I voluntary upped my fee to my regulars. Being a landlord myself, I understand some of the issues faced by spas. I had a chat with one regular who may be forced to close down the spa when her lease expires. The landlord is actually actively encouraging her to move out sooner so that he can raise the rent sooner to new tenants; the landlord is citing his own issues, i.e. rents not enough to cover new mortgage payments. She may be returning to home base or outright retires. Generally speaking the cost of paying commercial rent, utilities, licenses are simply too much, unless you have a legion of girls working, it is not worth it.
It is a business, depending on how "nice" the spa is, it may take upwards of $600-800 per day to cover fixed costs like rent, utilities etc. Not to mention the $100k or more in leasehold improvements. If you only have two or three girls working for a few sessions each, the $80 base fee is only enough to cover rent, they take home nothing. You need a legion of girls or a lot of extras to make it work. I sense that we are going to see a rate hike among spas, a thinning of spa selections and a move of more home base operators as existing leases expire. I for one would hate the rate hikes but would welcome more home base operators.