Prostitution ring operating inside five-star Shanghai hotel busted by police

The Hotel Nikko Shanghai has said that it was ignorant of the brothel carrying out business on its 18th floor

Turns out that five-star hotels in China not only have lax hygiene standards, but may also house prostitution rings. Shocking, we know.

On January 3rd, police raided five hotel rooms on the 18th floor of the Hotel Nikko Shanghai, detaining eleven individuals suspected of running a prostitution service.

According to Changning District police, the gang would advertise their services online with only a number to call. Clients could call that number and arrange a meeting with a gang member near to the hotel. Then, they would be escorted to the 18th floor and invited to pick a girl before the transaction was finally completed in another room.

The five-star Hotel Nikko Shanghai is located at 488 West Yan’an Road and boasts 382 luxury guestrooms and suites. A one night stay at a “Premier Room” in the hotel will run you more than 700 yuan, while a “Deluxe Room” costs over 900 yuan. It’s not clear how much the gang charged for its services.

The hotel’s public relations manager told the Shanghai Morning Post that the hotel was completely ignorant of the prostitution ring operating in its midst, explaining that the gang was careful not to book the rooms on a long-term basis, but through different identities, different platforms, and with variable lengths of stay.

However, Ge Zhihao, a Beijing-based lawyer told the newspaper that if the hotel was in fact ignorant of the group, then it must have some major loopholes in its registration system that need to be addressed.

As we alluded to above, the reputation of five-star hotels in China has taken a hit recently after an undercover investigation last month exposed three luxury hotels in the city of Harbin for committing a variety of cleanliness violations, including cleaners using the same brush to clean both water glasses and toilets.