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'“Pay what you think it’s worth” massages – guilt trip pricing?' blog discussion

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  • megababe18 wrote: »
    My friend Sandra used to work for a massage company that did 10 minute back and shoulder massages in pubs and clubs - with the caveat that she get's paid what they then the massage was worth. This is what she said: "the company we worked for had arrangements with the bar staff, which meant we were kept safe and supervised. In exchance, it took half our earnings - above a £5 per hour mimimum. Yes there was flirtng and banter, but that adds to what is a social experience. it is not meant to be therapy, it is a quick boost tog et the circulation flowing and relax the recepient to a small degree. If someone was very drunk in a club you avoid them because they would be touchy-feely or might throw up afterwards.

    "The pay what you think its worth is a good system - although you will meet lots of people who abuse it. i've been paid £1.50 or less on many occasions, but ofcourse you get paid a lot sometimes - especially if someone really enjoys the massage! It is a fair system which encourages the masseuse to provide a good service - and as for getting over paid -we spend a lot of time convincing customers to try the product, so it is not fair to assume we are raking it in!"

    I've had a massage from her and her colleagues before - I paid £5 for the experience and felt that it was value for money. She tells me that women tend to pay less than men in suits!


    I am an Indian Head massage (or cham!!!!age practitioner) and have reservations re the wisdom of practising this on anyone you suspect my have had/or be going to have a drink or drugs. Massage stimulates the circulation and lymphatic system to release toxins and if you input more you'll have a nasty headache and possibly be even more ill than that. People often have underlying medical conditions that you won't know about or they may not think to tell you about. I have taken a full history before only to have the person tell me after her treatment of a serious previous arm injury. Had I known I would have altered my treatment accordingly or even avoided mobilising that arm. I have also had someone really want this treatment and even insist on having it when, in fact, they had a recent fracture which I only found out by being able to read their medical notes.
    This is why I never do a treatment, even a free one, on anyone without taking a history and I would even go so far as to say I would not even do a free one without being fully insured-just in case a subsequent issue was raised regarding an alleged side-effect and the massage.
  • Hey guyss. I too am a Massage Angel. :A and wanted to have a little input. i've been with the company for almost 2 years and absolutely love my job, i have worked on P&O ferries and currently work in bluewater. I have a diploma in indian head massage, which is what our massage is based on and that is the qualification I received before I was allowed to work for the company. we are all fully insured by the company aswell. we are all taught about muscles and contraindictations etc, however we do not offer a deep tissue massage or do we ever advertise our services to people with injuries. ive had several people come up to me saying that they hurt their back or slept funny on their neck etc and asked if i can help them and i will always turn away a customer with any injuries because the point of our massage is to make you feel relaxed and re energised.

    the reason we offer a pay what you feel its worth service is because as one of the other girls said. it motivates us to give the best service we possibly can, and the reason we set a guideline price is because then the customer can enjoy the massage and doesnt have to worry about what they think they should pay during the massage etc, £10 is also a guideline because most customers genuinly pay £10 i have had a lot of customers pay me £5 or less and i never pressure them into giving me more money. i have also received up to £50 for one massage. My massage normally lasts between 15-20 minutes and i never expect anyone to pay more money for it. i love knowing that a customer is enjoying my massage and it normally lasts longer because i want to give the best massage!

    what a lot of people dont realise is that our job is bloody hard! lol. its very difficult to get customers when shopping centres aren't busy especially during january and we get a lot of stick from people ie "does it come with a happy ending"..no, no it does not, and no you are not at all original for asking me that. finally we get paid by customers and pay shift fees, i have worked 13 hour shifts and gone home with £20 for the entire day. i hope you guys understand that were not trying to rip anyone off. i love my job because the girls i work with are amazing and it is a lot of fun. and i too have never had anyone complain about the way our service works. I hope some of you will come and try it out for yourselves because i have been told by a lot of customers that my massage is the best they have ever had :j which is always nice.

    have a lovely week and sorry i couldn't be bothered to grammar check it :/

    xxx
  • I used to work for Ibiza angels about 3 years ago.

    I worked on the ferry crossings from dover to calais and some days i did earn a lot of money compared to a bar job. An average day was about 150 pounds and the fee paid to the company was 50 pounds.

    I will add that it was negotiable, if you had a bad day, to pay less than this but that was rare. some girls i know did not even break even some days after travel costs. it's a really stressful job having no guarranteed earnings.

    another thing i will add is that i don't think I actually did have proper training. The "in house" training is just demonstration of the sequence and then 10 "case studies" so actually you could be paying for a "professional" to massage you who really is not! this may have now changed as i do know other angels who had IHM diplomas but it was the case back then.

    the average I received would genuinely be 10 pounds and the most i received was 60 pounds for one massage. the most money i made in one day was 300 pounds. i think that if you are good at the job, confident and attractive it's a great marketing method but i will never do such a job again as it is embarrassing having to approach people.

    Hope this cleared some stuff up. I wouldn't recommend working for this company unless you really have the confidence. Also I tested some colleagues massages and they varied from amazing to completely rubbish so you never really know what you are going to get ;)

    Rosie
  • A small handful of the girls have other qualifications but the training consists of learning a 10 minute routine. 2 hours training is apparently enough for girls who have never massaged before.
    These girls are not particularly safe but have got away with it up until now.
    And having worked for them and tried many girls' massages, some are nice, some are awful, none are particularly effective.
    It is a sleazy company in my opinion and I am so glad not to be working for them any more.
  • having done the 'training' myself you get about 6 hours training. Luckily I am a qualified massage therapist but many of them were young girls and some had no experience whatsoever. Not good. I haven't worked for them at all yet and I am not sure I will.
  • I think it is extremely important to note that Absolutely – quality, experience and professionalism are vitally important. Many in our team were massage therapists before joining the company and every member of the team goes through a rigorous training programme before becoming an approved Ibiza Angel. We’re members of the Complementary Medical Association and all of the Angels are also fully insured.'

    It is silly for those to think that masseurs would just pop up and be so successful with out any knowledge of the law or the correct principles of massage training , like they hire jus some girls off the street to give slap dash massages. some people are just really ignorant.
    im sure they would not have been accepted by the medical association if they hadnt proved they were providing a safe service to random public members.
  • Its a shame that people are so easy to judge criticise and make assumptions without even having much evidence based knowledge of the company or what they are discussing.

    Thats why the media so easily brainwashes people as they know thats how people are. and my opinion is if you dont like the idea or think its extortionate then dont go as there are a million things that cost what people dont want to pay but they stil do if its something they want.

    and im confident that with ibiza angels history they are doing all things in the correct way. and i big up the founder as any interprenuer that has been this successful with such a great effortless idea, that has grown bigger than was expected through peoples want for it, is obviously doing something right.

    iim sure they would have crashed along time ago if it was harmful extortionate or bad in anyway.

    and last but not least jus coz all the angels are gorgeous doesn't mean they are not professionals or well educated with great skills for health and well being of others.
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