Indian Hospitality Industry 6

Without much ado, at the very outset sample few ingenuous guises for starters, which are in common practice - These are real and indeed very original, yet there are gaping hole in their flawless facades;

Take One: A lady checks-In, she is all dressed up in full scale heavy wedding gear, replete with her forearms covered with colorful chura (big set of bangles) and all the associated paraphernalia – Her big car parked in the porch. But all this was not very convincing.

Take Two: Next comes a smart girl all dressed up. This one chooses to barge in with her paramour, heads straight to the pool side bar, orders a drink and settles down. The serving staff smelt a rat and took appropriate action.

Take Three: An unassuming couple - very happily married – stayed for weeks with flawless confidence and composure - actually they found to be Pimp & Prostitute duet.

Take Four:  There have been incidents – especially on Saturdays’ when the hotels have had to actually chase away the whores ‘en masse’. But the hookers are the unstoppable kind...!

Take Five: The Health Clubs and Spas’ in hotels remains the favourite haunt of both ‘Hookers & Hooked’. The girls join masquerading as‘masseuse’ to serve the clients. Quite a number of them have been shown the door. 

Let’s brace ourselves up to face facts. Welcome to the all new world of the age old profession.

Over the centuries mankind has indulged in the unspeakable desires of flesh. However the methodology of solicitations has changed with the passage of time, with the internet comforting and easing every facet of human existence, it has – not surprisingly - included the ‘Hookers’ in its fold as well, giving rise to a all newbusiness spin-off in hotels, I choose to call it – ‘Techno Harlotry’.

 During last one year I have been closely monitoring the operations of various hotels and discovered some very interesting modules of this business.  The technology has lifted the “World’s oldest profession” to a new high, furthermore it has made the ‘Hooker Delivery System’ as simple as the ‘Room Service’. Most hotels express their surprise or feign ignorance while it all happens under their noses - they are happy with the business.

Practicing young ladies today are smarter than ever before, they are all dressed to kill, very modern, very chic, they regularly visit full service ‘Salon and Spa’ for proper beauty treatment, speak fluent English, they could be either Indian or Russian, very confident with all the poise needed to entice men, they independently book a room and check – in. Then arrives her burly procurer (pimp) separately, on his own and checks-in as well, many a times he places long term booking say for 2 or 3 months, could be even more.  He usually has an excellent rapport with ‘Front Office and House Keeping Staff’, more often than not, he is considered a wealthy business man who loves to flaunt his money, generously tipping away all and sundry at the ‘drop of hat’.

Modus Operandi

Biggest indirect support of this dark operation comes from major ‘Online Travel Agencies’. They place prepaid bookings with the hotels with proper guest name. All legit...! This person checks-in the hotel as a normal guest, he is all complete with his credentials, all very genuine, he presents his ID (out of Delhi) at the reception and he is in his room.

The ‘procurer’ at any given point in time can have 3-5 girls staying in different rooms in the same hotel.  Once the evening sets in, they start their business manoeuvres, moving from one room to another and they are all controlled by their respective booking agent, who also comfortably lodged in the same hotel.  The process works very well, and works even better in the bigger hotels where the business is even better.

Nearly 85% of guests who waded into the trap were small time business men, having high disposable income, especially with liquid cash. Quite remarkably when caught, they were so embarrassed that they either begged for forgiveness or bribe their way to literally run away from the hotel.  There are of course quite a sizable number of guests who would put up a bold front and be nasty at the same time.

Since this business has been there for centuries and will go on for all times. Meanwhile allow me to suggest some remedial measures?

1. Fully Legalize the prostitution – but under strong control. May be on the lines of Germany or Greece. Government can even benefit and have a better control. Let the masses give a vent to the quarantined  lust. OR
2. Impose a strict punishment to all three indulgent parties to this business i.e., The pimp, The heroine and The Red Riding loaded Bakra.
3. OTA’s making slot bookings under all conditions need to be revisited.  The authorities need to streamline the procedure and work out a system where they are able to stop the misuse of this booking system.
4. Hotels and OTA’s should together must work out a ‘Communication Strategy’ dedicated to the singular purpose of eliminating the recurrence of this business. 

This is possible only if hotels become truly vigilant and maintain a hawk eye to spot and apprehend the guests misusing this booking channel. In one go at the press of a key, the hotels should be able to inform all OTAs about the action they take to block his booking we can immediately put a stop to this practice. All this is possible by simply making few modifications in the system software.

Would this happen?  I really don’t think so, until or unless the Government intervenes and brings in legislation to this effect.

ENDS...!

Written by Anil Chak & Virat Varma