“Unfair Competition: Prostitution Salons vs Hotels – The Battle in Friborg”

2023-05-17 20:12:18

The Friborg prostitution parlors complain regarding the unfair competition represented by the hotels. Some prostitutes indeed prefer to practice their profession in hotel rooms where the activity is not subject to authorization if it remains occasional in the establishment.

In a living room in the town of Bulle, seven girls sell their charm. The establishment is subject to authorization and checks are regularly carried out by the morality police. Today, its manager has decided to wage war on hotels that open their rooms to prostitution. “The girls who work in hotels cut their prices, so we expect the Friborg authorities to react so that there is a change in the law. This, in order to ban this practice in hotels and private apartments”, claims Loïc Duc, manager of the Center Relax, Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

For salons that would take a minimum of 300 francs per hour compared to 200 francs in a hotel establishment, this is unfair competition. “Since the start of the year, I’ve seen a drop in customers and I’ve heard that a lot of girls work in discount hotels. It’s not right for the girls who work here when we’re in good standing”, laments Zoé Meuwly, patroness of the Salon Bar Suleik Girl, at the microphone of RTS.

Preference for hotels

The battle between salons and hotels took on the appearance of being put in order when last March, the canton of Friborg sent all hoteliers and para-hotel establishments a letter asking them to announce whether the practice of prostitution takes on a lasting character in their establishment.

Déborah, who comes from Romania, first practiced in a salon but today the escort says she prefers hotels and denies lowering prices. “When I’m in a hotel, I raise prices to select customers, we can take 600 francs for example”.

An independence that suits the business of this hotelier in difficulty since the Covid period, the only one who agreed to testify anonymously. “Prostitution in the hotel environment is not new. There is indeed an upward trend,” he said in writing.

Zone grise

For Alain Maeder, head of the commercial police of the canton of Fribourg, this hotelier who rents rooms to prostitutes from time to time is completely within the rules. “For a hotel establishment which sporadically hosts prostitution activities, it seems disproportionate to impose the same administrative procedures on the hotelier. This is all the more so since the hotelier is not necessarily supposed to know the objective of the people who will occupy the room”.

The occasional exercise of prostitution in hotels or airbnb seems to benefit from a gray area. For the time being, the will to change the law does not seem to be the option taken by the authorities.

Carine Regidor/hkr

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