Tomcal Posted January 25, 2019 Posted January 25, 2019 Manhatten Rios after next Monday is going back to being a straight sauna and in turn is taking over the newer facilities of a Straight sauna and that will be gay! Straight saunas are usually smaller in the common areas like the bar show areas then Gay saunas and this was very true with MR! The guy who recently built out a new sauna in Centro saw this and made a proposition that they exchange facilities and go in partnership running a gay and straight sauna! i was just sent a video of the new place and it looks good, although at this point all the walls are white, no decor yet! It appears to be four floors with the suites(all with glass in showers)on the 2nd and 3rd floors, the boys locker rooms on the 4th(maybe 5th i lost count)floor! it is scheduled to open for business next week. I do not have the address but was told it is about 2 blocks from Meo Mundo downtown! Here is a notice that came out today with i guess the new name! Tartegogo, floridarob, sfcastro and 2 others 4 1 Quote
Members wncdemcub Posted January 26, 2019 Members Posted January 26, 2019 I saw this too...I hope it will boost the place to have a bigger space. I had one really good programa but Wasn’t too impressed when I was there. Quote
Tomcal Posted January 29, 2019 Author Posted January 29, 2019 the new sauna is the dark broun building on the right, Riobard 1 Quote
Members likeohmygod Posted February 7, 2019 Members Posted February 7, 2019 I went to the new Manhattan on Monday. 1 garoto, 0 customers. Don't go there for now... They will do an adv campaign Quote
Tomcal Posted February 11, 2019 Author Posted February 11, 2019 this friday there were 14 escorts and about a dozen clients. i think it will take a few months to build up to old.MM standards of attendance. it has only been open one week. Riobard and TotallyOz 2 Quote
Members asdsrfr Posted February 11, 2019 Members Posted February 11, 2019 If it's a nice facility and well run it will get there. There is definitely a clientele for the old MM "boy next door" types. Quote
Members CaliPexx Posted February 11, 2019 Members Posted February 11, 2019 What's the address of "Nova Manhattan 21"? On a Google search, no website pops up and only a few Instagram type links. Quote
TotallyOz Posted February 11, 2019 Posted February 11, 2019 18 hours ago, Tomcal said: this friday there were 14 escorts and about a dozen clients. i think it will take a few months to build up to old.MM standards of attendance. it has only been open one week. The question is, was there at least one cute twink for Oz? How are the rooms? Quote
Tomcal Posted February 12, 2019 Author Posted February 12, 2019 the rooms are the best part(it seems to be where i spend 95% of my time)they are 16 all new, w/Double mattress’ on a platform , all with All glass enclosed showers in each one, plus Client bathrooms on eac floor! very clean! Oz, 4 twinks showed up Monday night who had never worked in a Sauna before , 2 were very cute! Lucky, Riobard, sfcastro and 1 other 4 Quote
Members redxs Posted February 12, 2019 Members Posted February 12, 2019 16 hours ago, Tomcal said: the rooms are the best part(it seems to be where i spend 95% of my time)they are 16 all new, w/Double mattress’ on a platform , all with All glass enclosed showers in each one, plus Client bathrooms on eac floor! very clean! Oz, 4 twinks showed up Monday night who had never worked in a Sauna before , 2 were very cute! where do they find the boys to work in these places, especially the new twinks? adverts, word of mouth between friends, brothers? Quote
Members likeohmygod Posted February 13, 2019 Members Posted February 13, 2019 (edited) I don't have the same tomcal's enthusiasm about the new Manhattan bar (not calling sauna...read below), and here's why: While the facility appears to be good, and some good effort has been invested, it does suffer of some HUGE design flaws. The bar (and cruising) area is extremely small and dark, I'd say that it has the 25% of capacity that 117 and 202 have (combining the 2 bars). It's good but small. People who are social smokers like me, will not like this new "sauna". THERE'S NO OPEN SMOKING AREA. If you wanna smoke, there's a small transparent booth inside the bar, which can host just 3 people at the same time. It's never going to work...IMHO. The rooms, might be 16 and with brand new air conditioning units, but what's the point? They're considerably smaller than 202 ones, and there's no separated (but still ensuite) bathroom like in 202 and 117 and i might be wrong, but there's also no WC. Just a shower. This is not a huge problem for me, and i'm not sure if it's the same for all the rooms. Did i tell you that there's no sauna at all right now? The wall facility is hosted inside a 4 floors building: ground entrance, 1st (bar and reception), 2nd (suites), 3rd (offices , customers common showers and lockers). I really hope for you that you don't have problems with legs, cause it's a steep climb to reach the top floor. It's just unfinished, and really needs a good adv campaign. If it wasn't for tomcal's original post, i would have been unaware of its existence until the Friday it opened, the only day i know for sure it was full of customers and boys. Every single other friend who's been there in the following days described the situation as "uma mierda". (Not counting tomcal's last Friday's experience). Edited February 13, 2019 by likeohmygod Riobard and floridarob 1 1 Quote
floridarob Posted February 20, 2019 Posted February 20, 2019 Is open or not.....check before you go. conflicting reports..... Lucky 1 Quote
Members Lucky Posted February 20, 2019 Members Posted February 20, 2019 The stairs would do me in. Quote
Members CaliPexx Posted April 8, 2019 Members Posted April 8, 2019 On a Facebook posting on 18 February 2019, the owner of Nova Manhattan 21 on Rua Buenos Aires, 21 in the Centro, the latest location of Clube Manhattan Rio's, to which it moved just over 2 months ago, stated that he would be closing the new location and looking for a new site: Quote Bom dia. Como todos sabem, mudamos a Manhattan Rio's lá do aeroporto pra Rua Buenos Aires por motivos de localização, pela casa ser pequena. Na Rua Buenos Aires, a casa está linda, novinha mas tem vários empecilhos que tenho que arrumar. Não tem sauna, as pessoas reclamam das escadas e outras coisas. Sempre visei o bem estar de todos e por esse motivo, estarei ENCERRANDO as atividades da Manhattan Rio's na Rua Buenos Aires. A partir de hoje, segunda feira, não funcionaremos mais nesse endereço. Aguardem a nova localização com mais espaço, sauna e tudo mais que nossos clientes e amigos tem direito. Muito obrigado a todos pelo carinho. To his credit, the owner cited the complaints of customers of the sauna including the facts that the club was situated in a small space and that there is no sauna in the "sauna"! He also mentioned the two long steep stairways that clients needed to climb to reach the reception desk. BTW, we didn't find either of these conditions to be a barrier but they might be for someone with cardiorespiratory concerns. As of the 3rd week of March 2019, Nova Manhattan 21 was still open Mondays through Fridays only and we visited the club on two occasions in March. In a post on this forum one year ago, someone mentioned that Manhattan Rio's, the previous incarnation of Nova Manhattan 21, located near Santos Dumont Airport, was trying to pick up downtown clientele that formerly frequented New Meio Mundo on Mondays and Fridays. Truth be told, our Monday encounter with the sauna was pretty abysmal, with very few GPs or clients. The biggest attraction for the boys seemed to be a bingo game that was supposed to start around 9 pm. We departed around 8 pm, however, to cut our losses. All that said, we got a guided tour of the new location (the receptionist at Nova Manhattan 21 was the woman who worked at the front desk of Clube 117 for many years and recognized us) and found it to be one of the cleanest Brazilian saunas we have ever visited, with spanking new lockers and suites all containing immaculate showers that actually had both hot and cold water! Nevertheless, we decided to give the place the benefit of the doubt and returned on a Friday. Our Friday visit was a MUCH better experience with lots of clients and GPs. I'd estimate around 20 GPs and 10 clients ultimately gathered in this small space. We had anticipated that it would be better to arrive there early, like around 6 pm, when offices in the downtown business district were closing, but it turned out that the GPs, many of them hot, good-looking muscular types, worthy of 117/202, were just starting to arrive around 7-8 pm. My friends and I had a great time and were looking forward to returning here on our next visit to Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately, @Pauleiro mentioned in another thread in this Forum that Nova Manhattan 21 is now closed. If so, this must have happened very recently, like during the last week in March or first week in April. On 4/7/2019 at 5:28 AM, pauleiro said: You will have fun no doubt ! The Manhattan Rio sauna is closed. But there are rumors of opening of a new place in Rio with boys but without sauna. To be followed Some of the respondents to the owner's FB posting included suggestions, e.g., that the owner should consider taking over the old space in Copacabana/Arpoador, now vacant, previously occupied by the LeBoy disco/bar/sauna. Others recommended that the owner find a more suitable location in Centro. What do you guys think? Would you relocate the Nova Manhattan Rio to the higher rent South Zone (Copacabana/Ipanema) area where it would be more likely to attract gay tourists as well as locals? Or would you keep the sauna in Centro, as downtown is presently devoid of any saunas with GPs and where rents may be lower but where the location may be off-putting to some tourists, especially on weekends when the downtown business district is essentially "dead"? Quote
Members likeohmygod Posted April 9, 2019 Members Posted April 9, 2019 (edited) In my opinion, Ipanema/Leblon/Barra are out of consideration; running this kind of business in there is nearly impossible right now because of the costs. It would also be quite hard to get the customers (without a proper adv campaign which could also attract problems) and garotos due higher prices you'd be forced to ask, and to the location which mainly hosts a category of guys who usually don't go to saunas for a lot of different reasons. Also...most of the guys who do sex tourism in Brazil are unaware of the existence of saunas, and since this business heavily depends on the local customers, it would be too far from the most populated areas of the town and from the business centres. Copacabana/Gloria/Catete/Flamengo are also out of consideration because they are too close to saunas working at full steam ahead. (Unless you want and you have something very different to offer which 117 and 202 don't have). Centro has a good bid/ask ratio, but is just too sketchy and dangerous, even during the weekdays now. This is keeping aways tourists but most importantly, the locals if the situation doesn't improve. Botafogo...that's the place where i would open a sauna. It's not too far from the north, it's not too upscale, it's easy to reach by metro and by car...it hosts a lot of businesses, and more importantly it hosts a TON of schools and 3 big universities (which means, young, fit, horny boys). It's not too expensive. I should quit my job...and run a sauna in Brazil, in Botafogo...sometimes I have this dream of running my personal harem, full of fit and hung guys flirting half naked with me and with the happy customers, who're keen to pour tons of R$ into my bank account... DREAM MODE OFF Edited April 9, 2019 by likeohmygod pauleiro, CaliPexx and docbr 1 2 Quote
Members CaliPexx Posted April 9, 2019 Members Posted April 9, 2019 1 hour ago, likeohmygod said: I could quit my job...and run a sauna in Brazil, in Botafogo...sometimes I have this dream of running my personal harem, full of fit and hung guys flirting half naked with me and with the happy customers, who're keen to pour tons of R$ into my bank account... Great idea! Go for it! It's a great time to consider making this move, with commercial real estate prices near their lows and the value of the USD at near high levels vs the BRL. I feel confident that many guys on this forum would be more than willing to patronize your new establishment. That said, I'd recommend that you partner in your endeavor with a Brazilian who can not only assist you in winding your way through the labyrinth of Brazilian bureaucracy but also who knows something about their system of gorjetas (tips). ;-) Quote
Members likeohmygod Posted April 9, 2019 Members Posted April 9, 2019 The only thing which is stopping me is the gorjetas system. CaliPexx 1 Quote
Members pauleiro Posted April 9, 2019 Members Posted April 9, 2019 1 hour ago, likeohmygod said: The only thing which is stopping me is the gorjetas system. You should contact Acyr. He is good as far as the gorjetas system is concerned but weak for marketing, customer service (friendly place, cleanliness, availability of hot water, ...) strategic positionning (where to start the sauna, how to atract high end boys, ...), everything that you could bring LOMG ! CaliPexx 1 Quote
