BROTHELS HIT A SNAG

FREE BARBECUES TO WHIP UP TRADE

A GOLD Coast brothel is doing free sausage sizzles, Uber rides and shouting concierge golf days to compete with unregulated massage shops.

Pentagon Grand has started firing up a free BBQ for customers on Friday and Saturday nights as a “value add” at its Molendinar premises.

The knock shop also has a driver on staff offering free pick ups and drop-offs to clients, and pays customer Uber bills.

A Pentagon Grand spokesman said the venue had its worst 12 months in the past financial year in 15 years, blaming tighter “discretionary spending” and illicit massage shops.

“We do do a sausage sizzle – a bit like Harvey Norman – it is a gimmicky thing but it is a bit of a value add.

“We have a free pick-up service, sometimes Friday but always on Saturday nights. We have a driver on site. It’s just a sign of the times, you do have to do a few extra things.”

Complimentary golf days were offered to select city hotel concierges as a means of “subliminal advertising”: “If they ever get asked, then they have heard of it – you have to compete and we are very limited as to how we can advertise.”

Trade had picked up in the past few months with big conferences on the Gold Coast and the US Navy in Queensland, the spokesman said.

But he added it was “frustrating” to see the number of unregulated massage shops offering cheap sexual extras on the Coast when legitimate brothels had annual licensing bills of $40,000.

“They are springing up everywhere. It’s obviously having an impact,” he said.

“We can’t compete in that space as we are not allowed to use the word massage (in any advertising). They must have thought we were going to lure people to the brothel – how ironic is this – under the pretence they were just going to get a massage when actually we are going to give them full sex. How ridiculous is that?”

Back in July, the operator of long-running Burleigh Heads brothel Secret Liaisons blamed “unregulated” citywide massage parlours for killing off his house of sin. The owner sold the site for $950,000 just eight months after shelling out $1 million to buy it.

Last year, the Bulletin revealed 140 new underground brothels operating as massage parlours had opened across the Gold Coast in 12 months. Secret Liaisons, operating more than 15 years, formerly traded as The Black Orchid.