions are not great because they are the easiest to find new work.<br />
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The kitchen timer works even better for VIP. Set it for the quarter, half or full hour, and have the dancer hit the button when she starts. When it goes off, they're done. The old Rick's Tally-Ho used that method and both the dancers and bartenders loved it. Bartender set it, customer carried it into the VIP (verifying the time) and dancer started it when he sat down.
I always thought it was better to Pay by the Minute for extended & more involved VIP sessions. (Plus, of course the Dancer tip)
For instance, if a guy likes things slower & takes say 77 minutes - charge him for 77 minutes at the per minute rate decided upon.
In my experience, a lot of VIP/lap dance time is sold during the interaction at the tip rail between dancer and customer. A dancer with the right attitude can count on making money in private dances.
This design with the moat seems to imply the dancers will be wandering around the club after their stage set begging for tips. That does not lead to sales.
As I described in the section on the stage out of a typical three song set the dancer spends two songs in the lower area ('moat'). The first 'introduction' song is spent saying hello and welcoming everybody at the tip rail and the third song is spent collecting and thanking for the tips (and making a pitch for personal dances).
First is what happens if you want to buy more. If that means that the dancer has to take your money, run back to the bartender, get them to add time to the timer, and then have to run back it will kind of kill the mood.
On the other hand if it is an open-ended count-up timer then you might have times when the dancer might shut off the timer early and cheat the club out of some minutes. If to avoid that only the bartender is able to shut off the clock then it can result in some tense situations at the bar if multiple girls finish a set at the same time and all want to get his action RIGHT NOW, since the clock. literally, is still running on them.
Remember that the whole idea is to reduce administrative overhead and hassles.
The other thing you want is a system that can give the dancer what they owe/deserve (depending on how the cash is handled) right as they are leaving at the end of their shift. Because they are not going to leave without their money and if you give them too much you may never see them again.
your club, your call though.