Having worked in a hotel both as a hospitality worker and as a hooker, I feel as though I’m in a particularly good place to discuss interactions between the two. Sex workers will often spend time in bars, restaurants and particularly hotels with our clients in ways that may make our profession obvious. Once we’re spotted, hotel workers have to decide whether they’re going to do anything about it.
Training is provided to many people working in hotels about how to spot sex trafficking or prostitution. This often amounts to a couple of slides within a presentation, but it can far more comprehensive when large chains like Marriott decide to focus on it as a publicity stunt. This training is generally deeply ineffective in helping employees to spot real sex trafficking, and instructs them to respond to potential trafficking in ways that will harm both victims and sex workers who are content in their work.
For context before we get into these warning signs, it is important that we understand what is considered to be trafficking. In most countries, any situation where a third party profits from another person selling sex can be considered to be sex trafficking, regardless of whether the person consents to the work. In the US, “the term ‘sex trafficking’ means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act”. According to this definition, all prostitution is considered to be sex trafficking. In the UK, prostitution is considered to be trafficking if the person selling sex has their travel arranged by a third party, even if they consent to it. Across Europe and Asia and Africa, the definitions aren’t much better.
Hotels who train their staff to spot the signs of sex trafficking aren’t teaching their staff to catch abusers who are forcing people to sell sex. As you’ll see from the list of red flags, they’re actually just trying to catch any sex workers who use their hotels at all and to get rid of them, labelling them as sex trafficking victims in ways the law facilitates.
Here are some of the supposed warning signs that hotel employees are often trained to react to:
- Minimal luggage. – This suggests the purpose of the hotel stay is not tourism and that it is short-term. A lack of luggage or a bag big enough for a change of clothes implies no plan to stay for the whole night, or that the person may be homeless and keeping their belongings elsewhere or be lacking in personal items due to sudden upheaval.
A sex worker might go to a hotel with only a small bag containing things like condoms and lube and a place to put cash for when they leave, or they might enter with a large duffel containing multiple outfits and fetish gear and sex toys. A victim of sexual abuse who is staying in a hotel with a person controlling them likely will have luggage, belonging to the abuser, which would be indistinguishable from their own. - Disorientation or confusion from the guest. – There are a number of reasons someone might be confused or disoriented, from mental health issues like anxiety to dementia to being overwhelmed by the travel which brought them to the hotel.
A victim of sexual abuse and a sex worker would both have reason to be nervous in a hotel, of being caught out by staff or subject to abuse when alone with an exploiter. - An insistence on not receiving housekeeping (especially if they ask for extra towels/linens but deny entry to the room). – Anyone invested in their privacy might ask for this, whether because they’re using the room for (unpaid) sex or because they’re a homeless person taking the opportunity to take care of hygiene needs they haven’t been able to for a while. Incontinence issues might make people request more towels or linens but leave them embarrassed about housekeeping seeing. Drug users may be trying to avoid criminalization if they are caught with drugs in their room.
Sex workers tend to refuse housekeeping services to avoid cleaners noticing that they have had sex in the room or the presence of condoms and lube, or the chances that housekeeping will arrive while they are with a client and interrupt them. If someone is being forced to sell sex by a third party, the abuser will also want to avoid being observed. - Multiple people going in and out of one room, or a guest greeting multiple people in the lobby to take back to the room. – While someone may be conducting meetings from their hotel room or spending time with friends, the most likely explanation for this is the sale of sex.
Independent sex workers are most likely to do this because those who are being controlled and forced to sell sex typically aren’t given so much freedom in a venue where they could easily leave. - Paying exclusively with cash. – People wishing to avoid surveillance and those without bank accounts are the most likely to do this, including members of GRT communities and homeless people.
Sex workers are likely to pay in cash and so are abusers who profit from the prostitution of others, as a way to avoid being monitored. - Presence of multiple computers, cell phones, pagers, credit card swipers, or other technology. – People staying in hotels on business are more likely to have these than anyone else.
Sex workers often have a personal phone and a work phone. Taking credit card payments for sex is uncommon, whether the person selling sex is an independent sex workers or a victim of force. There is no reason that someone forcing another person to sell sex would have multiple computers or pagers or credit card swipers. Only the phones make sense on this list as an indicator. - Wearing flashy or revealing clothing. – People are most likely to stay in hotels when on holiday, taking a work trip, or for the purpose of tourism. If someone is going to an event before coming back to their hotel, they may be wearing clothing which is outside of the norm. This should not be shocking.
Sex workers tend to be very aware that they will be scrutinized by hotel staff and avoid dressing in clothing that will draw attention. Abusers will often make sure their victims are not drawing attention either. - Another guest seems to be controlling them, perhaps even holding their ID and speaking for them. – This is the only item on the list which is an actual sign of abuse, though it is still not a sign that someone is specifically being coerced to sell sex. Intimate partner violence is a common problem.
Employees aren’t expected to raise the alarm everyone who meets one of these criteria, but these serve as guidelines in many hotels for working out whether someone is suspicious enough to merit reporting to a manager. If a person meets multiple criteria and a receptionist has a hunch, the responses can range from a manager being sent to check in on the guest in their room all the way to calling the police.
If some of these supposed red flags seem bizarre to you and you find it hard to believe they’re really taught about, feel free to look at this page from the Department of Homeland Security which lists many of them!
So what happens if a guest is reported and they really are a sex trafficking victim who is being forced to sell sex within the hotel? Or what if they’re a sex worker who is facing no coercion?
If the police are called:
The police are not trafficking victims’ friends. Cops regularly arrest victims of sex trafficking on prostitution charges in places where selling sex is illegal, deport then if they’re from another country and selling sex without a work visa (whether it’s illegal to sell sex in the country they’re in or not), and harass them. If someone is being forced to sell sex, they are incentivized to lie to the police about that because the police would only make things worse.
Independent sex workers face all these same issues and are more likely to have evidence on them of selling sex than victims who are forced to sell sex are, because they arrange the clients for themselves. They face all the same consequences from police that victims do, and are less likely to receive sympathy.
If they are kicked out of the hotel:
Nothing about their situation changes except the fact they now have less money and need to find another hotel on short notice. If the person is being abused by a third party who is forcing them to sell sex, they may also face punishment from their pimp or manager over the inconvenience.
In situations where hotel management check in on the guest first and tells them they’re being kicked out, potentially interrupting their time with a client, this also increases the likelihood that the client will demand their money back or become angry and aggressive.
What should hotel workers do, if they do suspect abuse or that someone is being forced to sell sex within the hotel because another person is exhibiting control over them?
Hotel workers should attempt to speak to the potential victim alone briefly, telling them that they can come to the worker if they need anything. Deciding for them to report to higher-ups or the police will likely result in a worse outcome from them.
If the person requests help, the hotel worker should put distance between the victim and the abuser. They can do this by insisting on speaking to the victim privately and taking them into a staff area, where the abuser cannot follow without making a scene. Involving other staff is a good plan, if necessary to keep the abuser distracted whilst they do so. They should discuss the location of belongings and the options for exits with the victim and send someone to retrieve personal items from the room if needed. Calling a taxi for the victim which can take them to a safe location of their choice is also highly recommended. Whether they report the incident should be their choice.
Hotel workers should keep in mind that most of the time, they will not be able to tell when someone is being trafficked. Most of the signs they are taught to identify and just things that make it more likely a person is selling sex, not that they’re being abused.
If you’re a hotel worker and you see a potential sex worker, who you have no reason to believe is a victim of abuse… no you didn’t!
Jack Talks About Sex Work 