"Free Admission" doesn't mean it's completely free to enter a strip club

Other classics are the "free dance" which you might think would be normal length, but which is really 30 seconds or so, ("come on, we said 'free', didn't say 'full length'). "3 for $40" (also reduced length). "Buy a champagne room and get five free admission passes!" (which will expire this Friday, but, of course, you were going to visit five times before that anyway).

I bet they hire guys like Rick-boy-Dugan and txtittyfan to come up with gimmicks like that and think they are oh-so-clever with their disenguity.

Rip Offs R Us

At sirens Columbus they do now have $5 day admission and that includes a free dance ticket. It is full length song but they tell you to tip the dancer. First time I did it I tipped $5. second time I didnt tip anything. Only catch to this is you are lucky to find a hot dancer!

Doug:

I know Rick and Txtittyfan.

They would never stoop to such despicable business practices as you describe. Both work for reputable clubs where every customer is treated with respect.

Of course, they receive free food, drinks, dances, and occasionally sex with dancers for coming up with ideas to make money for the club, but hey, business is business.

Exactly what's your problem with this business model?

C_G: I see that a good portion of your reviews are Deju Vu clubs- they're the "fine print" specialist ( $10 cover, $10 drink). Many other clubs eschew the free admission, and just offer a fixed $$ ammount off.

Of the free passes I've obtained lately, most of them are really free. Though if club is slow, waitresss will quickly come by with an expectation that you'll buy a drink. I generally get at least one anyway, so whether drink is paid upfront at door, or in natural flow of things inside, not a dealbreaker for me.

I don't understand the obsession with free admission. WTF. The entrance fee is just a drop in the buscket of what you are going to spend to have a good time. The clubs that I go to are mostly free during the day and at night they run $5-10. Clubs that charge more than that are either juice bars or rip off joints.

I think the part that is misleading is that DV clubs (least around here) generally require you to pay $10 admission + $10 for unlimited drinks (but non-alcoholic so nobody is going to go crazy anyways). You don't get a choice about the last part, even if you don't want any drinks at all. So it feels, effectively, like the rules are $20 admission including unlimited non-alcoholic drinks. So when you hear "free admission" you think, great, I get to save $20, but then it ends up just being $10, and you feel scammed.

Now if the club serves alcohol, I agree that expecting free alcohol with the admission seems a little far-fetched.

sc,

Sort of like buying a new car and then getting all worked up when they charge $100 or so to "prep" (wash) the car for delivery. Go figure!

Anything you save on admission is found money. The whole system is designed to part you from you cash, why are you suprised. The girls promise you the moon as long as you got the money honey they got the time.

@shadowcat, the clubs in Pittsburgh that charge $20 for admission all give away alcohol. That's pretty common in Pennsylvania, it's very hard to get a liquor license here.

@ Tiredtraveler +1

I don't think that the Club or the dancers have any trouble extracting the money out of your wallet.

@ minnow: True, my reviews since joinging TUSCL are mostly Deja Vu-operated clubs, because that's the majority of the clubs in Washington state, which are all I've reviewed since moving to Seattle in 2006. (Joined TUSCL in 2010.) However, my observations I described include a good 14 years of clubs in the L.A. area before that.

Anyone that has SCed at least once knows, or should expect that, whether it is free admission or not, SCs are going to more often than not require you to buy at least one drink.

I've always been a big fan of the Deja Vu owned clubs. I know many on here aren't. But my biggest gripe with them is the whole "free pass" thing. For me I don't care, since I agree with Shadowcat, the entrance fee is small compared to what I'm going to spend over the course of an evening. But from a purely marketing standpoint, it's a terrible idea. Is that anyway to treat new customers? Using fine-print, bait-and-switch, underhanded tactics. That's really going to get them to come back.

I know it's just a matter of languarge, but I wish they would quit calling it a free pass. Be honest. Call it a discount coupon. It's a far better way to attract (and keep) new customers.

A lot of clubs in Detroit are free admission in the day but charge for mandatory valet parking. $3 is the cheapest valet I have seen and $7 is the most expensive.

Here in Milwaukee free really means free. Clubs accept competitor's complimentary admission passes and never harass you about a drink...granted they don't need to harass because we will find excuses to drink anyway.

My ATF gave me a stack of probably ~50-75 passes that i will have a hard time using up. Only times they don't honor passes is if they bring in some out of state dancer (usually someone on hiatus from the porn scene) to feature that evening.

The new way of the world, if somebody can nickel and dime you they will.

I just ran into the DejaVu thing this past weekend. Upon using their "free" pass, I was a bit surprised when the door girl quoted me $10. I said that I thought the pass got me in free, to which she replied that the $5 daytime cover was waived, but not the $10 drink charge. Like others here have said, I just paid it and considered it the cost of doing business, for a hopefully much better spending experience once I got inside.

I think the practical business purpose for a $5 or $10 cover charge is to keep out the homeless guys. Any up front charge exceeding that is just misplaced greed. Clubs should deliver value for money. Drinks, food, time with attractive women.

However, I do understand that some jurisdictions, and some national chain policies, make it hard to deliver value in these simple ways. So clubs resort to all kinds of other income producing ploys. Employees of clubs and the strippers know this best. The diversity of schemes used by clubs to short their employees is mind boggling.

harry: "I think the practical business purpose for a $5 or $10 cover charge is to keep out the homeless guys"

Doesn't keep the juiceman out. Not that he is exactly your typical homeless person, though... :-)

if the cover charge was ever $5-$10, then I'm sure clubs would be well beyond packed. That's chump change money my friend. I eat that for breakfast.

I believe where I live free admission means it. Of course most people drink around here regardless so the club doesn't have to worry too much about a lot of people not drinking.

I remember one club years ago kept giving me free admission passes plus offered free pizza on most nights. Beer was a decent price but not required. However after you ate their pizza, you were probably going to get thirsty and I don't remember any water fountains.

Pabloantonio: you said, "Of course, they receive free food, drinks, dances, and occasionally sex with dancers for coming up with ideas to make money for the club, but hey, business is business.

Exactly what's your problem with this business model?"

Want to know what is wrong with this business model? Do you really? Whats wrong with it is that I'm not getting in on that! How do I get free food, drinks, dances, and ocassionally sex with the dancers for my ideas? :D I want in on this racket....