No, termas are not closing, but they seem to be dropping the designation "termas." Termas Cancun was the first, becoming Club Cancun. Now Termas L'uomo has announced it is changing its name to L'uomo Club.

I'm not sure what's behind this. Maybe some of the termas are anxious to distinguish themselves from all the gay termas around town. Who knows? As far as I can tell, nothing else has changed at these places.

Maybe they got tired of all the gringos call them "Thermas" when there was no "h" in the name, and figured that nobody can mispronounce club. That's "klu-bee" for all of you who didn't know

Perhaps they might want to become more mainstream/commercialized and the word "Club" sounds a lot better on print/interent advertising than "Termas".

I don't know if has something to do with the almost-illegal nature of establishments, but I actually admired how they kept the outside decor rather subtle. For an unknowning passer-by, you wouldn't know the place without knowing the address. Considering trashy south florida stripclubs are plastered outside with neon signs, strobe lights, and such. I'd hate to see Rio termas find a similiar path.

One observation I have noticed recently is the ease of paying everything with a credit card at all the termas. Luomo has changed that policy and I got away with paying everything at Solarium too without paying extra for the girl's fee when I spoke to the manager. Centaurus still took me for an extra 20R. The Centro termas all take a CC without extra fees.

I always thought it was bullshit they don't positive cashflow to make up for delay in actually receiving the money.

4x4's official line is that there's an additional R$10 real per girl charge for paying by CC, but I've rarely seen this charge actually applied. The official line at 65 is that they charge an extra 10% of the girl's fee for credit card use (ie. 40 min=R135 for the girl, so an extra R13.50).

I have never been charged the additional fee in 4x4 and I use my CC every time. I do believe that your receipt in 65 lists the cash price in both $R and Dollars, the CC price in $R and they do expect the premium for using the CC.
CG

I prefer paying by CC too!

Them FF miles can sure add up, from frequent T runs!