saturday june 16 2018
Prostitution ‘Tripadvisor’ site condemned
Gurpreet Narwan
June 16 2018, 12:01am, The Times
Mayfair’s Shepherd Market comes alive with a gaggle of colourful characters on long, hot summer evenings.
Over cocktails and charcuterie boards, revellers gossip and chatter in the square, many oblivious to the shabby door marked 50A, which remains perpetually ajar in the far corner.
For those who venture inside, a narrow set of stairs takes them to the “beautiful model” inside. On the top floor, overlooking grand stucco terraces and posh wine bars, she offers oral sex and more for £160 an hour.
“Walk-ups” are small flats dotted around London that are occupied by a single sex worker who is usually accompanied by a maid. The woman in this particular Mayfair walk-up has been inundated with “punters” since it was claimed that Sir Martin Sorrell, the former boss of the advertising firm WPP, visited the site allegedly using company expenses — a claim that he strenuously denies. She is about 5ft 6in, her hair falls to her shoulders and is wavy and golden-brown. She fits the description of Scarlett, a sex worker who has been discussed at length on a website called UKPunting.
Walk-up encounters are typically unpredictable and fleeting affairs but many “punters” visiting them are now doing their research by reading online reviews on a website dubbed the “Tripadvisor of prostitution”.
On UKPunting users comment about the appearance, performance and attitude of prostitutes in walk-ups and brothels across the country. The users say it helps them seek out value for money but for others it is a cesspit of misogyny and spiteful abuse.
“I don’t really want someone talking about my breasts online, what they look or feel like. I prefer not to go on it at all and like to think that the guys that I see wouldn’t leave comments on a website like that,” said the woman standing in the doorway. Unbeknown to her, the walk-up has been discussed at length on UKPunting. “I would compare her to Cherry in terms of looks, character and service. She’s quite pleasant to chat to. Recommended,” wrote one satisfied customer. Another wrote: “Once I was in I could see she was a lot shorter than I thought . . . not as fit . . . the angle I saw here from the stairs had been deceptive . . . she was kind of stumpy but not too bad . . . quite pretty in her own way and kind of shy and seemed like she would be submissive.”
The website was founded in 2010 by a seasoned user of prostitutes who goes by the name of Nik. He said that it was an alternative to the sites that were “funded by advertising from service providers, therefore they had, and still have, vested interests in portraying a favourable and often false image of the paid sex scene”.
In a similar fashion to restaurants and bed & breakfasts on Tripadvisor, women are ranked out of ten, users compare prices and throw around accusations sex workers are submitting fake reviews. Women have also reported being threatened with bad reviews if they do not have sex without charge.
On the site, Nik offers tips and advice to punters, ranging from “working girls do not look as good as their photographs, which often flatter them” to “girls who ask for the money and then assiduously count it before stashing it away are never as good as those who are more laid back about it”.
Sex workers described the website as “disgusting and horrible”. One escort based in London told The Times: “It is the most derogatory site I’ve ever known and it is seriously bad for women’s mental health. I’ve heard of sex workers being driven to suicide. I don’t go on it and it’s best to avoid it but I cannot believe it is allowed to exist.”
The English Collective of Prostitutes, which campaigns for the decriminalisation of sex work, said that some clients harassed and bullied sex workers on the site.
