Prostitute checked into our hotel!

[GrumpyL]

Ok, so away in London for a couple of days with DH and DD (10). We were staying in a 4* Hotel which is part of a large chain of hotels, not a small independent. We went to reception about 10.30 on the 2nd morning and was met with a lady (who was very obviously a prostitute) being told her room would be ready in 5 mins and her handing over £100 in cash to the receptionist. The hotel is £250+ a night and check in is 3pm!

AIBU to this this made the hotel feel a bit icky and sleazy after I saw that? Husband and I spoke briefly when DD wasn’t listening and he said “well they have to work somewhere!”. Not sure if I’m turning into a prude in my old age, but I really didn’t feel comfortable in the hotel after I saw that. I’m sure for her, it was a safe and comfortable place to work and I know this goes on in hotels, I suppose just seeing it in broad daylight shocked me a bit. We knew what she was there for, the receptionist knew what she was there for, the man behind us in the queue knew what she was there for, maybe I thought she and the hotel should have been a bit more discreet if they allow this to go on in their hotel, especially when it’s a family friendly hotel and there were a lot of children around?

Are you really that sheltered? and at least she wasn't on the street.

When I worked in a hotel, we mostly found the sex trade rather seedy and undesirable.

Ah, another entitled parent who wants the world to revolve around them and their sprogs, and bitterly resents those of us who won’t cooperate. 🙄

“That's where sex workers tend to work from, if they are sensible. The person who checked afterwards could have been an arms dealing rapist but you wouldn't judge him cos he was a man in a suit? Get over it. Sorry but it is central London. Every day a 'prostitute' sleeps/works in every hotel.”

This. Especially the highlighted part.

They're not going to come and have a shag in the dining room, are they? So no reason to worry about there being kids in the hotel.

Realistically, kids probably make more noise and hassle to other guests than prostitutes do.

careful there poppet, think you dropped a pearl

long ago when I was young I lived in one of the "red light" areas in the city. Of course there were no actual red lights, there was street prostitution and of course that meant kerb crawlers. I was sometime kerb crawled and guess what, I was dressed in very ordinary day to day clothing. I was even kerb crawled while visibly and heavily pregnant. Guy asked me if i was "doing any business" and I just walked on and he drove after me, followed me in his car and then parked outside my flat and kept looking up at the windows. There are some vile men ot there.

How does this ‘prostitute’ have any impact on your life at all? Are you worried your husband will hook up??
Did you invent this story about her based purely on her clothes and payment in cash?
I used to work for a charity for vulnerable women and some hotels in our area had an agreement for them to have rooms at a reduced rate to keep them safe.

In fairness, if your granddaughter and friends were teenage girls it could easily have been concern rather than nosiness. As someone who has seen young looking teenagers on street corners in other countries (where there is very little one can do because its so tolerated) it is actually really upsetting to see and not be able to do anything. In a setting like a hotel I can imagine a receptionist keeping an eye out that random men weren't going into the potentially underage teenagers hotel rooms. She would have thought you were their pimp by the way.

Where I live now prostitution is like totally empowering and cool guys and we are such a liberal cool country for being OK with it. BUT at the same time there has been a lot of complaining about the punters clogging up the city centre, being rowdy, harassing non-prostitute women, making the city look seedy. But prostitution is still like totally progressive. So the solution is for the government to build a single "complex" (basically a mega brothel) outside the city centre and all the prostitutes and sleazy men can be there out of site. Obviously the people living there are not happy, neither are the prostitutes themselves (safety issues, being confined to a building with less freedom, being sidelined). It feels incredibly dishonest - like we are going to pretend there is nothing wrong with prostitution on the one hand but also the men are so awful we are going to put the whole thing out of sight somewhere from the people that matter.

Which is a long winded way of saying I don't like the normalisation of "sex work". But I would also rather the women in the story (if she was indeed a prostitute, big if) was safe to work in a hotel rather than pushed out of sight somewhere less safe.

Could have been a knackered mumma just wanting a day of rest and peace on her own for a few hours.

You have no idea whether this woman is a sex worker, you are making assumptions presumably based on her appearance.

even if she was, consenting adults have sex in hotel rooms every single day. Why on Earth would you think it would be an issue?

None of your business. None!

You maybe are turning into a bit of a prude in your old age, I am as well, but I’m prudish about myself. Maybe you’d be happier and get on better in life if you try and mind your own business.

If you hadn't seen this woman (and you really have no proof if she was a prostitute) checking in you would have been blissfully enjoying your stay in the hotel in ignorance.

You are being ridiculous btw, even if she was who you think she was.

I've stayed at five-star city hotels and they are usually crawling with escorts. Classy ones, though

I mean unless you hear her ask someone "do you want to buy sex", you can't possibly know for sure that she was a sex worker and it's all conjecture.

I've never had any interaction with that industry, but I imagine it goes on in most hotels in cities.

I wouldn't give much thought to it, personally.

Oh come on, you're being outrageous!

she was checking in with notes, therefore she's a prostitute?

There are so many other options to think of than that you've let everyone imagine! An old grubby dog. She might work there, she might be meeting an affair partner and paying off the rest, she might be a woman, that's so down with the monotony of kids and cleaning she's run ragged and asked if they'd let her stay. Fleeing domestic violence. A drug addict, (they are humans aswell and deserve a bed)

Has she ruined your holiday or what? Because you saw a woman dressed in what you consider prostitute clothes? She counted out £10 notes?

Genuiniy, Why didn't you speak to her if you were concerned with her manner? Ask the receptionist of the lady's ok? I know it's and overused term but have a walk.for.a.day, or half in her shoes.

Unless she’s “doing business” in your room on the bed you paid for, you couldn’t possibly know she was “a prostitute.”

Wait. Hold your horses — she didn’t call your husband “John,” did she?

She could have been paying for a late checkout. I can't remember if in a Premier Inn a late checkout is £10 or 20 pounds - it probably depends on just how late a checkout is wanted.

I do know that once or twice over the years I have needed a late checkout due to not being well (no they weren't hangovers!), and my husband has gone to reception to negotiate with them. Neither my husband or I are sex workers.

If you are staying in a four star hotel, I think that £100 could very easily be the cost of a late checkout.

Just a note to say that pre -paid Wotif and last minute type bookings along with some corporate bookings require a credit card imprint to cover minibar or other possible charges. If you are not able to provide a cc for a preauth then you are asked for a cash guarantee. It's usually ~100 .

And yes walkin bookings of the lowest room type are often also ~100. This is because otherwise the room remains unsold and a higher occupancy rate achieved by selling a cheap room is better than rooms remaining unsold.
A room can be cleaned for ~40

Unless she was planning on using your room you are being ridiculous.

Our of curiousity, would you also support someone who has very strong views on sex and children outside of marriage calling those children "illegitimate bastards" today, because they rightly should be called so? Did we stop calling children that because it was a politically motivated move to make unwed women having babies more mainstream, or did we come to see that these sorts of labels are attached to create a stigma on the individual? Even to feel superior to them? There are numerous other such examples. Language evolves and some terms that are associated with being derogatory to the person so labelled are gradually dropped by society. You can continue to use what terms you want of course, but there are reasons why the wider society in general moves on from those terms we now view as derogatory.

Some posh chain hotels now offer a day rate for people who WFH or similar - you get a hotel room with a high speed internet connection, all the tea/coffee/juice you can drink, and of course have access to the other hotel facilities.

Absolutely!!