A brothel manager has given a behind-the-scenes glimpse at what sex on premises venues are really like during the festive season.
Catherine De Noire is a manager at one of the largest brothels in Europe, where the women work as independent contractors.
She’s known for giving a glimpse behind the curtain of the adult establishment she works at, and now she’s revealed what the brothel is like during the festive season.
“December is really big because of the Christmas parties. A lot of office Christmas parties tend to come to our place because most of the time the girls are drunk, the guys are drunk, and they’re like, ‘Let’s go to the brothel, it’ll be fun,’” De Noire told news.com.au.
“They are fun because they party a lot, they’re good customers, and they don’t cause any scenes because they’re still in their office group.”
She said before Christmas, the brothel is incredibly busy, and then Christmas Day hits. She said it’s incredibly quiet and everyone is in a festive spirit.
Regulars even bake cookies and bring them to their favourite sex workers. De Noire revealed that a lot of the women don’t like to work on Christmas Day.
Often, they will either do the day shift or the night shift, not both. This quiet continues through until the New Year, adding that most clients are with their families.
“When somebody comes to the brothel [during this time] it usually means they are divorced or don’t want to spend time with their families,” she said.
“Even though a lot of the customers are married, they understand during this time they need to be with their families.”
But in the lead-up to New Year’s, De Noire said that the brothel gets “really wild.”
“People love to party, they love to go to the brothel. I always have a night shift on New Year’s Eve,” she said.
“Every year, I know I will need to stay there until 8 am because people like a big night, they don’t want to leave. They want to party. It’s a really stressful day.”
She said that at midnight, people often aren’t at the brothel as they want to see the fireworks. It’s after that where people start to filter in.
“Sometimes clients come because they want to have midnight sex, but most come around 2 or 3 am — already drunk,” she said.
“So we need to be very careful. I’d never drink on the day because I need to focus.”
She said the following day — New Year’s Day — is also big, with people even lining up to get in.
January 2 is quiet as everyone is hungover and kicking off with their New Year’s resolutions, De Noire said.
She said by March, everyone had given up on their resolutions, and the brothel was busy again.
Despite this being the standard state of affairs, De Noire said she thinks this year will be different — that it will be quieter.
“It never got busy after March this year. It’s really strange. People tend to spend less, and we’re seeing a decline in the number of customers. The sex workers have told us many times they’re not making the same money,” she said.
“Some are saying they’re making half of what they’re used to.”
She said customers are trying to save more and are consistently haggling over the prices. This is because of a cost-of-living problem, with a lot of sex workers and brothel managers she speaks to reporting similar issues.
“I think people are expecting a recession. There’s a war in Ukraine, and the tariffs — we don’t know what will happen,” she said.
“This is usually the time people start to save. We see it right now, and going to the brothel is not the thing you need for your life, and so it’s usually the first thing you cut off.
It leads her to be unsure what this festive season will hold.
