Sauna
Sauna usually means a heated, enclosed, wood-lined room with benches. People use saunas to sweat, relax and ease aches and pains.
In the sex industry, the same word can mean a brothel, an erotic massage parlor or a gay sauna. In some countries, a "sauna club" is a brothel with a spa attached. In others, it is just a hot room. The name alone does not tell you whether anybody is selling sex.
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What Does Sauna Mean in Adult Nightlife?
The word "sauna" is used for five different types of place.
Ordinary Saunas
In Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia and partly Latvia, a sauna normally means an ordinary sauna. The same applies to wellness saunas elsewhere.
Being naked is normal and non-sexual. Nobody expects you to get laid just because everyone has their clothes off.
Saunaclubs and FKK Clubs
A Saunaclub or FKK club is a brothel with a spa. In the Central European club business, this is not a secret code. The customers, girls and management know what the place is.
Germany is the main country for this format. There are around 140 clubs across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with several more in the Netherlands and Czech Republic.
Signs commonly read "Saunaclub", "FKK-Club" or "FKK", short for Freikörperkultur.
The usual setup is:
- Admission: €30-80 at the door.
- Facilities: Locker, towel, robe, flip-flops, lounge, sauna, pool and bar.
- The girls: Naked or wearing lingerie in the shared areas.
- Sex: You talk to a girl, agree on the price and go to a room.
- Room prices: Around €50 for half an hour in Germany, with higher prices in Switzerland.
- Working arrangements: The women are frequently self-employed and may also pay an admission fee.
Examples include Sharks in Germany, Wellcum in Austria and Globe in Switzerland. Samya FKK Saunaclub in Cologne is another example.
The format is found around Cologne, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Saarland and North Rhine-Westphalia.
Similar businesses operate in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Baltic countries. Quality and prices vary. Cities mentioned include Vienna, Linz, Graz, Zurich, Basel, Prague, Warsaw, Riga and Tallinn.
Cash and an agreed price are normal. Room fees and tips need to be clear before you start fucking. In Cologne or Frankfurt, a guy saying "I'm going to the sauna" may be talking about one of these clubs.
Sauna and Termas Brothel-Spas
In parts of Asia and Latin America, "sauna" can mean a brothel-spa with girls, food, lounges and rooms.
- Macau: Hotel saunas can be large, expensive brothel-spas with a lineup, lounge, food and full service. Here, "sauna" can describe an adult venue rather than a health club. Number Nine Spa is one of the Macau sauna names.
- Hong Kong: "Sauna" is used for massage places with extras, particularly around Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei and Jordan. The term is also used for single-woman businesses in walk-ups.
- China: 桑拿 (sāngná), 洗浴中心 (bathhouse) and 会所 (club) are used as euphemisms. These businesses may have different price levels and menus of "specials".
- Taiwan: Some "san wen nuan" places offer full service. Others advertise as massage businesses.
- Brazil: "Sauna" and particularly "termas", meaning thermal baths, are used for brothels where women wait in a lounge. You choose a girl and pay for a "programa". This format is found in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
- Japan: "Sauna" can refer to a men's sauna with female "esthe" staff. The main adult-business formats are soapland and fashion health, although sauna businesses can overlap with the massage trade.
- Vietnam: "Tắm hơi" and "sauna" are used for massage businesses offering hand relief and other extras.
- Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and the Philippines: Both "sauna" and "spa" are used for plus-plus massage.
- Korea: A "sauna" often means a jjimjilbang or family bathhouse. Sex-business terms include 안마 and 스포츠마사지 for massage, and 오피 for office-based services.
Sauna as a Name for a Massage Parlor
In other countries, "sauna" is what the sign or local newspaper calls the business, even when the hot room is a minor part of it.
- United Kingdom and Ireland: "Sauna and massage parlor" is a common description. Local newspapers report brothels as "saunas". The setup may be a room, shower, woman and a cash payment.
- Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece: "Sauna" appears alongside massage advertising and terms such as "masajistas". Cities include Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon and Athens. In Italy, the straight massage trade more often uses "centro massaggi", while sauna can refer to a gay venue.
- Russia, Ukraine and Belarus: "Сауна с девочками", meaning "sauna with girls", is a regular business format, often outside the city center. Banya is the traditional bathhouse term.
- Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina: Some city businesses advertise a sauna with chicas. Other terms include "casas de citas" and "privados".
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya: Hotel saunas and spas can overlap with massage businesses where extras are negotiated with the therapist. In Turkey, the bathhouse term is hamam.
Gay Saunas and Bathhouses
Gay saunas and bathhouses are mainly cruising venues. Customers pay admission and meet other customers inside. They are different from brothels where every booking carries a separate sex fee.
Some larger venues in Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro, Prague and Madrid also have rent boys working around them.
There are gay sauna scenes in Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Brazil, much of Europe and the United States.
What Is a Sauna Bar?
"Sauna bar" and "sauna klub" are used in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Balkans for businesses combining a sauna, bar and girls.
The name can describe something similar to a saunaclub, but the payment system is not always the same. Some charge admission. Others rent the sauna room and charge separately for drinks and the girl's services.
How to Tell What Kind of Place It Is
Adult businesses use signs such as "FKK", "Saunaclub", "Termas" and "Massage · Sauna".
A mamasan, a sex-service price list, girls waiting in towels or lingerie and "happy hour" admission are signs of an adult business.
If reception charges admission and hands you a robe without explaining the service prices, you may still have to negotiate separately inside.
A plain tiled room with families and ordinary bathers is a sauna, not an invitation to start fucking.
Local classifieds, map photographs and customer reports can show more than the business's own website pictures.
Outside the German-speaking saunaclub business, "sauna" often means massage with optional extras rather than guaranteed full service. What is offered depends on the venue, the girl and the agreed price. Settle that before the towel comes off.
History of Sauna Bars and Sauna Sex Clubs
Estonia in the 1990s
The 500-kroon price belongs to the later 1990s sauna-bar trade in Estonia.
The Estonian kroon was introduced in June 1992. It was pegged to the German mark at 8:1 and later to the euro at 15.6466:1. That made 500 EEK about DM 62 or roughly €32.
In 1992-1993, with an average monthly wage in the low thousands of kroons and a minimum wage of a few hundred, 500 kroons was serious money. It was roughly a third of a month's minimum wage.
By 1999, wages were five or six times higher and the same price was an ordinary splurge. For a Finn arriving on the ferry with Finnish marks in his pocket, it was cheap.
Why They Called Them Sauna Bars
Estonia decriminalised prostitution after independence. Soviet-era criminalisation ended, and buying and selling sex became legal. Pimping remained a crime, so running a brothel was another matter.
The business operated under another name on paper: a massage salon or sauna bar.
The house rented sauna time and sold drinks. The women were nominally self-employed, while the house took a cut. Customers and police knew what was going on.
By 2003, Tallinn had 43 club-type brothels and more than 100 apartment brothels. The sauna bar was one of the main ways the 1990s trade operated under another business name.
Where the Sauna Bars Were
Most were in Tallinn:
- The Old Town.
- The Rotermann and Mere pst area near the passenger port.
- The Narva mnt and Tartu mnt roads.
- Hotel saunas.
Lasso Baar, near the harbour on Mere pst, is one name Finnish visitors still mention. Other places opened, changed names and closed.
Pärnu had a summer trade.
Many women came from Russian-speaking districts and towns, including Lasnamäe, Narva and Kohtla-Järve. Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian women also moved through Estonia. Passport confiscation and debt bondage were part of the trafficking connected with the trade.
Who Used Them?
Finns were a major part of the business. The Helsinki-Tallinn ferry brought men looking for booze and cheap sex, and Finnish sex tourists accounted for a reported 23% of customers.
Estonian men made up a larger share by number but generally spent less. Finnish customers helped set the higher prices and service expectations. Many businesses worked around the Saturday-afternoon ferry crowd.
British sex tourism was a smaller second source of customers.
Local business included "lõbutüdrukud" hired for parties, company evenings and visiting officials.
Prices and How It Worked
You paid for a sauna room and drinks. Girls circulated or were sent into the room. Sex was negotiated per act or per hour.
- Early-1990s street prices: 100-200 kroons.
- Late-1990s sauna-bar full service: Around 500 kroons.
- Around 2000: 500-1,000 kroons, with prices rising.
The Estonian sauna bar was different from a German FKK club. You bought sauna time, drinks and the girl's services separately. It was not necessarily an admission fee followed by a lineup of girls and a standard room price.
Why the Sauna Bars Closed
EU accession in 2004, rising Tallinn property prices and the euro-track economy changed the business. Estonian prices moved closer to Finnish prices, and the cheap ferry-trip business became less attractive. The same applied to men travelling for cheap beer.
Sauna bars were expensive to run. They needed premises, staff, heating and a bar.
With internet advertising, a woman could work from her own apartment and take bookings by SMS through sites such as mahajataha.com or voodi.ee. She no longer needed to pay the house cut, sauna rent or a mamasan.
Club brothels were formally closed in the 2000s. Much of the business moved into apartments and onto the phone.
What Remains
Little remains of the old sauna-bar trade. Some strip bars still target tourists, and some massage salons continue under another business name.
"Saunabaar" now mostly means a bar where customers can rent a sauna, without a brothel attached.
The supplied modern Tallinn price is €50-100 for half an hour, arranged by message. The older description mentions apartment meetings in Karlova or Lasnamäe, with the woman handling her own bookings and money.
See Also
- Incall | Outcall | Short-time | Long-time
- Macau | Hong Kong | Bangkok | Rio de Janeiro | São Paulo
