The first store was a simple concept. I had three employees to run my store. People came in and we billed them according to how long they stayed on the computer. We charged $12/hour , $8 for half hour. There was an $8 minimum charge. We didn’t want people coming in, checking their email for 2 minutes and paying just .50 cents. I figured, I never walked in a restaurant, took a bite from a chicken and then paid .25 cents for the bite. Once you price your Internet into time blocks, you create a product. This is a simple marketing technique.

How you price your internet café is a very complicated question. My answer is: charge as much money as you can without being a pig. During 9/11 people couldn’t use phone, couldn’t travel. They were stuck in Las Vegas. I was the only internet café on the strip. I had a 20-30 person line waiting to use computers. I could of charged $100/hour. However, its my belief that this kind of behavior is unethical. I charged the exact same amount that I charged 9/10. Currently, in Las Vegas the going rate for high class hotels is $1/minute! Internet cafes charge anywhere from .20/minute to .50/minute depending on who the owner is and how much time you buy. Are rates are as follow.

Internet Cafe
$5 - 20 minutes
$10 - 50 minutes

Business Center
$12 - 60 minutes ($12 minimum)

Business Center with Private Offices
.75/minute ($10 Minimum)


How do you process credit cards?
If your using Net Stop, you can use Ivalidate (www.Ivalidate.net) to process your credit cards.