Woman’s horror after renter turned her apartment into a brothel

A WOMAN has described her horror after her home was turned into a brothel when she leased it out on an Airbnb equivalent.

The woman said a sex worker named Kitti rented her apartment in and turned it into a makeshift brothel.

A WOMAN has described her horror after her apartment was turned into a makeshift brothel, littered with used condoms, dirty tissues and pregnancy tests, after she leased it out during her holiday abroad.

Pernille Bang, 26, told Vice Denmark she put her Copenhagen apartment up for rent on a homesharing website similar to Airbnb for extra money during her holiday to Thailand.

Little did she know woman who rented the apartment was a sex worker who used the apartment to service her clients — and, after Pernille discovered what was going on, refused to leave the premises without a refund.

Copenhagen is one of a number of cities where authorities have warned about a rise in the number of Airbnb-rented apartments being converted into temporary brothels.

It happens in Australia, too. Last year, a NSW woman who listed her Lismore property on Airbnb and accepted cash for payment — which went against Airbnb’s terms of service — said it was turned into a brothel while she was away.

Pernille didn’t use Airbnb but another peer-to-peer property rental property, “like Airbnb, only smaller”, she told Vice.

After struggling to find a renter, she said she was already in Thailand when she received a message from a girl who was interested in the property.

“The girl’s name is Kitti* and she is from the Czech Republic,” Pernille said.

“She looks cute (in) her photo — nothing out of the ordinary — and I find her on Facebook too, so I figure she’s legit. Her English is not great but I learn that she and her boyfriend are driving to Copenhagen, while another couple they’re travelling with will be arriving by plane.”

Kitti initially asked if she could pay in cash, which Pernille declined, as it would mean she was not covered by the rental company.

Kitti then asked if she could stay on for another week and offered more cash. Needing the extra funds, Pernille reluctantly agreed. Kitti met one of Pernille’s friends to hand over the money.

Pernille rented out her apartment on a small homesharing website similar to Airbnb. Picture: File image

‘IT’S A PROSTITUTE’

A week later, as Pernille was travelling through Thailand with a friend, she received a text message from her brother, asking her to call him — something was wrong with the apartment.

She assumed the renters had simply trashed it. Her brother delivered even worse news.

“They’re sort of running a brothel in there,” he told her.

“I’m completely speechless, because that is definitely not a scenario I had in mind,” Pernille told Vice.

“Lacking a better response, I start crying, while a group of Thai schoolboys on a field trip start are laughing and pointing at me. (Pernille’s friend) Stine comes running and asks what is going on, and the only thing I manage to do is shout: ‘It’s a prostitute! There’s a prostitute!’

“Once I regain my composure, my brother explains that several of my neighbours got in touch with him to say they are getting suspicious because they keep seeing men coming and going form my house, in half-hour intervals, at all times of the day.

“The night before, my upstairs neighbour had apparently gone down to my flat to tell my lodgers that smoking isn’t allowed, only to be greeted by a smiling Kitti in a tiny, satin-kimono and six-inch heels, who thought he was a client. My downstairs neighbour could apparently hear her walking around in heels all the time, along with what she judged to be some kind of strip show. “And then there was the moaning. Apparently, there had been a lot of it. And it was loud.”

Pernille’s brother said he was reluctant to go to the property as Kitti had “two older, burly guys” staying with her. Her friends were also too scared to go. Eventually, Pernille called police in Denmark from her hotel lobby.

“I’m literally sobbing into the phone, as she (the police officer) tells me that ‘this is the sort of thing you can expect when you rent out your apartment for some extra cash’,” Pernille said.

Police in Copenhagen told Pernille there wasn’t much they could do about her undesirable tenant.

“Because prostitution is legal in Denmark, there really isn’t anything they can do, she explains. Instead, I should talk to the rental company.

“I start looking for a phone number on the rental company’s website but there is nothing to be found. All they have is this live chat, where I get a ‘Thanks for your request, we’ll be back shortly’ kind of response.

“I Google them and find a bunch of one-star reviews, with people claiming that it’s practically impossible to get a hold of their customer services and that if a problem arises, you’re totally on your own.”

‘I HAVE NEVER SEEN THAT MANY STAINS ON ONE SHEET’

Pernille was at a loss. She decided to call Kitti directly.

“‘Hello Kitti, I know what’s going on. You’re doing something illegal, and you have to leave right now,’ I say. Her reply is just a high-pitched ‘Noooo!’” Pernille recalled.

“After some back and forth, I start to get angry but then I hear the doorbell ringing in her end. Thinking it’s a client of hers, I scream through the phone, ‘No, Kitti! Do not open that door! Do not open that door!’

“Finally, she agrees to leave on the condition that they get their money back for the extra week they’d already paid for. That sends me over the edge so I hiss, ‘No, no, you’re not getting any money back from me’ and terminate the call.”

Then, Pernille’s phone rang.

“It’s one of the guys — pimps, I assume — saying that if they are to get out sooner than agreed, they’d need their money back,” she said.

“I threaten to call the police on them but he threatens me right back, saying that I’m the one who stole money from them. I panic and agree that a friend of mine will come by and hand over the cash.

“During all of this I feel like I’m in a bad TV-movie. At one point, I literally have my head in the toilet while on the phone. The feeling of helplessness makes me physically ill. My home has been turned into a brothel and no one can help me. All the while the pimps keep calling me every 10 minutes asking, ‘When your friend come?’”

Pernille’s apartment was littered with used condoms, pregnancy tests and tissues filled with semen.

After this, Pernille’s downstairs neighbour contacts her, sending photos showing Kitti and some men leaving the apartment with suitcases. Thinking they were robbing her, Pernille got hold of another friend, Maria, who went to the apartment and found the group sitting in a van outside, waiting for their money.

Maria brought cash — the money the group wanted in order to leave. She handed over the money and the group took off without a word.

Upon returning to Copenhagen, Pernille bought cleaning supplies and nervously returned to her apartment to see what state it was in.

“I have never seen that many stains on one sheet,” she said. “The used condoms and condom wrappers are spread all over the floor like confetti.”

She also saw a mask with cat ears and whiskers, fishnet stockings, make-up covered cotton swabs and so much paper containing semen, “stuffed into every crack, crevice and corner of my apartment”.

“The grand prize, however, goes to the three used pregnancy tests I found stashed on top of my bathroom mirror a month later,” Pernille said.

Six months down the track, Pernille said she felt better about living in the apartment but was still trying to be reimbursed from the rental company for “all the stuff I had to throw out”.

“Obviously, I had the locks changed immediately but I was still worried that Kitti’s boys might come back or that there would be clients waiting in front of the apartment when I got home late at night,” she said.

“My relationship with my neighbours is fine, and I actually think they felt sorry for me more than anything else. But they still occasionally call me ‘brothel mama’ when we meet by the mailbox.”

Read more: Brothel says sex dolls are now more popular than real women

* Most likely not the woman’s real name.

The English translation of the article by Vice Denmark appeared on Vice Australia/NZ.