that sees extra time as an opportunity, there is guy like me that sees a provider in desperation, and it makes me wonder where she has to cut corners in order to make her business more profitable.   Ther are two sides to every coin.  

I used to have a 2 hour minimum $1,500 in 2017.

I feel you maybe limiting yourself if you do not offer 1 hour play dates. Some people do not have the luxury of time. I find the best dates are longer and the time shared is better because it's not rushed. I just did a 90 minute date last week and I felt, like I was trying to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. I know he was happy & that's all that matters.  

I believe that dinner dates, overnights, vacations and travel buddy companionship requests are where I thrive. No rush just fun! 🤩 I love knowing I will satisfy all his wants, needs, fantasies & desires during our time together. I feel my donations for longer dates are reasonable & worth the price of admission.

A 90 minute minimum only works for a provider who is hitting their target in appointments. This works out best for those in high demand who also want to be low volume. It's a good way to weed out the number of clients banging at the door. Similar to raising rates that makes them higher end.

 
But if they want greater volume, they need to offer 1 hour appointments. Too many providers will continue to offer one hour, and those that do not will lose out on those clients.

This is exactly what I do except I don’t get rid of my hour appointments and it’s because 90 mins is my preferred length. I don’t make it a minimum but I incentivize it by making it only 200 more than my hour rate. I keep my hourly rate because I have so many great clients who are regulars that do hour appointments and it is not necessarily because they can’t afford longer dates. Maybe it’s because they don’t have more time to spend, perhaps they have work, a significant other, or cannot get away for longer. Perhaps they only have one quick round in them and we have plenty of time for fun and chatting in just an hour. I don’t think I’d ever get rid of my hour rate for that reason. This has absolutely nothing to do with the economy though, it is just how I’ve always done things and found it worked well for me and my clients.

Ok, so I think there are actually two separate conversations happening here.  

 
First, whether 90 minutes makes for a better experience than one hour? Personally, I think the answer is yes, almost always, and especially for new clients. At a minimum, I always recommend 90 minutes for a first meeting. As providers we know what's actually happening in that room more often than not. Most men either get performance anxiety with someone new or they get overexcited and finish faster than they'd like. Then, for a few minutes, you get in your head about it instead of having a good time which was not on the itinerary.  Like the OP said, I think you need enough time built in for flirting AND for the refractory period. I've landed on 2 to 3 hours as the sweet spot for a first meeting but that's a recommendation, not a policy. I like options and I just nudge people toward the better one.

 
The second point, about whether providers should move to a 90 minute minimum as an economic strategy if the economy softens is where I say "absolutely not". That makes no sense. If the economy continues to soften, you protect your entry point, you don't raise it. If your minimum booking is one hour, that's your door and you keep the door open. However, if you don't want 1-hours, then make the longer bookings look better to the point a person thinks, "Why would I bother with an hour?" Shout out to Farrah!

 
Last point about pricing math... I don't think it's confusion at all. When you see a provider pricing 90 minutes at the hourly rate plus half of the second hour rate, they are probably pushing you toward 2-hours. Look at almost any provider's rate structure and you'll notice the per hour cost drops as the booking gets longer. That's so intentional. The 90 minute rate sitting awkwardly between one hour and two hours is designed to make 2-hours look like the obvious choice. Typically, providers pricing 90 minutes at a flat modest premium over the hour rate are incentivizing 90 minutes specifically. Whereas, the ones doing hourly plus half are incentivizing two hours.  

 
TLDR: you totally keep the one hour in an economic downturn...