First response - are you taking this a bit too seriously?

Here goes re Bento:

- It's new, it's very nicely set up, and it's very clean
- It's website is not that bad, but it's not perfect, the graphical style and the written words are in Thai approach/style. It's very probably constructed/written by a Thai person so it's not the approach/style you'd expect if it was constructed/written by a farang. This is Thailand, run with the local ways.
- Manager said they will probably put more pictures of the masseurs on their website at a later date. Who knows whether this will eventuate, and to be honest I don't see this as a way to 'judge' the place.
I can also share that many venues don't and never will put pictures of their masseurs on their website (e.g. HERO, I know that the owner of HERO has a strong personal policy of respecting the privacy of the working boys. Also: there are venues which put pictures on their websites without the permission of the person concerned, and there are venues which have pictures on their website and have other boys available who's pictures are not and never will be shown on their website. Plus, I'm aware that several years back when some 'entertainment' venues started putting pictures of 'workers' (girls or boys) on their websites they were told instantly by the police to remove the photos.
- Bento has parking, easy to park, very close.
- The manager is friendly, polite, business like but not pushy, seems to be a good listener and replies specifically to the question asked, seems to be very genuine, speaks good English, manager is not the owner. I asked him to call me when the 'student masseur' I took was working again. He did call me back about three days later to politely tell me the young man called him to advise that won't be back for about three weeks because of exams.
- Yes, the masseur did give good massage, and although he told me he was straight, he did try very hard to give good service and he did get hard quickly. It was his first day and his first customer. He told me that it was the first time a person (male or female) had sucked his cock and it felt good, and he moaned very loudly. For Thai boys I suggest this is not an indicator that 'he is therefore gay'.
- What level of service you might receive from other staff is totally unknown, as with every other venue.
-Yes, the masseur did shower with me before and after the massage, I suspect he was an intelligent, open, and very inexperienced kid who was looking for a new experience of showering with another person, something he said he'd never done before and I suspect he wanted to be 'a bit naughty'. Initially he stayed just outside of the 'range' of the shower and it was obvious he wanted to get within the shower range but at first was reluctant to remove his towel (very normal Thai behavior) and when he did he kept his hand over his plumbing for the next 5 minutes then slowly relaxed. I believe this has nothing to do with 'the policy of the house' it was a young man going through a new experience in life.
-I have no idea whether it's the policy of this venue for the masseur to shower with the customer, and let's be honest, whether it's the policy or not, it's ultimately case by case and whether the massuer feels realxed or not to do this. Let me also share that I have one farang acquaintance here in Bangkok who complains about this again and again, and what he never realizes is that he's so rude, demanding, intimidating and aggressive, the massage boys / off boys avoid coming anywhere near him / they are frightened of him. My ultimate point here is that working boys are human beings not programmed robots.
- I don't know whether every room has an attached bathroom. I didn't inspect every room.
- If my memory is correct the cover charge was 600Baht for one hour, but don't take this as accurate.
- Coupons and memberships are just marketing gimicks. This is a business, and they are going to try any approach which brings a return. In marketing theory, the concept of coupons / memberships etc., is something that any business should try. Why? Because the owner should be realizing that 99% of businesses cannot survive purely on first time / only time customers. They need to try various appraoches to try to entice customers to return. Plus, many Thai customers like the idea of 'member cards', and feel very proud to show off their wallet full of member cards.
- On the one day I visited most of the masseurs were, I guess, early twenties, they were all wearing dark track pants, some also had singlets, some had no cover on top half of their bodies, but not sure if this is a 'uniform', I've only visited once.
- Perhaps 40% of the boys had Essan appearance, which I like, and the rest were a mixture of various Thai facial profiles (also to my liking).
- All masseurs had nicely defined bodies (but not muscleboys), most were perhaps a little taller than average height but whether this is a 'policy' of the house I don't know.
- There was one Essan appearance boy, very good body, very obvious ladyboy. Not my style, but clearly what some customers would be looking for.
- The student who was my masseur had perhaps a more Chinese Thai appearance. This was not what attracted me, his cheeky very masculine cuteness and gorgeous cheeky smile (my opinion of course) was what attracted me. He was a university student, very pleasant and very polite, and he spoke fairly good English and politely mentioned that he was very happy to have a chance to speak to a farang.
- Manger did mention that the owner was trying to find more student types. I guess for Thai customers this has a definite meaning but I don't know what this means although I have lived in Thailand more than 20 years.
- I was not told about minimum tip (but please don't assume that the manager deliberately did not mention it), but maybe there is a minimum tip. The tip I paid made the masseur very happy, but I will not disclose what I paid, other than to say that I'm not stingy but I don't believe in 'fueling inflation'.
- I don't see how anybody could comment on number of maseurs available at any one time, and let's be fair, how could any venue totally manage this item?

Quotes:

1. "Rate card price for the massage...."

Not sure exactly what you mean by 'rate card'. If you mean the price stated on the 'menu', then I've mentioned that above, but for more details why not call the manager.

2. "Incidentally, I emailed both Senso and Bento with a couple of questions. Senso replied promptly. So far, Bento ... nothing. That has nothing to do with the potential massage experience, but it does say something about how business-like they may be in responding to customers."

I think your taking this too seriously. Why? Surely the ultimate test is the actual real life experience? I had a good (one time) experience. Further, Thais are not well organized in terms of who's responsible to monitor / reply to e.mails. This is life.

If you have further questions then why not call the manager, as I said above he is very friendly, a good listener and he speaks quite good English.

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