Valet Parking Girls

NEIL JACKSON, HOST: Well, forget those guys in the red vest, times are changing and so is the valet business. These days you are more likely to find a sexy model in a bikini or an aspiring actress in a miniskirt when you drop off your car at a fancy new restaurant, at least in California where they`re calling it Valet Girls. They got their start in Southern California now they`re branching out and heading east.

Well, Brad SOLOMON is the founder of the West Coast Valet Parking and chief operating officer of Valet Girls. We`ll also hear from two of the Valet Girls themselves, Erica Rumsey (ph) and Dana Kohl (ph). Welcome, all. Brad, to you first, what gave you this idea?

BRAD SOLOMON, WEST COAST VALLEY PARKING FOUNDER: Well, we started the conventional company and around May we had a tremendous amount of requests from clients saying that they wanted a female team. We had one client who flew 30 Valet Girls to his house, or estate I should say, in Las Vegas to do a party there. And we kept getting requests so we realized there was demand for women. So last year we started a company called California Girls Valet Parking based in Beverly Hills and we did more revenue with California Girls Valet Parking in the last quarter of 2005 than we did with our conventional company the year before, so we decided to focus on women. Southern California is a perfect market for. And just this last week, we acquired Valet Girls, which was established in 1983 in Malibu.

Erica, how much can you make any day or half day or third of a day of parking cars?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can make hundreds of dollars. The friendlier you are in the nicer you are to people more money they`re willing to give to you. And they`re happy to see a cute girl parking a car instead of, like Brad was saying, a guy and a red vest that does not speak English. They are still happy to see you and give you $50, thanks, have a good night.

JACKSON: Fifty bucks as just a tip? A tip for you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

JACKSON: Really? Any celebrities that we might not know, Erica or what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not yet. I am thinking with this merger we will be very busy and we will probably get to meet some celebrities.

JACKSON: Dana, what is the biggest hit you have got?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have gotten $100 a few times, actually. So that seems to be the record thus far.

JACKSON: Ladies, this could be for either one of you, you can wear whatever the person hiring you want you to wear. If you cannot do anything lewd, you can`t drive nude or topless, but what is the closest you have come to that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Probably what I have on right now -- just a miniskirt and a cute top. Really they`re happy to see whether you are wearing a pair of jeans or a small t-shirt or a bikini. A way, they are happy to see you. We look to the matter what we wear. We do not have to address a key or sleazy for people to appreciate us being there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have been at parties at the beach where we have worn bikinis, which is obviously less clothes but it is appropriate because it is a beach party.

JACKSON: You are also parking women`s cars now and then -- how did they treat you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They treat us pretty good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the women are happy to see when and branching out into a field that is typically men. I have a very positive response from women who I have worked for.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they are our best tippers.

JACKSON: Women are? Really?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sometimes, yes.

JACKSON: That`s interesting. Brad, let me ask you something now. You`ve kind of look at the percentages here that there was a request for the women not to be dressed in bikinis or anything like that, but how?

SOLOMON: Well, actually, 70 percent of our clients are women and the parties range anywhere from bat mitzvahs to baby showers to them wearing for example, the biggest costume this Christmas season was lingerie with Santa hats. So I would say that during the holidays .

JACKSON: At a bas mitzvah they are wearing .

SOLOMON: No, at a bat mitzvah they`re wearing formal clothes but the gamut runs from everything. So it`s not just a typical party. It is everything from bat mitzvahs to everything. Bat mitzvahs - they`re dressed in all black and very elegant, for charity events and board they are very elegant. But about 70 percent of the time is the other uniform, which is bikinis and lingerie -- a little more risque. Nothing too provocative, but a little more risque.

JACKSON: You know, Erica, Dana, I ask you this only of curiosity, you are both beautiful women. Does it trouble you that this could be like acting, a short life career for you? You get a lot older, maybe put on a few pounds -- Got forbid -- you will not be in demand. The valet thing ends right there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think as it is right now, valet parking supplements are in come from acting. Erica and I both act. But I think as you get older, we have clients that sometimes request an older and more mature staff. So if 10 years down the road I was a little heavier and had a few more wrinkles, I still there will be a place for me with Valet Girls. Maybe I`m being optimistic.

JACKSON: Thank you very much. Erica, Dana, Brad, thank you. We will see how all this goes in the future.