Holidaying Swedes intending to rent their city properties out this summer have been advised to be wary of prostitutes.
A survey last year revealed that some 37 per cent of Swedes travelled to a country house at some stage during the summer months, and a survey this March showed that around 43 per cent of Swedes intend to holiday abroad this summer. Many of these people plan to rent their permanent homes when they are away. However, Swedish police have issued a warning stating that it is becoming increasingly common for sex workers to rent apartments as a place to take clients.
Stockholm police spokesman Simon Haggstrom noted that not so long ago the majority of prostitution arrests occurred in hotels, but these days they tend to be made in residential apartments.
Haggstrom explained that a three-hour training course advising Stockholm hotel staff how to detect prostitution has led to hotel personnel noticing it more frequently which, subsequently, has resulted in more sex workers looking for alternative places, such as apartments, to carry out their work.
He went on to say, however, that prostitution only occurs in a minimal number of apartments in the Swedish capital, but said it was still “tragic”. He acknowledged that it was “largely unavoidable” and something they have to live with as it was “almost impossible” to stop it from happening.
When police learn that prostitution has been going on in an apartment they notify the legal owners by letter, but Haggstrom said it was “tricky” to avoid it happening in the first place, noting that it was difficult to spot someone who is planning to sell sex. He, therefore, advised people planning to sublet their apartments to ask a friend or neighbor to check them occasionally while they’re away.