OhLaLa is a German dating app that recently started expanding into the United States. What sets OhLaLa apart from the other hookup apps? Men pay women for dates. Some have Dubbed OhLaLa as the “Uber for Escorts”. This alone was enough to entice us into joining so we can bring you, our loyal followers, this OhLaLa app review.

— Pros and Cons of OhLaLa —

Pros

• Strong privacy and confidentiality protocols for its users
• Free app
• Smooth easy to use interface

Cons

• Only available on iPhone devices
• U.S. presence is very limited (currently only in New York City)
• Payments for dates are on the honor system and in cash, there is no online “escrowing” of payments

— In-Depth Ohlala App Review—

Different people have different reasons for using online dating and hookup apps. For some, it is seeking long-term romance. For others, it is for something more casual. When you add to the mix different outlooks on life, different wants, different desires, different lifestyles — online dating takes on a very diverse appearance.

Knowing this, we probably should not have had been as surprised as we were when we first heard about the concept of a “paid dating” app. Before we continue, allow us to clarify — by paid dating app we are not referring to a service that charges a monthly membership fee. We are talking about an app which purpose is to bring male users together with female users for the purposes of a paid date. Yes, you read that correctly, it’s an app for men to pay for dates.

Certainly, a lot of questions are brewing in your head right now. Is this legal? Is this promoting prostitution? How does it work? Precisely to answer those questions and many more, we conducted a full review of the app that is attempting to become the pioneer in online paid dating. It is known as OhLala.

— Background —

OhLala started as a dating app known as Peppr in Germany in 2014. From its inception, its intent was to provide a platform for paid dating. In 2015, it revamped its operating model and rebranded itself as OhLala.

Up until 2016, OhLala was only available in Germany — a country which coincidentally has legalized prostitution. In the early part of that year, OhLala entered the American market. From what we have been able to ascertain during our testing, the app offers coverage only in New York City.

— How It Works —

OhLala is a mobile-only app. As of mid-2017, it is only available for iPhone and iPad devices. It is available as a free download and does not require a membership fee to use.

The basic operating model for OhLala requires both males and females to register by providing a valid email address, selecting a username and password, and uploading a personal profile. This profile includes details about your physical attributes, personal comments about yourself, what you are looking for, the maximum distance you are willing to travel, and profile pictures. Up until this stage, it sounds pretty routine — very similar to the majority of other dating apps out there.

The biggest difference in OhLaLa compared to other dating apps is first seen after the user logs on and enters the member’s area. Once there, the user experience will be different for men and women.

Men are greeted by an invitation to fill out a paid date request. These requests must include the duration of the date they are seeking — this can be as short as 30 minutes, or as long as the entire evening. The man must also post the budget that he has for his date. In other words, how much he is willing to pay for the date. It is important to note that when posting a request it must be for a date that is to take place within 4 hours. You cannot be planning ahead on a Tuesday for getting a paid date for the weekend. The app claims that immediacy of action is essential to keep the app fresh and engaging.

— OhLaLa User Experience —

When women log into the app they get a completely different user experience. Women see all of the paid requests that have been posted on the app by men within a reasonable radius of their location. Women are only given 21 minutes to respond to these paid requests. This means that the paid requests that are shown are always fresh and active.

Men cannot browse through the profiles of female members. The only way that a male user can look at a female user’s profile is when she responds to one of his specific paid date requests. Likewise, female users can only look at the user profiles of males when they have active paid date requests. Once a paid date request has expired — or has been filled by another female member — his profile is no longer accessible until he posts another paid date request. Keeping in mind the delicate nature of this app, in our opinion, this confidentiality of user profiles is a good thing. It keeps your profile from being circulated openly and only exposes it to those that have a genuine interest in hooking up with each other.

— Member Communication —

The communication feature between two OhLala members is only activated when a female member decides to respond to a paid request from a male user. That communication is handled via the apps internal online chat module. On there, the members can discuss details of the paid date request. These would normally include the final amount to be paid for the date, the exact time and location for the date, and any other special details. (We will let your own imaginations fill in the meaning of “special details”)

— What OhLala Does NOT Do —

OhLala only functions as a platform for people to meet. It does not act in any way as an intermediary for any implied commercial transaction between its members. To explain that in a more colloquial fashion, Ohlala does not position itself as a “pimp.” They don’t take a share of any of the money that their members exchange for dates. Neither do they charge hookup commissions. In fact, there is no way for female members to be guaranteed that the male user will, in fact, have the money that he offered for the date. There is no “escrow” service offered by OhLala to make the financial transactions more secure and reliable. By extension, this implies that most payments would take place in cash.