15 replies to this topic

[Haloi]

If you were going to start a gogo bar in Thailand that you thought would be different enough to attract a lot of new business, what would you do or offer that you can't find in most bars today ?

I will start the suggestions with something we used to see here years ago in some Pattaya bars and that made me a regular at these bars all year: a favored customer membership discount card that you buy on an annual basis and that gives you substantial discounts on drinks and offs in the bar. It's a way for a bar to develop a regular clientele through the off-season and make its regular customers feel like they are appreciated.

[luvthai]

First thing you do is make sure you don't need the income from a bar to survive on. Second you find the best thai bar manager you can find and pay him and your staff well. Location Location location is the key. You don't have to do something the others don't,you just need to do what they are doing better than they are. Most bars start out good but lose the vitality after a short time. You need to find ways to keep your bar and staff energized even during slow times. Have drawings thru the night. The ole Charlie's bar in Boystown held nightly drawings and they were fun. If someone could create what the ole MidNight Cowboy had in bangkok or even the ole Cockpit in boystown then he would be on he right track.

[A friend]

I will start the suggestions with something we used to see here years ago in some Pattaya bars and that made me a regular at these bars all year: a favored customer membership discount card that you buy on an annual basis and that gives you substantial discounts on drinks and offs in the bar.

Funny Boys in Boyztown, that already undercut much of the competition on drink prices, have a membership discount card. 500 baht gets you life membership and a 10% discount on drinks.

The card also gets you a 10% discount in Panorama, Amor, Googies, and the Balcony Pub and Telephone Pub in Bangkok.

This might not be the 'substantial' discount you were thinking of, but it wouldn't take long to recoup your outlay and start making savings.

[Hedda]

I always wonder if our memories of what the bars used to be like when we were just discovering Thailand are no different than any of the "good old days" that everyone growing old feels about the past. Maybe the bars were no better than the grass is less greener now. It's very possible that some virgin visitor would find that the bars and boys are still pretty much the same. It's we who have changed. One thing for sure: you can't go home.

Having said that, I do think that the gogo bars have lost an element of being fun, in an entertainment sense. The bars used to be full of young men who loved to dance with that exuberance that only young people can have. Now, they more resemble a hapless parade of musically disadvantaged veal cutlets on display by some humorless butcher. I think any new bar that could recapture that old sense of fun and entertainment would be a real winner.

[Gaybutton]

I completely agree with both Hedda and Luvthai. If it were my bar I would include their ideas, especially the part about go-go boys actually dancing and at least appearing to enjoy themselves. No "one-knee shufflers."

There are a few other things I would want:

1. No smoking, period. Despite the fact that I'm a smoker, those who wish to smoke would have to go outside.

2. Reasonable prices for drinks and "off."

3. No pushy mama-sans.

4. Boys sit with you only if you ask. No aggressive boys inviting themselves to sit with you.

5. Comfortable seating.

6. No drag shows. There might be bar shows if customers want them, but different from "the usual."

7. All boys would have to be 18 or over and would have to be able to prove it. If a customer wants to take a boy "off," then the boy would be required to produce his ID card.

8. If a boy receives a tip from a customer, he gets to keep it . . . all of it.

9. Music at a comfortable level. Nobody would have to leave with their ears throbbing from an excessively high volume.

10. Adequate air conditioning at a comfortable level.

11. Bartenders actually trained and capable of making cocktails properly. If someone orders a Whiskey Sour, a Margarita, a Martini, a Manhattan, or whatever, he gets one . . . a good one.

12. No aggressive touts trying to grab people from the streets or shouting "Have boy, sexy boy!" I'd try not to even have any touts at all.

13. Spotlessly clean toilets.

14. Reservations allowed. I don't know if any of the bars still do this, but years ago there were several bars at which if there was a boy a customer really liked he could call the bar and "reserve" the boy. The customer was obliged to show up by a specified time. If he didn't, then the boy would be free to go "off" with someone else.

[Khor tose]

GB, I like your ideas. Open a go-go bar like this and I would be a regular. What is a reasonable "off" fee, and how much should the drinks be?

[Gaybutton]

GB, I like your ideas. Open a go-go bar like this and I would be a regular. What is a reasonable "off" fee, and how much should the drinks be?

In my opinion the "off" fee should be what it used to be . . . 200 baht.

Since I'm not a bar owner, I have no idea what the drink prices ought to be, but I do know that some bars are serving drinks at prices between 95 to 99 baht, and they seem to be doing just fine.

[wowpow]

I think that there are a few things that would attract the crowds.

There is one key to a successful bar and that is the boys. If you can crack how to get a range of handsome guys and gal'ettes so that you have something for everyone and then maintain that you will have it made. I am thinking back to Funny Boys 2 and Wild West openings when they did achieve this. The word went around and the places were packed from early evening.

Another thing is recognition and hostmanship which is particularly important for regulars. A friend was telling me how much he liked Memories bar under the old regime as the owner chatted and introduced people to each other. I think this is far more important than loyalty discounts. I have discount cards for bars and restaurants and nearly always forget to use them and I feel slightly embarrassed to do so. It seems to me that the successful places always have an owner keeping a close eye on how the place is running.

I wonder how price sensitive customers are? There are prices that upset - I had a light lunch with a friend in Jomtien Complex recently and we gasped when we were charged 400 baht for 4 diet cokes, though, being American, he still tipped a generous 10%+. I hear people objecting to paying over 150 baht for a drink and a show but I think that's cheap.

[Chuck]

I visited Pattaya for the first time last month and must have visited over
10 bars and clubs. I found most of the bars in Sunee Plaza to be seedy and run-down, real slumsville, with the exception of one place where the guys danced on top of the tables.

The bars in the boystown area were more "upscale" but even there, thay had a certain worn or unattended look about them that indicated to me a certain lack of pride in the establishment. With rare exceptions, the bathrooms were all the pits, dirty and disgusting.It's obvious that no health inspections are being made. As a smoker myself, I didn't mind the smoke in the bars but I can see where non-smokers would find the lack of ventillation in many of these places very bad.

I spent 10 days in bangkok before leaving and I dont think there's any doubt that the boys in Bangkok are a lot better looking and better endowed. The bars also seem less seedy with better upkeep.

[Franco]

For sure there are just a few bars in town who are farang friendly.

There is a bar who comes close to the wishes of some posters on this board.

Yes its funny boys.

No loud music, not to soft music, no smoking boys, comfortable luxurious seating.discount cards available,good selection of boys in nice tide white undies( they could however be a little more handsome)

Funny boys the number one farang friendly bar in town.

Good manager a real funny boy.

Hopefully the blue sky bar will be a good running non smoking bar. I wish wild west boys wouldn't allow their boys to smoke.

My advise to bars are, do not make your prices to expensive. 130 baht for a glass of water is to expensive and customers will not come back. Make happy hour prices so your bar will be busy more early. Do not allow your boys to smoke.

[Gaybutton]

There is one key to a successful bar and that is the boys. If you can crack how to get a range of handsome guys and gal'ettes

That's the hard part. Everyone has his own ideas as to what constitutes handsome. Quite often I'm with friends who start raving over boys I wouldn't give a second glance to. The same friends don't see anything at all in the boys I think are fabulous looking. Since handsome is a question of individual taste, it's difficult to decide which boys are attractive and which are not. I often see posts that say something to the effect of, "What happened to all the good looking boys? They used to be plentiful. Now it's hard to find any." Did a universal concept of what defines "handsome" come into being when I wasn't looking? So, from where I sit getting that range of handsome guys and gal'ettes would be the most difficult thing to successfully accomplish.

[Haloi]

Everyone has his own ideas as to what constitutes handsome.

Lots of farangs are looking in the bars for good sex, not a handsome face. I don't think there's much dispute that it's a lot more difficult to find good sex in the gogo bars these days, compared to years ago. It's got little to be with being "handsome." For me, it's more an attitude problem, where the boys and the owners don't much care to please the customer in the bar - or in bed.

[Gaybutton]

For me, it's more an attitude problem, where the boys and the owners don't much care to please the customer in the bar - or in bed.

A bar owner might be able to exercise some guidelines as to how the boys treat customers within the bars, but I don't see how a bar owner can be held responsible for the performance of a boy once you are in private quarters. It's the luck of the draw. Some boys are magnificent in private and others are total duds. If the boy turns out to be a dud, what can the bar owner do about it, even if he was inclined to do something about it?

[pete1969]

I like GB's list except I like a good cabaret show any day over a tired sex show, especially if there are cute boy dancers in the show.

My favorite bar in Thailand is My Way in Phuket. It is a fun bar where the boys on stage dance, the show is usually high energy with great costumes, the toilets are very clean and have an attendant, and the decor is very nice.

However, what I have always liked best is that the owners and the manager really know how to treat customers, especially return customers. I have had so many drinks bought for me in that bar that I can't even count. Heck, the owner has even bought me entire bottles on several occassions. The bar also passes out free tequila shots on most nights. Plus, drinks are 100 baht and off fee is 200 baht.

No matter where I am in the world, I like bars where I have fun and where I feel well treated by the staff.

Pete

[Gaybutton]

However, what I have always liked best is that the owners and the manager really know how to treat customers, especially return customers.

I agree with that. The true "fun" aspect seems to have fizzled out in many of the bars and it seems more like a meat parade than anything else, to me, with "farang" window shopping for boys that suit them. As far as I'm concerned, the only real difference between most bars are which heads are on top of which bodies. Other than that, it's mostly all the same thing . . . boys on the stage, just standing there or doing a half-hearted "one-knee shuffle," looking like for all the world as if they would rather be somewhere else, with an audience of a few dour looking "farang" who seem to think it must be illegal or something just to crack a smile once in a while, with music so loud that you literally have to shout just to be heard by the person sitting right next to you. Not exactly my idea of whoopee.

I've also seen too many instances of mama-sans angrily disciplining boys, right in front of everybody. If I were a bar owner I would never allow that. If a mama-san is having a problem with any of the boys, then I would insist that he take the boy aside and privately discuss the problem, but I would also insist that I, as the bar owner, be personally present to be certain that the boy is being treated fairly and to understand what the problem is. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I think a bar owner has a responsibility to make sure that all of his employees are being treated as human beings, not just "dime-a-dozen" dancers whose lives mean nothing more than a street dog.

Some of you may remember the Moonlight Bar in Pattaya. That's the one that used to be on Second Road, about half a block north of Pattayaland, Soi 1. That bar used to have contests and raffles for free "offs" and free drinks as I recall. If any bars are still doing anything similar, I haven't found them.

One idea that seems to be generally agreed upon on this thread is that the fun these bars used to be has somehow faded and it needs to be restored.

[Steve1903]

I've only had the pleasure of being over there a couple of times I admit, but I never did see a "decent cabaret show" in any of the bars. The lip synch thing doesn't do it for me.