Questions about being a Hostess?

Hi everyone, i've spent some time now on and off on different accounts in the past year or so dancing in clubs as a stripper and to be quite honest i'm just so bored of it. I do still want to do some kind of paying work, because i can't afford to put money into my SL account even though i wish i could. So i was wondering about maybe trying to be a Hostess, i have taken a class a long time ago, which in my opinion was not worth the money i paid for it. So i'm asking for a little advice.

How do i get started as a Hostess, how do i know which are good clubs to work for and what kind of things would i need to be a hostess?

/me starts the countdown clock until a certain poster posts an ad for her "school".

haha Chris i know who you mean and ummm that's the school i already attended. So not really interested in her class.

Rihanna - a hostess for what, exactly? This may be just me being naive, I freely admit, but what do you want to "hostess"?

Well i meant a Hostess at events but i'm open for suggestions of anything?

Just in case land barony ever falls flat, maybe I better watch this thread.

Never know when you might need a second hustle to make ends meet...

There is this new continent that everyone is dying to relocate to ... they will need someone to show them around.

Your best bet is to attend various club events and watch how people host. Pick out things you think work, and things you believe a person could improve upon. If you have a favorite club, hang out there and get to know people. If you find out who the manager or owner is, talk to them about giving you a chance.

A friend of mine just became my Monday night host because she had a few event ideas, and loves the club where I play on weekends.

The main thing you do as a host is keep people engaged. Talk to them. Make sure conversations happen. Greet everyone and welcome them to the club. Make sure you let people know that it would be cool to tip the staff, tell them what event they're at, and tell them about upcoming events, if you know them. You also add people to the group, make sure any problems or issues with guests only happen in IM, and generally support your DJ and dancers.

When I DJ, I also host. . .even if there's a host already present. It's more about keeping people interested, and feeling like they belong, than anything else.

The more involved you are the more tips you get. This doesn't mean spamming with gestures, because that irritates a lot of people.

IM me inworld sometime. I'd be happy to invite you to one of my gigs. My hosts are very friendly and very professional, and would be happy to tell you more about the job.

But it's NEW and IMPROVED!

Seriously, my "Sex and Relationships" class isn't what you're looking for in this case. It would be good if you were looking to be a dancer, but not a hostess.

A hostess can have several duties, and it depends on the club. You might...

- Act as the club manager. Make sure the girls are happy and that the rotation schedule will make sure there is some action going on at all times. Recruit new employees.

- Arrange for DJs, and provide assistance to them in getting set up, connecting their music stream, etc.

- Act as security. Maintain decorum, make sure any club rules (no weapons, no chat spamming gestures, whatever) are enforced.

- Greet the guests as they arrive. (You will always do this, whatever other tasks you may have). Make sure they feel welcome. Check with them every once in a while to make sure they are having a good time.

- Offer group invitations to new patrons.

- Encourage the patrons to participate in any contests or events the club has, like sploders.

- A lot of hostesses also shout reminders to tip the DJ and/or the club donation jar. Lots of patrons find this annoying, however. If you do, find some pleasant way to get your point across.

Since you have already worked in some clubs as a stripper, why not ask to hostess in one of those places? Have one of the other workers show you how to operate whatever event board they use. Check out Sl community/events about posting events, which is the other primary task for a hostess, besides actually running them. Most places I have worked or hung out hire the dancers or the patrons to host, since they are already familiar with the place and known.

I agree with the suggestions already given - go to various clubs and pay attention to how the hostesses there work. If you're still dancing, watch the hosts/hostesses at your club's events.

When I was a hostess, my duties included:

- Showing up early before the event to set the music stream (if there was no DJ) and send out group notices;
- Greeting each guest as they arrived, sending out group invitations (my least favorite part of the job because I hate feeling pushy - many clubs now ask guests to IM the host/ess for a tag if they want one), letting newcomers know where the dance ball was, and informing people of the formal dress code if necessary;
- Setting up the contest board (if there was a contest), reminding guests to vote, and closing the contest and congratulating the winner at the end of an event;
- MOST IMPORTANTLY, keeping conversation flowing and making everyone feel welcome and included. The owners' pet peeve was silent zombie clubs with everyone in IM and no chat. We didn't pester people if they felt like being quiet, but all our regulars knew our events were a place to go if you were looking for real, intelligent people to talk to.
- At the end, thanking everyone for coming, inviting them to explore the sim, and letting them know when the next event was. We had no dancers, and the owner was the DJ, so we never asked guests to tip anyone. (If someone did tip us, of course we thanked them.) There was a donation box for the club - if it was mentioned at all, it was once, quietly, at the end of an event, and we thanked guests as they made a donation.



The best way to spot a club that would be good to work for is to find one that you enjoy hanging out in. Get to know the owners and the regulars and decide if this is a group of people you'd like to spend several hours a week with. Keep in mind that the club scene can attract quite a lot of drama, but you probably already know that.



The only things I needed that I didn't already have were notecards with info like how to change the music stream, how to run the contest board, etc, and a radar HUD so I could spot people as they arrived and know if they were within chat range. (Oh, and a bit of on-the-job training, but hopefully your club owner will explain club policies and have someone experienced attend your first few events.)

I was given a few gestures and made a few myself, mainly with information such as how to find the dance ball, where our free formal attire was available, how to enter the contest, etc. I would usually type those things out, but if there was a crush of people and conversation to keep up with it was good to have them available on the spot. We avoided multi-line gestures and ASCII art.

The confidence and poise to confront people politely and ask them to comply with the rules of the club/stop doing something, and the knowledge to eject or ban those few who just won't listen. I never had to kick anyone, thankfully, but if some dolt is streaking through your club naked spamming chat, you're the one who gets to deal with it.

Those, and enough clothes/hairstyles to dress for events. That can really cut into your earnings - but if you're working to pay for shopping, it works out. If you know how to pull together a look, you can do a lot with freebies. Also, if your club owners also own a clothing store, you can frequently get discounts or outfits to wear to events and promote the store.

Just, please don't do like a hostess at a certain popular PG rated club does. Please do not rely exclusively on all capital letter canned greetings and randomly played gestures stacked one on top of the other, so that the actual guests' chat (or attempts to) disappears from the screen before anyone can read it.

In fact please have a formal ceremony 'burying' every baby-laugh, every 'dancing stick figure' and every Hoo in Second Life. Instead of mourners and sad hymns, make it a New Orleans-style party to celebrate.

You forgot the most important duties...

- Keep the chat bots running.

- Run a script that highlights (echos in IM) anything a real human (any patron who is not one of your bots) says in chat, so you can see it over the noise the bots make

- If a human speaks to a bot, switch windows to that bot and type a response

- If a human mis-spells a greeting and your automatic greeter isn't smart enough to greet new arrivals regardless, you'll have to manually greet him, and maybe do the same with a couple bots

- You'll have to run at least one full client, because sometimes guests say things that require you to actually see your own club before you can make a response.

- It's more realistic if the host avatar isn't the only one responding to guests, so type something real into the bot windows occasionally.

In short, being a club host is actually a lot of work. If you rely too much on your bots your club will be creepy and humans won't come back.