A Thai brothel has gone up for sale at a staggering 14 million dollars – despite customers being banned until next year.
The once-popular soapy massage parlour in in Bangkok has 104 rooms with baths and jacuzzis all lavishly decorated with gaudy wallpaper and garish bed spreads.
Owners claim there were more than 100 customers a day before the pandemic – generating profits of between three and six million Thai baht per month (90,000 US dollars and 180,000 US dollars).
However, tourists were banned in March last year which stemmed the flow of clients from Britain, China and Japan, which were three of the brothel’s biggest markets.
Ministers have kept bath houses closed until at least January next year but fears of the Omicron variant could push back the opening date further.
The struggling owner of ‘Valentine’, the name of the establishment, has now thrown in the towel and put his massage parlour on the market.
Dream Wongsomboon, who is handling the sale for the brothel-keeper, said: ‘The place was popular before with lots of beautiful girls. Chinese people liked it a lot but we also had lots of Thais and Westerners. It will be busy again and it’s worth every penny.
‘It’s not easy to get a license for this kind of business, that’s why the price is high. We were famous for our jacuzzi rooms. We had some very famous people come here before. They will come back again when the new place reopens.’
The sale price included the freehold to the building, comprised of three five-storey entertainment complexes, as well as 4,800-square metres of land in the Pinklao district of the capital of Thailand.
Buyers also have the option to hire a management team which includes a full set of ‘beautiful young women between 18 and 30 years old’.
The building also has a cafe with 50 tables where visitors can order coffee and popular Thai food dishes.
Dream said the business is being sold because the elderly owner does not have a successor. She added: ‘There has been lots of interest. I think we will sell quickly.’
Brothels – classified legally in Thailand as ‘entertainment venues’ – along with massage parlours, bars and strip clubs were among the first to close when the country went into its first lockdown last year.
Some briefly re-opened during a lull in cases but the adult industry has been on its knees ever since due to Covid-19 restrictions preventing tourists from travelling into the country.
Ministers re-opened the country to fully vaccinated tourists in November but the trickle of visitors has not been enough to plug the hole in the economy, which was dependent on tourism for up to 20 per cent of GDP.
Bars and adult nightlife remains closed amid fears that it could lead to outbreaks of infections.