La garçonnière

“Hypocrisy is a homage that vice pays to virtue”

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We sometimes receive inquiries asking whether we have an in-call location. The answer is “no” and will remain negative for the near future. The main one is that we only act as a broker for quality time. A second one is that it would be economically unviable, considering that such requests are relatively rare. Another one is the new Prostitution Protection Act from 01.07.2017, which would make it such an administrative nightmare, that it isn´t worth the hassle.For a start, you need an official permit to run an escort agency or model flat. Daphne´s is a Berlin-based, law-abiding German GmbH (Ltd.) It goes without saying that we applied accordingly for our license and should get it in soon. If we were to offer our clients as a service a garçonnière (aka bachelor flat), we would have needed to include it in the business model we provided the authorities. Besides, we are only the contact person for pleasant hours…Before we go back to our garçonnière, let´s take a small excursion into said legislation. Prior to issuing a concession, the administration wants to make sure the person is of good character and can be relied upon to run a prostitution business. In case of a model flat, the legal regulations are even more stringent since construction law comes into play. There must be an alarm installed etc.In case short-term accommodation is needed, we advise our customers to have a look at Dayuse.de. The site saw the light of day in 2010 and was the first of its kind. According to their webpage, one of the founders (a director within large Parisian hotel groups) was often asked about daytime bookings. Hence Dayuse was founded.Its mission is to provide guests the possibility to enjoy not only the hotel room but also the other services available to overnight bookings in the daytime. And that at the best possible price for a couple of hours. They mention that people can now benefit from hotel spaces to work, for a break or even what they like to call a “daycation”, meaning enjoying the luxuries of high-end hotels at an affordable price (deluxe rooms, room service, spa…). In addition to this, there is no need for a credit card and the cancellation is free.The site offers value for money although Berlin´s top hotels don´t participate and probably never will. Nevertheless, I was able to find a hotel room in a five-star lodging (Titanic Berlin Gendarmenmarkt) for 80 Euros. That offered a time slot from 10 am to 2 pm or from 2 pm to 6 pm. There is also the Amano group, which offers decent rooms for a couple of hours. The rooms will set you back 50 Euros, are newish and the hotels centrally located with a nice bar. Not listed but offering excellent value for money is the Motel One Upper West. It has 19 floors and offers a great panorama view of Berlin. One of the escorts concurred. She made love on the upper floors in a position which enabled her to savor the Berlin skyline.But enough, back to Dayuse.de. For sure, every start-up needs a good founding myth, but I am not so certain high demand for working space during the day is the reason for the site´s creation. Probably closer to the truth is that the Gallic founder was inspired by the infamous “cinq à sept”. According to Wikipedia, this is a French term for activities taking place after work and before having dinner (roughly between 5 and 7 p.m.). It´s also commonly spelled out as 5 à 7 or 5@7. Originally, the term referred to a time for a tryst, and is consequently a metonymy for a visit to one’s mistress or lover. It derived from the time of day French men made such a visit. It is still considered today as the moment of the day to meet one’s paramour or inamorata, and the term implies sexual content.It´s therefore the height of hypocrisy that Daphne´s couldn´t open an account with Dayuse since escort services don´t stroke with their code of conduct… Or how the age old saying “hypocrisy is a homage that vice pays to virtue” is still valid!