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Thread: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

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    Banned LauraLove's Avatar
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    Default Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    I believe we have at least one club owner (BigDaddy) on Stripperweb so I was wondering if he or any other club owners could answer the following question since it was being debated earlier this week.

    Do you make more at the door than your maintenance and operation costs? Or in other words do you profit or break even, etc., at the door?

    I have been told that the door fee usually covers maintenance of the property and that clubs rarely make alot, if any profit from the door. Others have been told this as well. Is it true?

    Thanks !

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    Featured Member Meea's Avatar
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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    I think sometimes they do it to weed out cheapskates

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    Yeah, I have often wondered how regular bars and nightclubs manage to stay in business with lower door and drink prices, without charging$ their staff to work

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    our door charge is like $120
    so I mean they do make a lot from the door...

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    I can tell you for a fact that the cover charges collected by most feature clubs do in fact exceed the fee paid to the feature by the club !

    However, in general, the cover charge in non-feature clubs is not intended to be a huge profit maker. My take is that clubowners collect the cover charge #1 as a means of discouraging total cheapskates from coming into the club, buying two drinks, and ogling the dancers for the next hour without tipping and without spending additional $$$ for private dances etc. Also clubowners collect cover charges #2 as a means of getting an up-close look at new customers before they are allowed into the club - which theoretically provides a means for clubowners to spot potential troublemakers before trouble starts.

    In non-feature clubs, cover charges might comprise enough income to pay for the night's utility bills and staff salaries, but it certainly doesn't make the mortgage payment. However, the serious money is made by the bar (massive markups on drink prices in clubs with liquor licenses). And increasingly, clubs are augmenting their income by increasing the 'stage fees/house fees' which each dancer must pay before being allowed to work a shift, or by taking a 'cut' of customers' private dance and champagne room money (the bread and butter of nude clubs without liquor licenses).

    The economics of a typical non-feature club might go like this ...

    customers per night = 300
    dancers per night = 30
    average private dance price $20
    average number of private dances bought per customer 2
    average drink price $5
    average number of drinks bought per customer 3

    total cover charges collected $5 each = $1500 all profit
    total drink revenue $4500 less cost $1000 = $3500 net profit
    if a $50 'stage fee' is charged instead of private dance % = $1500 all profit
    if club charges 25% of private dances instead of a 'stage fee' = $3000 all profit

    as you can see, the cover charge money is fairly small potatoes
    Last edited by Melonie; 01-02-2005 at 06:08 AM.

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    Senior Member Ashara's Avatar
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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    Quote Originally Posted by Meea
    I think sometimes they do it to weed out cheapskates
    I heard this too. It keeps all the yobbos out here in OZ...

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    Senior Member Ashara's Avatar
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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    What about memberships? Do American clubs tend to give out meberships? The club I'm dancing at in Sydney has memberships and the members get in for free and get bonuses like special shows and stuff like that.

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    It all goes into the same pot. Cover charges, parking fees, dancer house fees, per dance fees, private room fees, food sales (or whatever the take is on food sales, often times it's outsourced) Clubs make the vast majority of money from liquor sales and the goal obviously is for as much of that to be profit as possible. The cover charges etc. go towards overhead.

    In the heyday of Boston's old Combat Zone there where 20 clubs in a 2 or 3 block radius-none of them ever charged a cover-day or nite. Of course, none of those clubs ever spent a dime on improvements either.

    There is only one club in Providence that charges a cover during the daytime. They claim this to keep out the riff-raff. You can drive a city bus through this place on any afternoon with no danger of hitting a customer.
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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    Heh, the trend I'm seeing lately is not an either/or situation regarding flat dancer fees and private dance cuts. The trend I'm seeing lately is for clubs to charge BOTH. A flat fee just for to be there AND a cut of private dance money. Every club I've worked in the last 2+ years has done this. Can we say double greed?

    Boy it was nice to only be charged a flat fee, and have staff payments mostly left to your own discretion

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    It is my understanding that most clubs make the bulk of their profits from drink sales. For example, a bottle of Evian costs over 100x more when the customer buys it than what it costs the club to buy it.

    But anyway, I'm still hoping an actual club owner will pipe in here on my original question. I would very much appreciate their info so the argument of whether door fee's end up as profit or not. I have been told by GM's one thing but several customers and a DJ here on StripperWeb have disagreed with the information I gathered from the GM. I am pretty sure I am correct on this subject but I would like to hear a solid yes or no from the horses mouth, so to speak.

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    I seriously doubt any GM will tell any stripper the truth, the whole truth. And I seriously doubt any owner will come on here and tell the truth either. Wouldn't want to risk incriminating themselves with the IRS, or actually letting us know exactly how badly they're screwing over their dancers

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    LOL ! You have a point there Bridgette, but I'm just looking to find out if they make more at the door than maintenance and operation costs. Or in other words do they profit or break even, etc., at the door. No actual numbers are needed.

    I'm just trying to settle a previous argument on what the cover charge actually covers

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    Bridgette raises another invaluable point here. The IRS! Club owners are not going to give out this kind of financial info since, in many cases, they are not declaring the revenue derived from cover charges, fees etc. In any event. Owners do what they do and clubs charge what they charge. The most common response to any dissagreement in policy is usually "go work/spend someplace else if you don't like it".
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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    No real financial info is needed to answer my question. Therefor the IRS is of no worry.

    I'm just looking to find out if they make more at the door than maintenance and operation costs.

    I don't need to know where the club is or what the name of it is; or what the cover charge is or what the maintenance and operation costs are; just if the annual take on door fees is more or less than the annual maintenance and operation costs.

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    Just an edumacated guess here because I have not worked at every club in the country,but lower end and mid level clubs often do not claim door fees in with the "take".
    Its unreported income.
    Its NOT just strip clubs,its ALL clubs that charge a cover!!!
    How many people do you know that get paid at the end of the night,this is usually where it comes from.Unreported income to pay for unreported employee.
    Its also where the owner gets his pocket money.Its an owners ATM basically.
    Even in top clubs and chain clubs,the door fee's are always played with.

    If a club only gets 20-40 people a night,no,its not paying for much.If the club is getting 300-500 people in the door,its paying for alot.

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    I don't own a club, but would like to someday. If I had a high cover it would only be in place to make sure the club is always in good shape.

    I'm running short on time will add more later.
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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    I work in a pub club and am speaking from what happens at my club regarding door charge.

    The door charge that our club charges goes 100% into the dancers' pockets. This is in the form of paid stage dances which work on a rotational basis i.e. each time a dancer goes on stage, she gets paid a fixed amount. This is because our stage shows are 2-song nude acts and if a customer is admitted into the club, they therefore indirectly pay us for their stageside entertainment, even if they don't buy private dances.

    Management make 100% of their profits from selling drinks. They sell more drinks than most average bars because, albeit the fact that British drinking culture is a big thing, the men generally prefer to drink more when they are having lapdances. I think it also has a lot to do with the fact that we don't jack up the drinks charges just because we also offer lapdancers (something which a lot of lapdancing establishments cannot say).

    The only time that door cover benefits the club is when the dancers have to pay a certain amount on certain nights to cover door security or if there have been so many customers that there is money from the door left over. The club then keeps that for themselves.

    Sounds a bit crazy that this method works. It's the only club whereby I know of that are this generous to their dancers. Not only that, but the club is also in very good shape and one of the top two in the city in terms of earnings and customers. It is a prime example that goes to show that you don't need to charge a lot in form of commission, house fee, tips or whatever to keep the club busy and running smoothly.




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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    I dunno, in Bmore there was no cover charge during the day, when I mostly worked. Which was goodly, but I found the customers who were "opposed to paying a cover charge" were also opposed to paying more than $5 for their time spent there. I don't know what cover was on other shifts.

    In NY Mon-Wed cover was $10 and you got a free lap dance ticket - which the dancers cashed in for $5 each. Was pretty good. Thur-Sat was $12, everything went to the club, from there I don't know it's path. I would say it was small in comparison to how much the dancers brought in, at $20 fee + $10/lapdance, and some dancers doing 20+ dances on a weekend night. Drinks were fairly inexpensive, non-alcoholic $3, lowshelf mixed or beer no more than $6 (beer was between $2.50 and $5), and top-shelf mixed never more than $8. Yeah, some of their money was from drink sales, but I'd say the average customer would spend around $10 on drinks - and we never got more than 30 customers.
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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    Cover charge in gentlemen’s clubs is calculated pretty much the same as airfare in the airline industry, whatever the public is willing to accept. Similar clubs in the same town will generally charge about the same cover. The best club in town with the hottest dancers will generally charge more and the dives will charge less or nothing. Basically whatever you can get away with while still attracting dancers and customers.

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    Quote Originally Posted by Spidey
    Cover charge in gentlemen’s clubs is calculated pretty much the same as airfare in the airline industry, whatever the public is willing to accept. Similar clubs in the same town will generally charge about the same cover. The best club in town with the hottest dancers will generally charge more and the dives will charge less or nothing. Basically whatever you can get away with while still attracting dancers and customers.
    Completely true but that wasn't eally the question.

    The question is : does the annual income from cover charges equal less , the same or more than the annual cost of running the club ?

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    tiger, you are back?

    welcome back!

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    There is no way of accurately stating if the annual income from cover charges equals less, the same or more than the annual cost of running a club. Each club will have their own business plan and income derived from cover charges will be a part of that business plan, the same as floor fees and drink sales.

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    Typical clubowner answer without answering.

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bridgette
    Typical clubowner answer without answering.
    heheheheheheheh
    Go gettum B!!!!!

    I would guess he isnt a club owner though before ya sink yer teeth into him,no club owner in his right mind would touch this post with a ten foot pole!!!

    I think what he is saying is that there are way to many variebles to really answer this question correctly and with a blanket statement that would cover most clubs.
    Does the club own the building or pay by the square foot etc,whats the footage etc.Are you heating a club in alaska or texas,etc.Are you airconditioning a club in Hawaii or Arizona,etc.?
    How many people in the door average,whats the seating limit etc,the differences are endless ,making the absolute question ,absolutely impossible to answer.Absolutely!lol

    Yes the cover charge can pay for alot.
    If you figure 10 bucks a head,300 people in the door,thats 3000 a night in cash,no overhead other then 5-6 dollars an hour for a cashier to collect it.
    x 30 days a month=90,000 dollars.
    does anyone work in a club that cost more then 90K to run a month??
    Even if you cut that in half,I can still pay the bills in 99% of the clubs in the country with that.

    I will agree with LL about boozes sales being the big ticket.The club pays about 6-15 dollars a bottle,35-45 shots in each bottle at 4-7 dollars a shot,thats a great profit margine!
    But thats all on paper and is a little harder to mess with.Booze and food are always looked at,the door isnt.


    The door cover charge has always been,and probably always will be,the owners ATM.

    All he has to do is say 250 instead of 300 came thru the door.

    Its tax free money for an owner.The IRS and ABC board wont stand at the door and count how many people come in.

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    Default Re: Question for Club Owners on cover charge.

    One thing the door fee doesnt cover is the show. Just like at the fair , if you want to see the shows and ride the rides, you gotta pay to play.

    What you pay at the gate only gets you in

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