Going rate for host position?

I have been toying with the idea of hiring someone to greet and engage visitors to my place at times of day when I cannot be there. Ideally I would hire from within my group, so I know it's someone who knows and appreciates the cafe and will set the right tone when I can't be there myself.

I am not looking for a dancer or an event host. I just want someone to spend a few hours sitting in the cafe saying hello to people when they arrive and welcoming them, much like I do myself when I am in world. I get random visitors popping into the cafe all hours of the day, and I have found that being there gives those visitors a reason to stay for a few minutes; then visitors start to overlap, and the place feels more lively. Just one avatar waiting for visitors can be a nucleation point for a little group to gather. And so that is what I need - someone to sit there and be friendly, just as I would if I could.

What do you club and venue owners typically pay for a position like this? I perused some classifieds but most of them do not include wage information. Others say "100% tips" which is not really appropriate to the job. I am curious to know what people are paying for hosting jobs and what kind of work they are expecting from their hires.

Camping rates. I think the usual is about 30/hr.

Ugh! Camping rates nuuuuU!!!! I've never hosted for anything less than $100L an hour. Plus tips.

Considering that most clubs are empty 90% of the time, you're paying someone to do nothing. I wouldn't pay more than 30/hr to do nothing. And of course they could keep tips.

I think Madhu is just worn out because we keep her up all night on Mondays



You may end up having to pay a bit more, because you don't want JUST a camper. Like you said, you'll want someone with an interest in the place, to greet people properly.
No point in hiring someone who's afk or busy sorting inventory because they're bored or just yells Hooooooooooooo at people.

B.

100/hr is not going to stop them from sitting there and sorting inventory. 30/hr is generous considering the mainstream camping rate is 1L/10 minutes - 6/hr.

If they're sorting inventory, they're awake and they're happy to see a warm body teleport in. That's when they earn their tips. The tips should be the incentive, because the tips could far outearn their salary.

LOL thats one take on it.

Of course they pay the people at 7/11 to be there at 3:30 in the morning just in case a customer shows up.

I guess it would depend on if the club owner wanted someone there who was at the keyboard hosting,

Or whether it was a hostess pestering the club owner for a useless job.

My cafe is not a club, and the host would most likely not be tipped. But, I would not be paying someone to do nothing. I see my visitor logs, I know that as many as 20 people a day stop into my cafe when I am not there to greet them. Most of these visitors arrive, see the place empty, and leave. When I am there, though, they stay for a few minutes. Often they are still there when the next random visitor arrives. My presence just gives someone a reason to stay and start a conversation. Then when the next random visitor arrives, instead of an empty cafe, they see a cafe with two people in it and are welcomed to join the conversation. And a little happy lively crowd can form in very little time.

Just my being there to say hello and give someone a reason to stay makes the place more lively and entices more people to stay. So I am looking for someone to be a surrogate me, basically, when I cannot be there. But it is not a job where one can expect to be tipped. When you go to a cafe and meet someone there and have a pleasant conversation, you don't offer them a tip afterwards.

I understand, but I'm just saying that any place open to the public is empty most of the time.

At 100L/h, is it really worth $6.81 USD a day for 18 hours (assuming you're inworld 6 hours) to pay people to sit in your cafe? Or however many hours. You can pay what you like, but my experience is that even when someone is there, visitors may not stick around very long and you're paying for... not a whole lot. You're not asking this person to organize an event. You're not asking them to play music and take requests. You're not asking them to emote creatively and suggestively at them. You're just asking them to sit there and chat if someone comes by... something most live newbies do while camping anyway.

Ultimately you have to choose for yourself how much it's worth and how much you're willing to expend. I am just offering one point of view.

You know Madhu - you might even ask group members to come and hang out for a bit when they need to sort inventory or other things like that I usually do that at home but would not mind going over and being a body there if you want- and you don't have to pay me. I will come over and take my pictures for my store there tonight

Thanks Cristalle; I do appreciate your comments, I just wanted to clarify the ways in which what I am asking might be a little different from either (a) a traffic-boost camper who can be afk and essentially a bot, or (b) a club host.

I think maybe the answer may be to offer something a little more than camping rates and see what happens. The job, you are right, will not be terribly demanding most of them time - slightly more demanding than pure traffic-boost camping, but not a ton more, and the host will be free to bring her friends to the cafe, IM them, &c. However, I don't want someone dragging a tip jar around and being obsequious to guests at the expense of the cafe environment - so I will have to compensate for the fact that tips aren't a part of the equation.

You've given me some stuff to chew on and I appreciate that. I think if nothing else it's clear from my forum posts that I am an over-analyzer.

Aw, thanks! My group members are the bestestest!

I pay Hosts that post events, run contests, make members and keep the audience happy $100L a hour. The Greeters - who say hello and give information make $55L a hour. Try the Merlin Alphabetica timeclock that allows you to limit the amount of time they can be on the clock within a 24 hour period. I cap my greeters at 3 hours a day.
There is also a feature that will clock them out if they go AFK or do not talk within a certain amount of time.


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It's ok, I do the same thing

My view is that there is no amount of money that will guarantee a personal investment so long as you are not present. Especially if the place is lonely most of the time. 300L/hr (Just over $1 USD) is still slave labor in terms of that person's time. That person still has every incentive to sort inventory or go afk and do something else.

If it were me (and you've given me food for thought for my own lounge) - I would restrict build to group or myself and put out a jar for the host. They can sign in when they are there. I would also get a gadget that pays them automatically (I have one, a payroll clock from Nyterave. Nyterave's tip jars are good too) and clocks them out if they are away or gone from the site.

Some payroll clocks require hosts to speak every now and then to ensure that they are not afk for extended periods of time (I don't have this, didn't suit my needs at the time). You'd need to choose for yourself. You could get one of these to ensure that they're awake and chatting. The clock will debit your account and pay automatically when the shift is up.

It's a little pessimistic to do it this way, but I trust few people other than myself to do the things I need to get done.

how doo you know that person is actualy there when you away?

been my experience, that on average going rate is between 75 to 100l an hour, depending on how much traffic you have and or how good the host/ess is.

Would one have to be Blue!!

As an experienced hostess, I would just have to say that paying someone $100L an hour to greet your visitors with the care that you yourself would give is not much of a wage. That's like what...25 US cents an hour to sit and greet people as they come into the cafe? You definately want someone that you trust in that position though. A SL job requires incentive. It requires you to sit in one area for a given length of time and tend to the specifics of the position. This is why it's not called camping. Campers do nothing. Camper's don't even have to be minding the computer, camper's can take a nap. So what if you're sitting there sorting inventory if there's nobody in the parcel at the moment, you're still required to sit there and wait for someone to pop up on the radar. If that's such a serious concern, and nobody drops in, then the hostess could attempt to drum up some visitors on the group, and if that didn't work, clock out.

Unless you're intention is to keep the Cafe manned 24/7 by multi host and hostesses, anything less than $100L an hour is nothing more than camping. I do like the idea of recruiting your group members however, and if you have some that you trust enough to help you out, that's most definately the way I'd go.

An alternate solution is to hire two people to sit there within certain periods of time, that way they could at least have each other to talk to, and a third person would start to look like a crowd.

Again, how much is this all worth to you? Ultimately your budget will define that.

Greenies paid their managers 200L an hour and their hosts/hostesses 100/hr -- I am not sure if that is still the case.

Based on my experience as an event hostess, I would think something like L$50-100 would be a fair rate. The way you describe the position, it's not as intense as putting together events, posting in search, sending out announcements, and maintaining the conversation non-stop from start-time to finish; but it is quite a bit more than a bot or an afk camper. When you put the word out, if you decide to, you might want to call the position a greeter or barista rather than host, since that has an established meaning.

In RL terms, that's $.20-.40 an hour (though as Cristalle pointed out, those pennies will add up), but the SL economy runs on its own terms. L$250 will buy a decent dress or rent a skybox for a week - in those terms L$50-100 an hour isn't bad.

I pretty much did that for a scramble game winnings 1L a correct spelled word and 30L a hour when I was new even though it wasn't required for upload money for my art work, If I spelled every word correctly and had no one playing against me and wasn't chatting maybe 120L a hour....And on top of that helped new comers within the store and it wasn't even expected of me when I use to do that at Bedazzled when it was a fun hang out 4 hours or more a day.
Yet I also was able to work on artwork when no one was around or talking too.
I know there are others who would do that too for same for less to cover rent or for a dress.