Tourist tips and fixed check-in and check-out times. If you only come for sex, that’s not what you want. Some B&Bs and private saunas therefore offer a solution.
A lame excuse when checking out and then hoping no one notices. Anyone who arranges a double room and leaves after an hour or two will quickly find themselves in uncomfortable situations at the reception.
Van der Valk knows all too well that the need for a room for sex only is great. In places such as Vianen and Dordrecht, the hotel chain has recently started offering ‘day rooms’: ‘A comfortable room for a few hours of relaxation between appointments’.
However, part-time rental in the Northern Netherlands is not an option at Van der Valk. You don’t have to ask at the counter, says the manager of the hotel in Drachten when asked. “You can only rent rooms from us for one night.”
Enjoy undisturbed
But check-in from 2:00 PM and check-out until 11:00 AM: anyone who just wants to have sex is not interested in that. That is why there is a website that offers a solution: secretrooms.nl, the booking.com of day rooms.
There are still not many ‘secret rooms’ in the North. Add up the offers in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe and you don’t get more than 30, for a national total of almost 550. Prices start from 60 euros for 2 hours.
Most of those accommodations look like ordinary B&Bs, and they probably are. Keywords are ‘very remote’ and ‘undisturbed enjoyment’. In other words: ‘An ideal place to be discreetly with your loved one.’
Some cottages offer a cheese board or chilled bottle of wine for a fee. An attic suite ‘between Meppel and Assen’ goes even further. You can get it there for 20 euros Fifty Shades of Gray -arrangement with whip and bondage rope.
Very normal people
But why would you list your B&B on Secret Rooms? A landlord between Harlingen and Leeuwarden wants to tell all kinds of things about this, as long as it is not named. “Don’t do that, we live in a small village.”
Even though he receives an average of five sex guests per week, they don’t know anything in the area. “I certainly haven’t heard anyone talk about it.” There is therefore little to see about the couples. “They are very normal people, just like you and me.”
They receive a personal welcome, but otherwise it remains businesslike. Just point out the coffee and tea, explain how the door is locked and then it’s done. “At most I ask: ‘Did you like it?’”
You don’t have to ask sex guests the question about thinking about neighbors. “They think about that themselves, because they don’t need to be heard or seen. It is an audience from whom you have very little work, you are 0.0 percent bothered by it.”
No, regular B&B guests take much more time. “You also do some Friesland promotion with them. You inflate the tires of the bicycles and check the lights. And you have to clean for longer afterwards, because they use all the spaces much more intensively.”
Sick children
So sex guests don’t need much. “People bring their own stuff. I placed a massage table that we still had, but it is not always used.” But yeah. “The bed is also not always used.”
And what is ideal according to the owner: where the regular B&B normally runs peak hours in the summer and weekends, the same house as a secret room is especially popular in the winter, during the week and during working hours. “It complements each other nicely.”
Furthermore, it is not only sex guests who book through Secret Rooms. “During corona times I once had a man who said: ‘I am writing a book and I want to do it in peace’. He thought it was too busy at home during the day, with all the children around him.”
Conversely, sex guests also enter through the regular B&B. “Then they check in at 6 p.m. and go home at 10 p.m. ‘Sick children’, they say. Well, I thought at first. Now I think: just come clean.”
Don’t show off
Frans Kragten from Hoorn recognizes that image. He founded Secret Rooms when he himself “did something that is popularly seen as cheating.” He searched Google for rooms per hour. “But I didn’t get any hits at all.”
He then decided to call a few hotels, but that also yielded no results. “We wanted to see each other around eleven o’clock, but that is just between check-in and check-out times. “Just rent for two days,” I was told.”
Afterwards he admits: “I was too blue, it was a completely new situation for me. I was one of those people who didn’t think about Van der Valk, but they have always done part-time rental there. They just don’t show it off.”
How does he know that? “I like to have a cup of coffee at the reception there during work appointments.” Within half an hour it usually happens: a man who timidly pays, a woman who is already waiting at the sliding doors. “You can see it in the whole way.”
Neutral terrain
Anyway, in 2016 secretrooms.nl went live with some spicy marketing. “As founder, I intended the site for people who wanted an adventure. ‘It’s allowed with us’, we had those kinds of slogans. We were much flatter then.”
But instead of skeptics, the site mainly attracts people who are dating. “People don’t always like to meet in their own home. A hotel room is more pleasant: if something goes wrong, you can scream and someone will come in.”
You can also rent some accommodations for more than two people. “But the percentage that uses it is very low.” In addition, escorts are not welcome on the platform.
At Secret Rooms, don’t expect halved prices compared to a regular B&B or hotel room. “Whether someone stays all night or just a few hours: you still have to clean.” Secret Rooms is no longer his main source of income for a long time.
Privésauna.nl
With his company, Special Moments Group, he has focused on a much more profitable branch of sport since 2018: secret rooms with extra facilities, such as a sauna, hot tub or even a swimming pool. And so privesauna.nl was born.
Certainly, sex also plays an important role here. “The majority of guests are sexually active in the private sauna, approximately 90 percent, as we know from questionnaires.” Laughing: “And the other 10 percent lie.”
Yet the main success factor here is not sex, but prudishness. “People under 40 are a lot more prudish and that has to do with social media. Now if you are sunbathing topless, a photo can easily be taken and shared.”
He gets the same in return from public saunas. “They are increasingly having difficulty reaching the young target group.” Moreover: “We used to think in groups, now we are much more focused on the ‘I’.”
The private sauna has been common in Belgium for some time, but partly thanks to Frans Kragten’s platform, the phenomenon spread like wildfire across the Netherlands, with the region between Eindhoven and Den Bosch as a hotspot.
Kragten’s very first secret date was also a success. “She is still my partner.” She now runs her own private sauna in Limburg, where she applies the knowledge from his company.
Luxxora in Drachten
Some private saunas in the Northern Netherlands are little more than a B&B with an outdoor sauna, others offer a state-of-the-art wellness center in miniature. One of these is the Luxxora Privé Spa along the Stationsweg in Drachten, which opened in 2023.
“We wanted luxury, but it has become super luxurious,” says 30-year-old Giorgio Nersesian under a star ceiling surrounded by black natural stone. His Armenian first name is actually Gevorg, “but people find that difficult to pronounce.”
The private spa originated as a family project. He runs the pizzeria Pizzaioli in the building he rents from his father, and they still had a piece of land left in the backyard. “We built a sauna and swimming pool there for ourselves.”
But as it goes: “When you don’t have something, you want it, and when you have it, it becomes normal.” In short: “You use it the first year, less so the second year.” Until he almost couldn’t get there anymore.
And that gnawed. “It is almost 130 square meters. If such a large space is empty, it would be a shame not to use it. I had seen private saunas on Instagram, so I contacted them.” The major renovation could begin.
Great investment
There were already a few private saunas in Groningen at that time. But not in Friesland, and that has not changed since the opening in January 2023. “We are behind on many things here, but you can also see it positively. I’m the only one here.”
The spa with parking space is hidden behind a matte black entrance gate. A Luxxora banner has been flying here for a few months now, but other than that, Nersesian doesn’t know whether the neighbors know what’s happening here. “You don’t notice it much, I don’t think.”
And even if they knew: “A lot of people expect very strange people, but let’s be honest: I haven’t seen anything strange here.” Furthermore, he does not ask guests too many questions. “As long as it stays neat, it has been a major investment.”
Next to the swimming pool there is also a room with a made up bed. He has increased the prices so that not too many people use it. Joking: “But for 1,000 euros I would stay awake all night.”
In the meantime, he continues to save for an expansion. In addition to the regular sauna, he would like a steam sauna. Or what about a smoking area or outdoor shower with cold water? “Then it is really complete.”