I always see the same conversations around rate and ''the value of conversation'' and we always say the same thing...
When I entered the industry, I preferred having a few short bookings a week, I didn't vibe with my clientele as much and didn't have as much experience either. I also hosted from home and worked from massage parlors, which is super different. I would often see 3 to 8 clients a day on my MP shifts which was really exhausting to me. But I remember that it was less tiring for me to see many clients for less amounts of time at parlors. I often dreaded the 1 or 2h sessions. As for home, I could accommodate last minute dates much easier.
Some providers want a high volume of clients, but they want less demanding sessions, either physically or emotionally. Sometimes long bookings can feel really emotionally charged and some people in the industry just don't have the emotional bandwidth for that. So I get 100% why somebody would charge way more for longer dates, particularly with certain types of clients. An example of that is a client I used to have who booked me for 2 hours, but wanted 5 shots every time. I was in pain by the end of the booking. Or somebody who tells you about their trauma and expects you to entertain them for hours.
After a year I decided to prioritize longer bookings and less of them, and I started making it more advantageous for the client to book longer dates. Until last summer, my 2h rate was 500, which is the same as agencies or even a little lower. I don't regret raising my rates since them but I think it's smart that I was doing that, it attracted a lot of clients who tend to book longer sessions at agencies, and this can either be a good or a bad thing depending on what type of guy you want to see. I think one area where I truly shine in this industry (aside from the obvious lol) is that I am good at connecting with people, and really often clients who want to spend more time with me have noticed that we have things in common or subjects they are curious to talk about with me.
As I move forward in this industry, I want to prioritize a certain type of experience. I can't afford ditching the regular hour booking and it's still one of the most popular booking length, but I can understand why others do, or why some others have a very high hourly rate. I don't drive and it takes me an hour to get to my incall, then it takes me at least 30 minutes to get ready, and 30 minutes to clean afterwards. If I only have one hour session in the whole day, that's about 4 hours of my time.
It doesn't make sense for someone who has chosen to be low volume to have a cheap hourly rate, and it also makes sense for them to have a 90 min or 2 hour minimum. At some point when you are reputable and gain more freedom, it's kinda normal to orient your branding in order to have certain types of sessions more than others. There's always going to be people who can offer a 1h date at the last minute, and others who are a bit less ''accessible''.