Agency Vs Adultwork in London

[jacy100]

Just looking for some general consensus.

I'm not completely new to this, but have only ever used independents on adultwork (at least they say they're independent).

I'm curious, what is the big draw factor of agencies? They seem significantly more expensive, is it actually a better service?

I'm always offput by the obvious photoshoping of the profile photo, but not sure if this is actually the case.

[ragged]

I imagine there are good agencies and bad agencies, but the draw for me, with those agencies I use, is that they are reliable and consistent.

I do pretty much outcalls only, to my hotel when I am visiting London on business.  Very often I only have a few hours in the evening to receive visitors, so I need to be able to book a specific SP, who will turn up, on time, and provide the services I need.  Sometimes I can only book at short notice, and would rather trust an agency's recommendation than try to book something last minute through AW.

For this, I pay a premium - I accept that.

But I also feel that working with a third party gives me more of a 'customer' experience, especially when things go wrong - after all, a sane agency owner will want to keep repeat customers happy.  For example:
 - I once had to cancel a meet at _very_ short notice for a valid reason.  The girl was probably already in a taxi.  Because I had built up a relationship with the agency they knew I wasn't a timewaster, and I was able to see the same girl on a future visit.
 - I once had a girl turn up obviously high as a kite.  I gave her 20 quid for a taxi and sent her away, before explaining to the agency the situation.  They understood, and were able to arrange a short-notice replacement.

Yes, the photoshopping is annoying.  But very rarely have I had someone turn up who was egregiously different from what I expected.

[petermisc]

Trying to arrange a booking with an independent at relatively short notice can be difficult, even for a couple of hours ahead.  If she is busy with a client, you may have to wait some time for her to reply, only perhaps to be told that she is not free at the time you want.  Repeat with plan B and then plan C, and you can waste quite a lot of time.  Whereas with an agency, you will get an instant reply, and if the girl is not available when you want, you can ask about your plans B and C. 

Also, with an agency, you can be almost certain that the journey won't be in vain, that you won't have been double-booked, bumped for a better or late-running client, kept waiting for ages until she is ready, etc.  If a girl treats agency clients like this, she will get a bad reputation with the agency, and could lose out on a lot of bookings as a result.

At the bottom-end of the market, agencies are generally more expensive than independents, because of the agency "cut".  An exception to this is some of the Asian girls and agencies.  The girls charge £150 an hour if you book direct through their AW profile, but going via an agency you can get the same girl for £140 an hour, with a regular's discount.  In such cases, I really don't understand why anyone would book direct.

A big disadvantage of booking direct in cases where a girl advertises both direct and through an agency, is that she is more likely to give priority to an agency booking.  A couple of years back, there was one Asian girl I used to see who advertised at £130 an hour on AW.  However, my booking with her was rushed because she had obviously squeezed me in between two agency bookings.  The £20 saving by booking direct was just not worth it.