How much does a bathhouse cost? What’s it worth?

[BB4fking]

I am travelling several countries at the moment was struck a few days ago by the variations in pricing for visits to saunas and the like. Back home my local cruise club was $8 for years, which I thought was good, but crept up to $13 and has stayed there for several years and now seems to me the ‘right’ price and still affordable to go every Saturday and sometimes another day. At home I don’t tend to go to the sauna as all my favourite ones have closed and the closest one that remains is $25. On my travels I’m now in Barcelona and a nearby town Sitges which provided a good contrast in pricing, at a cruise club 3 days ago I had a great time with a day pass (in/out) for €5 (about $5) but last night forked out three times that for a sauna (€15) where the sex was no better and the steam room lukewarm.

I thought it might be interesting to discuss what guys pay for their local or favourite bathhouses or sex-on-site facilities. What do you reckon is good value? What makes a place especially worthwhile? Is it particular facilities, layout (for me I like a darkroom) or is it just the vibe such as the general willingness to bareback?

[bredbiyou]

In Ottawa, our lone bathhouse charges $31 for a 6-hour room, which seems high to me. Sure, they have a monopoly, and can charge whatever they want. But at that price, I don't go unless I know the place is packed. Back when their prices were more reasonable, I'm sure they made more money off of me, because I was far more willing to just show up and take my chances.

[LewisSlut]

The gay sauna in Berlin costs €11 on "youngsters' day" and a lot more normally.

[ErosWired]

At the bathhouse I frequent, you pay a membership fee, then rent either a locker or a room. Membership runs $40 annual, $25 for 6 months, $11 for a day pass. Rentals are for either 3 or 12 hours, and prices range from $10 for a 3-hour locker to $27 for a 12-hour deluxe room. I take the annual membership, then spring for the 12-hour deluxe room each time because the bed is better. Also, during CumUnion, they offer 5-hour rentals of the same room for $19, so I can extend my sluttery without so much wallet pain.

When I read that the OP had been to a place with a day pass for $5, I couldn’t believe it. If that place were here and not in Spain, I would basically live there.

[Guest RawCunt]

In my city there are a few that differ in price.  Ones with sauna's, spa's and pools etc are generally cleaner and more expensive, and tend to be pretty boring.  The cheapest, and the most sleaziest is my most preferred, and people are there to fuck and get off, not gossip and pose.

[Guest STLjeffDadd]

My local bath house has steadily gotten pricy over the years. While I don’t have a problem with the required card membership $20 every 90 days, the rooms now range from $28 to $45 every 8 hours. Lockers are $12 for every 8 hours. So since I like the use of the outdoor pool in the hot summers to swim and lay out and work my tan, and the sauna, whirlpool and steam room in the winters, and since I’m there to play in the common room, glory holes and sling, I opt for the $12 locker. There used to be specials for twinks and cheaper rates during weekday, but not anymore. 

[Guest]

Sydney you're looking at 15 to 25 dollars Australian depending on when and which one you go to. It would be cheap atm if you're coming here from America haha.

[butth0le]

In San Francisco Bay Area the closest bathhouse to me would be $30 minimum on a weekend. $7 for a 30 day membership and $23 for eight hour locker rental. I have a six month membership which was $25 and usually get a room with a tv for $36. There’s a sex club a little further that’s $13 for a six month membership then $17 for a locker, they don’t have rooms or hot tub/sauna/etc. And then there’s another place that just started hosting Cumunion and that was $20 to get in but again it was only lockers and no hot tub or sauna.

Edited June 5, 2019 by B0tt0mGuy

[Guest]

On 6/3/2019 at 10:48 AM, ErosWired said:

At the bathhouse I frequent, you pay a membership fee, then rent either a locker or a room. Membership runs $40 annual, $25 for 6 months, $11 for a day pass. Rentals are for either 3 or 12 hours, and prices range from $10 for a 3-hour locker to $27 for a 12-hour deluxe room. I take the annual membership, then spring for the 12-hour deluxe room each time because the bed is better. Also, during CumUnion, they offer 5-hour rentals of the same room for $19, so I can extend my sluttery without so much wallet pain.

When I read that the OP had been to a place with a day pass for $5, I couldn’t believe it. If that place were here and not in Spain, I would basically live there.

Sounds like The Works in Indy, wished you were a top, would love to meet up sometime there.

[BB4fking]

In the last few days I went to a sauna in sitges Spain for €15 (approx. $11) and one in Montpellier France for €11. The standard of facilities couldn’t explain the 25% difference. Rather I think that because Sitges is a party town attracting a lot of gay men they can charge a premium. 

[Guest CuriousDallas]

I’ve only been to three here in Dallas and they differ quite a bit in price and amenities. Two are Korean spas that are ostensibly straight but cruising and sex happen. Spa Castle is the very upscale of the two and if you have a Groupon it’s $30 for 24 hours. The saunas are divided by gender and they have a full array of hot tubs, wet and dry saunas on each side. Fucking goes on in the one hot tub and the bathrooms and it’s a nice array of guys there looking. The fucking is all bareback, which is hot. The common areas have pools, saunas and all kinds of food and drinks. Weekdays/weeknights are best for fucking as it gets too busy on the weekends to fuck in the hot tub. There’s couches in the locker room to sleep on and some guys play there too. There’s also a sleeping area upstairs with tatami mats but it’s coed so no playing. King Spa is the same drill...not as nice and I’ve yet to find a cheaper price to get in than $45 and they have a surcharge for sleeping overnight. There seems to be fewer gay guys who go there too as it’s not as cruise as Spa Castle. At Spa Castle I can typically hook up with at least three or four guys and usually more...King Spa it was pretty much two and done over quite a few hours.

for full on gay bathhouses I’ve been to Club Dallas and it’s $8 at the door weekdays, $10 weekends. Locker is $6 for me (youth pricing)...it’s more than double that if you’re older which hardly seems fair. You can get a six month pass for $32 which is a deal if you like it and wanna go back. It’s a nickel and dime thing there if you want anything. Weekdays/weeknights are hit and miss, weekends too, but weekend nights are usually pretty busy. It is a very nice facility and plenty of gay guys there looking to suck and fuck. I’ve rarely seen guys wrap to fuck there and most guys do take the loads rather than asking the top to pull out. I haven’t really quite masterEd the whole gay sex club thing as it’s a lot of unspoken things, body language, head tilts and bobs. I’m neg and not on Prep so a bit intimidated about letting a total stranger here fuck me bare and cum inside me as a lot of the guys here are pretty sexually active and may be poz. I’m sure most are on Prep or undetectable and I’ve let guys who say they’re either fuck me bare. The blackout room is pretty wild with lots of cock and fucking...I’ll let guys in there fuck me and know they’re probably doing it bare, but will get off their dick after a little bit so they don’t cum inside me. I know that makes me a dick tease but that’s just too risky for me. That said a few guys have shot inside me anyhow.

do your research and figure out what you like. I kind of prefer the slower pace of Spa Castle where I can check out a guy for a bit before making a move. Club Dallas is great if you’re horny and indiscriminate. That said the most I’ve gotten with at Spa Castle on a Friday night was 8 different guys over a seven hour period. At Club Dallas on a Saturday night the most I’ve gotten with was 12 but I sucked on a lot more dick than that.

[BB4fking]

I’ve just been to Kaiserbrundl sauna in Vienna a veritable institution amongst European bathhouses. It cost €22 or about US$25 which included a pair of rubber “slippers”. It’s a large bathhouse with all the facilities you’d expect and a few that may surprise (such as a restaurant). It’s spread out over at least 3 floors but probably 4 - it’s so large and such a labyrinth that I’m never quite sure where I am.

One facility it doesn’t seem to provide is condoms and it charges 50 cents for a small sachet of lube. I am a bit critical of that since most of us need lube and charging seems penny pinching at that entry price  (I always take my own supply for topping and I prelube with oil-based cream for bottoming which usually lasts a few hours so it didn’t affect me.) in relation to condoms I don’t use them as Im on PrEP but for other guys it is their choice and I think sex-on-site owners and managers have a responsibility to support those choices. As it happens I doubt many condoms would be needed as all the guys I hooked up with or saw went bareback without discussion.

[BB4fking]

Just been to a sauna in Prague that cost €15. Sauna Babylonia had some features that made good value starting with cheap beer. For me the two steam rooms was great, one very dark, the other moderately dark with a maze. Also had wifi, funnily enough as I was leaving I checked Grindr and found that a guy that had messaged me hours be&ore was the very guy I’d just hooked up with and we has flip fucked. The main downside was the lack of a pass out system. Had there been one I’d have returned in the evening.

[BB4fking]

Just had a total waste of an evening at the same sauna as I went to with some success yesterday. All sorts of things annoyed me today although it wasn’t the fault of the bathhouse but the clientele. It got me thinking that one of the things I value about a bathhouse is reliably or consistency.

The things that pissed me off tonight included:

- getting into a room with a guy, right to the point of lubing up in front of him, sitting on top and having his cock at the opening of my ass, and he asks ‘where is the condom?’ (Well actually what he said was ‘preservative?’, I think he was French). This has happened to me twice in the last two weeks once as a top and once as a bottom. Now I don’t use condoms, and I prefer raw, but a fucks a fuck and I’ll respect the choice of partners to use condoms. But, hey, bring the rubbers with you especially if you’re going to top as you may want a particular size (I use a large condom if I am compelled to use one). If you don’t have a condom and need to ask the partner do so in plenty of time.

- guys coming into the steam room holding the door open while trying to check out the guys and losing heat while doing so.

- guy’s watching the porn on screen to the exclusion of the potential live action around them. Example tonight was a guy jerking off to a Tv screen porn, I go up to him and find he has a lovely hard cock and bend down and suck it. He clearly likes this but remains as much engaged with the tv as me. I motion for him to fuck me standing there and he starts fingering my ass. It is only after 4 or 5 minutes, including when I waved off an admirer, that I realised he had no intention of fucking me he was interested only in the screen.

- when you start a scene with a guy, someone will turn up and try to get in the middle, often in the process scaring off the first guy. This can be annoying- I contrast it with guys watching when you’re having sex in public areas. I don’t even mind the odd bit of groping when you’re fully in action, it’s the interference at the outset that is disruptive.

- finally, and this didn’t annoy me merely puzzle me, a guy brought his smartphone into the steam room, simply apologising about the light it initially emitted.

Sorry to be negative but my experience has left me frustrated this evening. I usually have fewer gripes about behaviour in cruise clubs.

[Read1]

At Steamworks Toronto, I pay for 6 month VIP card. Then Monday to Thursday a good sized private room cost $28CDN for 8 hours, Friday to Sunday $35 CDN for 8 hours. Lockers are a bit less than that. I think it’s fair. They do a terrific job at keeping this bathhouse clean.