The shock survey of “special envoy” on prostitution in Booking and Airbnb type rentals

It all started with an anecdote. Antoine, a journalist, told the funny story that came to him last summer to colleagues from“Special Envoy” . Owner of an apartment he rents for short -term stays and managed by a concierge that takes care of announcements on Airbnb or Booking type sites, he realizes that his property has not been rented for a month and a half. He then decides to pass there and, once the door is open, does not believe his eyes. “There are people in my bed!” »»he explains. Quickly, he understood that the home is used by prostitutes.

Building on this testimony, the French magazine team decided to investigate to find out if this case was isolated or hid a larger phenomenon. For several months, journalists approached sex workers but also owners of apartments subject to the rental of short duration and even concierge managers.

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The observation is clear: prostitution in this type of apartments represents a scourge that affects all regions of France. And, if prostitution has been legal in France for ten years, renting your apartment for this kind of trade is pimping. Reporters then tried to understand why sex workers choose more in this kind of place.

Having no pay sheets, some explain that they cannot rent an apartment for a long time. They also consider themselves to be more secure, one of them relating to having been kidnapped with a customer.

Prostitutes even communicate with each other to give themselves advice on the location to rent. “We exchange the pipes, the good and bad plans”specifies one of them.

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If the concierge managers obviously identify the apartments rented for prostitution, they struggle to fight against this problem facing the inaction of the dedicated assistance of the websites relaying the Booking or Airbnb type ads.

The latter also refused to respond to the camera in front of the journalists and only sent a message specifying that everything was done to investigate the reports received and that measures were taken up to the account of the incriminated user.

The owners who knowingly praise their apartment for passes face a sentence of up to seven years of imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros.