Private Escort or Agency Escort

Who cares as long as it’s honest?

When I started my Escort Agency, Agency Atlantic in London almost 2 decades ago, there was a few online escort agencies (maybe 10 or so) and maybe 2 or 3 private Escorts with their own websites.

We didn’t have social media, there was no Adultwork or LEG. There were online bulletin boards (similar to Backpage), Top 100 sites, Captain69, Punternet and a few other sites that are not longer around

We advertised on the Internet as well as print media; places like Big Colour Pages & the Herald Tribune Newspaper

Back then just like now, escorts were identified as either an Independent Escort or Agency Escort in Australia Independents are often referred to as Private’s or Private Escorts

Private Escorts

In theory, Private Escorts are solo operators. Escorts who manage their own admin, do their own marketing, emails and make all their own arrangements.  Most Private Escorts have their own website too

The longer I am in Australia the more I see that Private Escort means very little. Many Agencies are Private Escort Managers… Go figure?

Indepdnent means independent and making all your own choices. In the UK we have Independent and Agencies

In the UK many Independent Escorts will choose to work with an agency as well as do their own Independent work

Escort Agency Escorts

Agency Escorts choose to work with an agency rather than go it alone (If you are considering working with an agency please read my guide)

An escort agency is similar to other types of agencies (acting, modelling, literary, sports). They usually have a client base, website, admin/support staff and industry experience

The terms of an agency agreement are different with each agency and sometimes even different for different ladies within the same agency

Some Agencies are friendly, professionally run businesses (like Atlantic), some are draconian, some are owned by pimpy type dudes, some have a criminal element and some are owned & run by absolute f9cking narcissistic lunatics

The one thing that all agencies have in common is that the escorts on the books of the agency don’t have to answer calls, emails, pay for ads or deal with the untold number of timewasters that can occur when you are an independent

Prior to Atlantic when I was an escort I had my own independent site and I also worked with an agency

If I wasn’t able to answer my calls or my emails it didn’t matter as my agency was.  They were answering calls 10am until 1am so when I was working or sleeping or taking a holiday, they were making arrangements so I didn’t lose out on bookings and financially it just made sense

Sure they took a fee but without them, I would never have had the booking at all

I used the same name and photos for both independent and agency.  www.Captain69.co.uk has a very useful alias link for clients so my website and agency were linked.   I found that gents never cared whether they booked me thru the agency or with me directly as long I showed up as arranged

Some preferred to speak to me directly but 80% could not have cared less. Many booked thru my agency the first time and subsequent meetings directly with me.  They liked the security of booking with an agency so if something went wrong there was someone to go back to, complain and hopefully get compensation

In around 2006 one of my favourite advertising sites started in London; now there are over 10,000 escorts listed; Independent escorts and agency escorts co-exist on LondonEscortGuide.com (LEG) Ladies can be are listed on LEG under their agency as well as on their independent page

Some of the Atlantic ladies are listed on LEG as independents as well as listed with us and some Atlantic ladies are on other agencies as well as Independent and Atlantic.  We don’t mind  We like an open & honest working relationship.  We understand that ladies are in this industry to earn so we don’t enforce rules to stop them maximising their earnings

Atlantic has been arranging International Tours since 2004 and we found most countries have the same classifications; independent and agency

That was until we got to Australia…

Opening Agency Atlantic Australia

We opened our Sydney office in Australia in 2012 with no knowledge of the local market other than being told by ladies and gents that our services would be a great addition to the Australian market

It wasn’t long before we learnt that Australia has ‘privates’, not independents and agencies have a terrible reputation

Atlantic might have been a great addition to the market but it has been a far bigger challenge than we thought

From people I have chatted with it seems in the past agencies in Australia had a bad reputation for fake photos, bait & switch and generally being shit, shonky & charging high fees to escorts

Being a ‘private’ became the way to prove you weren’t being controlled by an agency who was taking half the booking fee

The Great Divide – Private Escorts vs Agency

This great divide between Agency & Private has grown by advertising sites marketing as ‘Privates only’

These private only ad sites make sense from an advertising site perspective but not every escort wants to do her own calls and administration work so rather than miss out ladies & agency’s got creative

A private profile on these sites does not guarantee that you are speaking to a lady directly or that the lady you meet isn’t paying a percentage of the fee to someone else

Rather than use the word ‘agency’ there is Private page managers, profile Managers, Managed ladies, ladies with booking assistants, ladies with PA’s & EA’s & my recent favourite a lady with a  ‘client-provider’

A few weeks ago I met a lady who had sent in a casting form to us

She told me she has always been a private escort but wanted to work with Atlantic due to our International presence

During the course of the interview, I asked ‘how do you find taking your own calls in Australia?’

She said “I have never taken a call I don’t do that, yuk”

So I got nosey lol

I said “As a private don’t you take your own calls?

She said “no my manager does”

I said ‘do they answer a booking assistant or as you?’

She replied “She just pretends she is me it’s easier to get bookings that way”

I said ‘wow so she charges a monthly fee or a percentage’

She said “percentage 40%”

I asked what else she got for her 40% and she said ‘she pays for my profiles & I pay for my photos’

At another interview, a lady told me her Agency managed over 10 private escorts.  All the girls are text only with private profiles on a well known website. The receptionist was often quite busy so the girls would help with the texts while they waited in the office for bookings to come in.  

She said it was annoying because she often got sent on kinky bookings when she is vanilla and doesn’t do any kink at all  She wanted to join us because she was sick of getting bookings that weren’t right for her, lying to clients & paying 40% to an agency that only did SMS bookings.  She said it was too much for doing so little….

By excluding Honest Agency Advertising on the ‘private only’ sites the ‘faux private’ has prospered and these advertising sites don’t care, it’s more money in their bank accounts. Just as long as you don’t ruin their advertising spiel….

Recently we had a lady forced to stop working with us because an ad site told her that she can’t be private and be on the Atlantic website as well. She was told if you work with an agency as well you aren’t independent. LOL. (Blog: Forced to Choose)

An independent woman can’t choose to earn from 2 revenue streams (which makes sense right?) and wasn’t the whole reason behind the whole ‘private’ movement to stop agencies controlling girls? Now ad sites can do it instead…

If we don’t care if the lady is promoting herself, taking all her own calls, emails etc & also accepting appointments from Atlantic, then why does an advertising site that makes revenue from advertising care?

I could stop all the disdain we receive for being an agency by closing our Australia site and becoming a ‘booking service’ but that just seems silly. Atlantic is known for representing great girls and our reputation keeps our ladies bills paid

A quality Escort Agency is honest with both clients & escorts

If a client phones Agency Atlantic they know they are speaking to a receptionist and questions can be answered without feeling uncomfortable.  A client also has someone to come back to if the time they spent with the escort is unsatisfactory

At an Escort’s interview, we discuss their needs and also clearly discuss the cost involved to work with us; what is included for that cost & also how we work on a daily basis

Ladies decide for themselves if they wish to work with us and they can leave any time they wish.  We do not approach ladies, force them sign up with us or make them stay.  We provide a lot of service for our fee & work hard & long hours to make sure our ladies are successful

We promote some amazing girls and they don’t need to lie that they are private or pretend that they spoke to the client when he phoned

Our ladies don’t spend their days on twitter or being harassed on the phone by timewasters; they attend their escort meetings focused on the client not stressed by their latest stalker or whatever.  For ladies and gents, an Escort Agency offers an additional layer of privacy