The Landing Strip Lounge
36431 Goddard Rd
Romulus, MI 48174
What is the justification for "mandatory" valet parking?
Pussylicker2
Ohio
I put this in the Landing Strip discussion because LS is the most egregious in the Detroit area. Read the September 3 review by Gemstones. He was robbed, and basically had to pay a ransome to get his car keys. Landing Strip requires you to give them your car keys even if you park yourself not on their lot! If someone can offer any kind of justification for this policy, please explain it to me. Some will say gee, I go there and I've never had a problem. If you don't get dances, it's hard for a dancer to say you owe her money. If you pay in advance there is no way you'll get a refund. If you put the money on the table she can grab it and there's no way you'll get it back. If you use your head and don't pay until after, you can refuse her demands, but not if the club has your keys.
Dancers may say they've been cheated in the past so they need to be paid first. I'm sure that's true, but perhaps the reason they've been cheated is because they provided bad service. PLs complain about "regulars" clubs. If a PL has gotten dances and perhaps extras and happily paid, and they return to the club later, dancers know things will go well. If a new PL comes in, who knows. He might not pay, he might be a cop, he might have crabs or stink.
Dancers who provide good service at a good price can have PLs waiting in line for them, I've seen it. Dancers who provide poor service or overcharge may like a club like Landing Strip, where the PL is forced to pay to get his car keys. Clubs like Landing Strip and Flight Club charge the dancers huge amounts to work there, but shady dancers may think it's worth it to them.
Some clubs just require you to pay the bartender or a bouncer in advance for your dances. If you want extras you pay the dancer directly. If you agree to a bbbj for $100 extra, and she pulls out a condom after you've paid, you have no recourse. I never patronize clubs that demand that I put myself in a position where I can be robbed, but apparently some guys don't mind getting robbed, because they allow it to happen.
Many of the people who attack me appear to be club employees or owners. I say this because they viciously attack clubs that are honest, clubs that don't nickel and dime you with mandatory valet, mandatory coat check, charge for a booth, charge for every trip to the vip. You may not mind spending $1,000 per visit. I go to clubs and get extras about twice a week, and I like to get the most for my money. If I was a billionaire I might pull up in a limo, hand $100 to the valet and every bouncer, and just give every dancer $1,000. I probably wouldn't have dancers trying to scam me.
So if anyone can justify a club like Landing Strip or Flight club requiring you to give them your keys, even if you don't park on their lot, I'd like to hear it.
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Valet is in place to keep the broke ass riff raff, such as yourself, out. No amount of bitching and whining anywhere on the internet is going to eliminate mandatory valet. And stop telling people valet can hold keys of patrons who don't pay. If you knew anything about the law or how valet is run, you would know that that is not true and 100% illegal. Valet is always subcontracted by these clubs. They merely wear Club t-shirts or polos as a matter of professionalism but they're always managed by a separate company. Whether you pay it dancer or waitress or not, it does not give them the right to keep your keys from you and they won't do so. I'm not sure if you've heard of this thing called the police, but all you have to do is call them if you're ever refused to get your keys back. Everybody says they've heard stories of this happening at others, but nobody has produced any proof or evidence that has actually ever happened in the history of mandatory valet existing.
So shut the fuck up and get your dick out of Daily_Grind's asshole so you can try to man the fuck up finally. Get back out on the street like the little beggar you are a once you finally get $8 in change from people feeling sad and sorry for you, maybe you can drive your wittle wood paneled station wagon over to Flight Club or LS and pay for valet finally so you can experience a real strip club.
These 2 clubs don't want police at the club for anything except to handle violent individuals or drunks. No club is going to hold your keys to pay a dancer for anything but songs. Maybe the Hamilton clubs have shady bouncers and managers that will help a dancer rip off a PL, but these are higher class places.
If you and a dancer agreed on say $300 for full service and you're done in 5 songs and now she is saying it is $450, $300 for the deed and $150 for the songs; you man up and tell her she can take the $300 or you'll walk to the bouncer and ask for the song count and she'll only get $150.
Reading this forum and USAG, I see that the rip off artists are in the Hamilton clubs and BTs, places notorious for not needing to valet. I didn't read Gemstones review, but I'll guess he caved and that is why he got screwed.
The clubs see valet parking as another source of income.
The justification is it's a business and they get to set their own rules and fees. You can always vote with your feet if you don't like it.
Paying up front versus not... I know that the conventional wisdom here is to never pay up front. If for some reason a dancer sets off my Spidey sense, then I'll ask to pay at the end. If she refuses, then I'll move on. Simple.
But, I've probably paid up front over 90% of the time and I've had exactly one instance where I got fleeced (and it's not like I've only been to a strip club three times...).
So, this isn't a big pain point for me.
More importantly, if you feel like the club is holding your keys to facilitate a shakedown later, why the fuck do you want to go there anyway? Why patronize an establishment you think is trying to rip you off? I get that there is some risk of that shit anywhere, especially in strip clubs, but if it's that bad it doesn't make sense to me why you'd subject yourself to it. Especially when you said that was the most important thing about a club, which I still think is dumb as shit.
This gives current strip club owners something of a government enforced monopoly. I'm not accusing them of handing government officials money under the table to eliminate potential competitors but they certainly are receiving an unfair benefit here. There are many poorly run strip clubs and under more free market conditions those would be driven out of business and replaced by better ones. This would benefit the customers and also the strippers, who would have more and better options of where to work.
If you don’t like paying for those services - then you can simply not patronize this club. I think it would be more mature to not patronize the club, than complain about it.
I don’t go to clubs with cover charges or valets. I prefer low end clubs, and I enjoy them. I’ve been to classy clubs, and they weren’t for me, so I stopped going. I think I wrote a review many years ago about one in NJ. It go too expensive for me, and I just stopped going.
Any of you guys from the NJ area might be familiar with The River Palm in Edgewater. Probably my single favorite restaurant after Peter Luger, and I've never once parked my own car. It's on a steep hill and a rather busy street, with only about a dozen parking spots, so where the hell they take the cars I have no idea. If they didn't have valet service, I'd take a cab.
But I can't think of a single strip club where I'd make use of valet parking. In fact, if they require it that's a deal breaker. I'll go somewhere else. Even the high-end clubs are still in the kind of business we all know to be seedy, dishonest, and even potentially dangerous. No way would I give them control over my vehicle so that I might be hassled or even possibly detained against my will if I wanted to leave in a hurry. Not to mention they could go through your glove box to find out who you are and where you live, fuck with your GPS to see where you've been recently, or maybe even use your back seat as an additional VIP booth out the back door of the club. No thanks.
It has nothing to do with being cheap, I have no problem paying a parking lot attendant to monitor the parking lot. It has nothing to do with the club making money, they can charge whatever they want for cover. I know I don't have to go there, they can make their own rules.
Valet parking can be convenient depending on the parking situation, but when the lot is empty and your parking space is 30 feet from the door, it's just dumb.
Strippers who give bad service like mandatory valet because it insures they'll get paid. I've been called cheap by ugly or stinky dancers who I've refused dances from. I don't argue with them, I just wait for them to go away.
Just because you don't see a custie's keys being withheld doesn't mean it isn't a factor. The dancer claims you did 5 songs, you know you did 3, the club backs her up because it's easier to replace you than it is to replace her, so what do you do? You KNOW you can't just walk out and drive home, so you cave.
Lets face it, these business facilitate prostitutes doing their business. Some also facilitate them robbing people, like Flight Club and Landing Strip in Romulous Michigan.
I can't confirm or refute your assertion that FC & LS use valet parking as a means to rip off customers and truthfully I don't care. What matters is that you feel that way, yet you still wish to patronize them. That's the real mystery. If that's their goal, they find a way to do it without mandatory valet. If you think they're out to ROB you, don't fucking go. If you think the risk is too great for the reward, don't fucking go.
The evidence suggests you aren't trying to understand the reasons they require valet, it suggests you're just trying to play the victim. If this is the attitude you go to strip clubs with, it's likely that strippers are picking up on it and its self fulfilling. Your reaction when accused likely plays a large factor in the management response as well, if your timid and afraid or furtive, they're likely to assume you're in the wrong and of course they're going to support the dancer. If your response was confident and assertive, but not combative, odds are much greater the outcome would be in your favor at at least more neutral.
I sympathize in that I don't like valet in general. But I'm reasonable and understand that it may make sense for a business. I'm also more than happy to valet in situations where I perceive value, examples include downtown or inclement weather. Normally I avoid clubs with valet, but if it's raining all day I take my car out of the garage and hit a club with a covered valet station. There's always plenty of parking in the Tootsies lot, but it's well worth $10-15 or so to stay dry. In a place like Detroit, I'm sure I'd happily do it to avoid the snow.
A million reasons have been given above why clubs choose to valet but if you’ve ever paid attention to how small and tight the parking lot is at BTs then you’d understand why the club valets and should be grateful they do if you are parking a car there. You can also park on one of the adjacent streets at BTs too, but you can’t do that at all of the other Detroit clubs. I wouldn’t advise parking your car on the street in the middle of the night on 8 Mile.
Fortunately around here there is not that much of it.
Mandatory, maybe because they can squeeze more cars in that way?
SJG
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1) I have never been inside flight club or landing strip, I don't patronize them. I've tried to go to flight club but they refuse to let me in unless I give them my keys, which I refuse to do. I've offered to park down the street and still pay the valet fee, but they insist on holding my keys.
2) If it was their parking lot it might make sense. At landing strip they'll let you in without giving them your keys if you show them your uber receipt. But if you park down the street, they won't let you in.
3) For those who say they'll call the cops if the club refuses to give you your keys, I have to chuckle. The cops would probably tell you to come to the station and file a report. If takes them 30 minutes to come to a robbery in progress. So what do you do if the cops do show up and the club says you were too drunk to drive? Or the club says gee, we seem to have lost his keys? Lets get real.
4) BT's has valet, and it's required if you use their lot. But you can park on the street and walk in without giving up your keys, unlike flight club and landing strip.
So many guys just let the dancers rip them off even if they have their keys, just because they're afraid of a little drama the dancer might cause. Those guys wouldn't mind giving up their keys since they aren't going to stand up for themselves anyway. I'm not trying to insult anyone, some guys might just figure it's only a couple hundred, not worth the drama. I don't let these punks push me around, which is why I don't allow them to get the upper hand.
I don't want those guys in my car same as I wouldn't want dipshitscrub in my underwear drawer.
The biggest reason (beyond a revenue stream) that most clubs have valet is to protect customers cars in a small overcrowded parking lot.
However, there is no way I would turn my keys over to a club if I wasn't valet parking. There is nothing they could say to convince me there was a legitimate reason for them to need my keys I'd I wasn't using their valet.
When I decide it's time to go, I want to be able to walk right out the door and be on my way. Anything that limits me from doing so unencumbered is a problem to me.
Exactly. I think PL (hahaha) is mostly upset because, despite repeatedly whining about this every few days on both forums, no owners or other customers are actively doing anything to change the existence of mandatory valet. He believes whining about it on here and USASG is going to change strip club parking behaviors as we know it. As though his opinion is some reveling thought that all should worship. PL wants you all to agree with him while he's on the floor kicking and screaming throwing a temper tantrum because he can't actually afford to valet his vehicle and uses his "piece" as an excuse.
Oh no, PL, did I out ratio again with logic? Poor baby.
He also puts down dancers for prostituting to make their money, yet he's one of their customers. How are you going to make fun of girls for sucking dick for money when you go in to get yours sucked? You're looking for a service that they're providing, yet you're going to go and try to bash them for that? PL is certainly not mentally okay. I'm also beginning to wonder if instead of being a shill for the Hamilton clubs, what if he is Hamilton himself going on these forums shit talking the much nicer and upscale clubs that will never compare to either of the Hamilton bars. His obsession with mandatory valet and hatred toward, specifically, Landing Strip and Flight Club speak volumes about his insecurities.
And yes, if anybody wants to see what he actually looks like, all you have to do is Google his username inside quotations. It's a picture that was posted about 10 years ago and the likelihood of anybody ever using his exact username, with the number two, is slim. PL isn't the sharpest tool in the shed (or has the most majestic dick of them all).
My car does not have a physical key (it's app-based). Though there is a card key for situations such as a valet or car wash. I often do not carry the card key with me. Go Tesla!
Heck in the easily 250+ clubs I've visited over 20+ years I've only seen it a few times - twice in Dallas and once in L.A. But in Dallas one club let me park myself and pay the parking fee and the other had street parking nearby. In L.A. I Ubered. So I've never actually had to hand my keys over and tbh I never will agree to that.
I must be missing a lot of historical context here, lol.
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SJG
I was reacting like that because of his incessant and constant complaining over the exact same thing. If you view his comment and post history, you'll see it's all about valet parking in Detroit. It's like beating a dead fish. His complaining all over the internet every day, all day isn't going to change a thing.
It's okay to not want to valet. It's okay if you hate the idea of mandatory valet. But people get really fed up when one complains about it in every single thing one posts. He comments on every Detroit area review bitching about valet. He contributes nothing in his comments except constant and incessant whining.
And he does complain on other forums about mandatory valet. It's an extremely annoying obsession he has. A lot of us are tired of seeing the constant whining from this guy. The like/dislike ratios and comments back to him say it all. He is a useless member of these forums, and thus I treat him like the useless person he is in my replies to his posts because I, frankly, do not give a flying fuck about him; however I am tired of the redundancy he spews.
Pussylicker. This is a new low even for you. I read gemstones review and his keys were never mentioned. He had a disagreement with a dancer that was handled by the bouncer and the manager. He wasn’t trying to leave and the valet was never involved. In fact he actually stuck around and got another VIP from a different dancer. You totally mischaracterize what happened.
There are legitimate reasons for disliking valet parking but your whole obsession with them keeping your keys borderlines on the kinky. The fact is they can’t keep your keys. Valets have to return the keys to the legal owner, even if that owner is visibly intoxicated. There have been court cases ruling that. The valets are aware of what the law is because they don’t work for a club. They work for a valet service and have to abide by the laws governing valet services. And they DON’T keep your keys. You know this because it’s been pointed out to you in dozens of threads but you keep spewing the same disinformation. But as I said before your characterization of gemstones review is just plain false.
I read plenty of reports of guys paying first, and getting ripped off. That's why we keep saying "don't pay in advance". I've seen reports of guys being told they owed more than did, and the guy said no and left without getting ripped off. I've never seen a report of a guy disagreeing with the dancer, and leaving without getting ripped off at a club that was holding his keys. And I still have not heard any legitimate reason for a club to require you to surrender your keys even if you don't park on their property.
Don't question, just play along with their nonsense. Buy some inexpensive key fobs and keys over the internet and bring a set of these useless key fobs and keys with you. Don't park on their property and surrender these "fake" car keys. If the management gives you a hard time and won't return your keys or wants money, flip them the bird and run out of the place as fast as you can. Better yet, don't go there or any club that has such a policy.
But if a club really has this as a policy, I already know I wouldn't enjoy the experience.
I’m sorry. I missed the part in his review where he said that. Would you please copy and paste it for me because I’m having trouble finding it. The fact is, there’s nothing in his review that even hints that this was the case.
“Are you going to call the cops on the club?”
You’re damn right I am. And believe me, the last thing these clubs want is for the cops to show up in their parking lot. It’s bad for business.
“ As for "Valets have to return the keys to the legal owner, even if that owner is visibly intoxicated." Really?”
Yes really. There’s case law to that effect. Do a simple google search. It’s not complicated.
“ Why did Gemstone agree to pay more than he owed?”
He paid based on the song count the bouncer gave him. The manager became involved and reduced the amount and gemstones voluntarily paid an extra 20. He was so worried about his car keys that he went back for another VIP session. Sorry but your theory doesn’t hold water.
I agree 100%. The problem is that a particular poster feels that it’s necessary to continually interject this nonsense into to threads concerning two Detroit area clubs that have mandatory valet parking. He’s never been to either of these clubs and admits that he has no intention of ever going to them, but for some reason he feels compelled to continually denigrate them. You don’t understand this thread. I don’t understand his behavior in general.
While these clubs aren't my type and doesn't really impact me, this practice of requiring keys when you are not on their property is definitely suspect and the only rational reason for why they would do this is to have some type of "hold" on the patron in the event of a unforseen situation between patron and dancer.
If there is a law that valet can't keep your keys (which should only come up if you actually use their service), there should be a law that an establishment can't request you give them up as a requirement of entry when you aren't on their property.
As twentyfive mentioned, I would just not patronize the club.
But it's still a suspect practice if this is indeed what they do.
This began as a butt hurt dude posting sour apples about valet parking, and it just makes the butt hurt dude sound like a baby.
I agree with Twentyfive’s comment too. If you don’t like it, don’t patronize the club. I’ve never been to Detroit, but it seems there is more than just one strip club there…