They are gospel! I'd stake my life on them.
Or like most people who use this site, I use them as very general guidelines. I like to experience a club and make up my own mind.
I think the reviewers try to be accurate. The problem is that many reviews are written by very casual customers, so they don't really know what's going on. They might think a HJ at a club for $80 is a big deal, when actually FS is common at the club. Or they have fallen for one of the dancers and praise her excessively.
Also guys have a pretty board range in what they consider attractive, so that information is rarely useful.
I doubt that many deliberately try to post bogus or useless information. It's just due to their lack of experience. Although some very experienced club goers also demonstrate an incredible lack of insight.
I haven't used them in years, since I quit traveling on business. When I did use them, I just compared all the reviews from the clubs near by, and went to the one that seemed best. If it didn't suit me, I'd try #2. If that didn't work, I just decided to head back to the hotel.
I kinda wonder how useful a big string of positive reviews would be, to a club as a publicity tool. Does their business suddenly jump up? Do they run out of customers if everyone posts that there are only fat ugly slags working there? What's the relation between a given number of reviews, and a given increase or decrease in business? How many reviews does it take? What's the overall weight, in terms of proportion of total business which a club would experience otherwise?
Would be nice to know ...
They are all important. If a club has lots of bad reviews and the reviewers say the club sucks as well, you can believe it if the reviewers have several reviews. However one bad review and they don't state that the club sucks, it's just something that pissed them off.
To me, reviews are a way of gauging what's happening at a club I've been to before, but not in a while -- ususally that means clubs in places where I vacation rather than where I live. If I liked a club but a year or two later it's rating has dropped from the 5-8 range down to 3-6, I take that as an indicator that it probably isn't worth going back. Conversely, if I felt meh about a club and it climbs from 6-8 to 8-10 then I'm more likely to give it another chance.
Of course, ratings are iffy and there are both shills and detractors for many clubs, so that's why I also try to read between the lines. If a positive review reads like an ad, or if a negative review reads like someone who's expectations were way too high to begin with, or if a positive or negative review focuses too much on one dancer then it can be discounted. If a reviewer seems to have similar tastes to mine or if he seems to visit a number of clubs I'm familiar with, I'll pay more heed to his advice.
For clubs I've never been to, I read reviews more for the non-stripping/dancer information: what's the neighborhood like; how overpriced are the drinks and do they push you to buy them for the dancers; are managers/bouncers omnipresent; should I make sure to empty my bladder or get a Hep vacination before I visit; can I get a seat on a Saturday night or am I looking at a strudel-fest on a Tuesday. How I relate to the quality of the entertainment can vary a great deal from other mongers, but I like to get an idea about what kind of environment I'm going to find myself in before I go.
Even considering the disclaimer at the bottom of the page, I think they are important if I'm going to a club for the first time, or if I haven't been to one recently. I think for the most part, reviewers cover everything possible in a club, and thus gives an overall general expression. The numbers attached to reviews, however, don't strike me as nearly as significant, because it is easy to give a good review to a club because you happened to find a dancer you really liked. I think we have all been to clubs that in general sucked, but we find the one dancer that undoes the general suckitude.
The reviews are great to make a rough determination, IMO, on places that you might want to put on your "to see" list and places that you might want to avoid. I always go back to this suggestion from TUSCL:
"Basically think about what you would like to know from your good buddy about a strip club you’ve never been to. Think about the business traveler that is sitting in his hotel room with only time enough to hit one club in this new town. Let him know why or why not he should visit a particular club."
If I review a place that's honestly a real dump, at least there's a chance that the next guy in the area will avoid that club in favor of having a better time at another club. The reverse is true as well...we all want to know about clubs that are absolute "must sees" in a particular area. Everyone's tastes are diiferent, but I believe that what goes around comes around...when you give good, quality reviews, the returns that you get will be great as well...
LOL!!! What the fuck does Bobby-boy know about reviews?? That's rich...
I have always felt that knowing the reviewer personally or by his reputation is your best source of information. Bones has posted more reviews than anybody. We are close friends.And he will be back. If he tells me that they are doing $5 BJ's at the Pink Pussycat. I believe him. But if Jack Jones in his very first review on TUSCL gives it a "5" Who am I going to believe?
"I have always felt that knowing the reviewer personally or by his reputation is your best source of information." -- Funny choice of words coming from a self-serving shill."
Individual reviews have entertainment value at best. A collection of reviews offer basic insight. A couple decent reviews from a club that had been slumming for along time will get me to stop in and visit.
But nothing's more frustrating than a review that's just plain wrong or confused. For example, there's a guy who recently reviewed "Ybor Secrets" in Tampa and referred to it as "Ybor Strip." Location he gave was clearly for Secrets but info was either really out-dated (he referred to an afternoon dance at a club that now doesn't open until 6 p.m.) or mixed up.
I have been to quite a few clubs and I love to read the reviews of those clubs to see how they compare with my own experience. For the most part, they are quite compatible and therefore I think these reviews are FOR THE MOST PART pretty accurate. Sure, some of the reviews are adverts in disguise, and some reviewers will totally diss a club just because HE had an annoying personal experience with a doorman or a dancer (BAD ETIQUETTE IMHO) but if we filter out these outliers, I do believe we can get A LOT OF USEFUL INFORMATION from the reviews.
Shadowcat's comment that knowing the reviewer personally is a NON SEQUITER of the first magnitude. 99% of all the people that post on this site know NONE of the other reviewers fer chrissakes. I will give Shadowcat the benefit of the doubt that he knows several reviewers personally but that is TOTALLY IRRELEVANT (sorry Shadowcat)
Admittedly, the rating numbers are VERY subjective. But they can be valuable if you see many of them over a period of time. I would avoid a bikini club that consistently got 2's and 3's, and direct my time toward a club that gets 8's and 9's. I'm suspicious of 10's (Cheap beer gets a 10....at a strip club!)
When I am getting ready to visit a club for the first time, I will read lots of reviews in order to get a general feeling as to what that club is all about, and whether it is a club I will enjoy. I probably won't bother to visit if it reviews like a waste of time and money to me. Case in point: I needed to be out in western Kansas a couple of Friday's ago. Did I want to come back east a little later and swing thru Scranton, KS to visit one of my old fav's the Trop 56 Club? I had been out there earlier this summer, and they didn't have a new liquor license after a change in ownership. Me, two underage guys shootin' pool, one girl who weighed more than me....big waste of gas. Well, Thurs night I got on TUSCL, found out that Trop got it's new liquor license. Stopped by, had lots of fun. Thanks TUSCL reviewer for that timely update. (Probably could have called, but this is easier)
I read reviews on out of town clubs that I like to visit when I travel. I can keep track of what's going on at that club. I find complaints amusing, because I have usually experienced those same annoying things that the reviewer complains about. For example, the I will attest to the fact that the restroom at Dolly's in ESL was probably the dirtiest place on earth. This fact was well-documented right here on TUSCL. I have learned, by reading reviews, that they had a fire at Dollies earlier in the year, and as part of the remodel, the restroom got rebuilt and is cleaner now. One of these days I will visit Dollies again, and I will not be surprised that the restroom is cleaner (or newer anyway) - not real important to me, but it's nice to know. AND, I gained that knowledge by reading reviews right here at TUSCL.
I will probably plan an ESL trip later this year, and when I get there I know I will have about the same level of fun as I have had in the past, BECAUSE, I have been keeping up with reading the reviews of ESL clubs right here at TUSCL.
I don't write many reviews. Primarily because I only frequent one club these days. I don't travel as much as I used to, but when I do, I will be sure to write home.
I probably should review my fav club (or the girls) more often, but others have been doing a pretty accurate job of it lately. But, like a 12-step program, it's important to convey my experiences so that you can learn from my successes and failures.
I'll go visit that club later in the week and write a fresh review of that day's experience.
Reviews can be entertaining, and some of them can actually be informative and helpful. Discernment is required to sort the wheat from the chaff, and sometimes even a critical reader can be thrown by a bogus review, but I think most reviewers try to provide helpful info.
When I go to a new city I always read the reviews and choose a club based on them. Also, when considering going to a club that I have not been to for awhile I will check the reviews to see if things may have changed. I find the reviews generally accurate but often disagree with the numerical ratings. I think that the numerical ratings are of little value because everybody places different emphsasis on different things. Some look for alcohol, others look for extras, etc.
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