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- Accor SA (“Accor”, Euronext Paris:AC) is a French multinational hospitality company that owns, manages and franchises luxurious hotels, resorts and vacation properties around the globe.
- Accor promotes itself as an industry leader in the fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation. We believe our investigation’s insights stand in stark contrast to Accor’s promises.
- Our investigators emailed hundreds of Accor hotels.
- We effectively requested in Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, service to facilitate the transfer of Ukrainian orphans with the explicit purpose of adoption by Russian parents. This is considered a war crime for which Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court.
- We contacted Accor hotels in over 25 countries to book rooms for underage girls and unrelated adult males in an obvious sexual context.
- Our requests were engineered to trigger as many human trafficking red flags as possible, combining minors, an active warzone, an unnamed modeling agency, and stay for over a month with no parents or other legal guardians.
- When we got positive replies, we tried to push further by requesting champagne, condoms, and lubricants for rooms booked for underage girls and unrelated adults, or inquiring about secrecy from the French headquarters and Western regulators for the transfer of Ukrainian children for adoption in Russia.
The replies are shocking:
- All 18 Russian Accor hotels that engaged agreed to host orphans from Ukraine en route to adoption by Russians. Multiple hotels explicitly assured the investigator that sensitive information is not shared with Accor’s French headquarters and the Ukrainian embassy.
- Three Accor hotels across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan also agreed to service our request to host Ukrainian orphans and told us they would keep the arrangement confidential from the press, from Accor’s French head office, and from Ukrainian embassies.
- Accor hotels in over 20 countries agreed to accommodate bookings that we explicitly wrote to heavily imply child sexual exploitation and abuse.
- In total, 80% of the Accor Hotels that engaged with us accommodated our highly problematic requests. We find the statistics and content of our e-mail investigation highly concerning and choose to disclose all email chains in the Appendix.
- To put our results into perspective, we contacted Hotels that are not related to Accor in the same areas with the same outreach email. We found a meaningfully lower response rate and willingness to service our requests. Out of 56 non-Accor Hotels we contacted, only one seemed willing to service a problematic request.
- We consulted with human rights and legal experts to evaluate our research. The legal consequences of our investigation could be potentially devastating for Accor on multiple levels if the alleged facts are substantiated and evidence shows that criminal offenses were committed. We commissioned written legal analyses of our findings, two of which are copied in their entirety in the Appendix.
- Recently disclosed Epstein files state that Accor CEO Sébastien Bazin allegedly had personal ties with Epstein. The Epstein files reveal further links between Accor and Epstein we find concerning.
- Just months after Accor effectively acquired the hotel chain Rixos, the founder of Rixos apparently arranged private training at Rixos premises for two of Epstein’s private masseuses, after which Epstein cryptically wrote that this training had “changed their lives.”
- The “Deadman Switch” video that is speculated to be linked to deceased Hollywood actor Isaac Kappy and to indicate pedophilic crimes shows a group of prepubescent girls in bikinis at Rixos resort spa in Turkey, which appears to be the same one Epstein used for the training of his Russian personal masseuses.
- Epstein was reportedly informed directly about Accor’s readiness to settle a rape-related lawsuit. Journalists have further alleged that Accor exploited the scandal to trap Dominique Strauss-Kahn by transmitting the information straight to the Élysée, thereby derailing his French presidential ambitions and bringing his tenure at the International Monetary Fund to an end.
- We identify materials in the Epstein files linking Jeffrey Epstein or his associates to bookings, receipts, correspondence, or stays at multiple Accor branded properties across several countries.
- We present a collection of social media posts and local media reports describing alleged sexual offences at Accor hotels, including incidents that reportedly led to arrests or convictions.
- The apparent contrast between our investigation’s findings and Accor’s perceived leadership in preventing human trafficking and child exploitation makes us wonder: Is Accor’s human rights policy meant to appease investors or meant to protect the victims?
Content
Our Investigation Into Sex Trafficking of Minors
In February and March 2026, our undercover investigators engaged over 249 Accor-branded hotels across over 20 countries, explicitly requesting accommodation for groups of “models” aged 14 to 17.
Posing as an anonymous modeling agency from the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, a Russian-occupied active warzone, we emailed Accor hotels with the subject line “Stay for young beautiful girls.” The message requested accommodations for “four young beautiful girls from Donetsk People’s Republic, Russia (14-17 years old),” each sharing a room with an unrelated adult male. We described the underaged girls as orphans traveling in transit to an unnamed modeling contest under the supervision of unnamed model agency employees.
Our reservation requests did not outright request criminal activities but were engineered to trigger every standard trafficking alert. The bookings combined minors, an active warzone, an unnamed modeling agency, and stay for over a month with no parents or other legal guardians. We chose language used to describe the children to be deliberately explicit. When hotels readily agreed to our requests, we pushed further and tried to raise additional red flags. We asked for king-size beds shared by a girl and a male adult, bottles of Champagne delivered to each room, and in some instances, condoms and lubricants for the room.
A booking request submitted by Grizzly’s undercover researchers to Mövenpick El Gouna in Egypt. We gradually escalated the inquiry, beginning with the same standard request sent to all hotels, then raising alcohol, flowers, and condoms, and ultimately stating in writing that underage girls would be staying with adult men who were obviously unrelated to them. Mövenpick El Gouna nonetheless confirmed the booking and requested full payment to secure it. Source: Grizzly Research.
Of the over 50 Accor hotels that responded, a shocking 80% cooperated by providing quotes, confirming reservations, agreeing to arrange condoms and alcohol, or engaging substantively without raising safeguarding concerns. Despite our efforts to raise child and sex trafficking red flags, some hotels even proactively suggested features like a king-sized bed for an underaged girl and unrelated adult male or promised to create a romantic vibe environment.
Out of all the Accor hotels we contacted, only a single one, namely Mercure Hurghada, referred to human rights policies and declined our requests appropriately — only after we requested to put condoms in the rooms after an initial confirmation.
Accor hotels’ reactions to our email requests to host children in the inappropriate context and other related findings. Click on case for further details. Source: Grizzly Research.
We reached out to hotels that are not owned by Accor to compare our findings and put them into perspective. We used the exact same emails for our outreach we used to contact Accor hotels. We found a meaningfully lower overall response rate, and less willingness to accommodate our requests. Of the 56 non-Accor hotels we contacted, one declined our requests appropriately, while only one was willing to service the problematic request.
Crown Plaza hotel in New Delhi, India outright declined the same booking request we sent to all the Accor hotels. Source: Grizzly Research.
For the sake of complete transparency all email exchanges, translations, statistics about our investigation, and explanation about our methodology can be found in the Appendix.
Transferring Ukrainian Orphans to Russia for Adoption Shouldn’t Be This Easy
Russia is reported to have forcibly deported over 19,500 Ukrainian children to Russia since 2022—a war crime for which the warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Children’s Commissioner. Many of these children appear in online catalogues sorted by physical traits for Russian adoptions, internationally denounced as state-sponsored trafficking. NGOs report one in ten rescued orphans faced sexual exploitation, including rape and forced pregnancies to create “future Russian soldiers.” Hotels are being used to offer temporary stay for the kidnapped Ukrainian children, as the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health reports.
We adjusted our approach when reaching out to Accor Hotels in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Instead of implying sex trafficking red flags, we explicitly stated the 14–17-year-old Ukrainian orphan girls from Donetsk were supposed to be given up for adoption to Russians.
Every Russian Accor location we reached agreed to host Ukrainian children whose origins in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory were communicated to the hotel, whose status as orphans or as children separated from parents in Ukrainian government-controlled areas was understood, and whose placement in Russian adoptive families was the explicit purpose of their stay. Hotel staff accommodated the arrangements anyway.
When we explicitly inquired, all Russian hotels agreed to keep the arrangement confidential, including from the Accor’s head office in France. We find this especially concerning. Here is an email exchange with Mercure Hotel.
Grizzly Research undercover researcher requested the following from Rostov-on-Don Mercure hotel in Russia, “Since Mercure is a French hotel from a country unfriendly to us [Russia], where the rescue and adoption of Donbas children are called kidnapping and they want to arrest our President [Putin] for it, can we be sure of confidentiality? From unauthorized media, if any appear, and from your Western head office? I assume you will not pass along our conversation or the fact that the girls are staying there. That would be a scandal.” Translation by Grizzly Research.
A hotel representative confirmed that the hotel would keep the stay of Ukrainian children confidential from the press and any third parties, adding that “at the present moment, our head office is located on the territory of the Russian Federation, and there is no communication or exchange of information with the French office.” He noted that the only external reporting obligation the hotel recognized was submitting guest registration data to Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Federal Migration Service under Russian migration law. Source: Grizzly Research.
A Novotel representative disclosed that Novotel’s Russian corporate structure meant the location had no legal obligation to report anything to Accor’s central management. Novotel is a subsidiary of Accor.
Accor hotels outside Russia, specifically in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, also agreed to host the children and to keep information “confidential” from everyone, including the Accor’s headquarters.
Mövenpick Hotel in Uzbekistan explicitly reaffirms that the booking confirmation remains confidential. Source: Grizzly Research.
The Russia Business was Called Out for Being Potentially Problematic
Unlike its competitors Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott, CPI Hotels, Belmond, Sokos, Four Seasons, BWH and Wyndham, Accor has not exited Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Accor kept the largest presence in the country out of all international hotel chains, with 55 hotels and 3,500 employees. Accor has been criticized for this business decision.
Businesses that stayed in Russia after it commenced its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 were on notice that continued operations could create a serious risk of contributing to human rights and humanitarian law violations, as University of Essex Human Rights Centre explains.
Accor is not an exception. It was foreseeable that Accor’s continued operations in Russia could create a substantial risk of contributing to, or being linked with, serious human rights violations, PhD Candidate at University of Cambridge and Consultant at the civil society coalition B4Ukraine Nina Prusac told Grizzly. In 2023, B4Ukraine wrote to Accor’s CEO Sébastien Bazin cautioning that by remaining in Russia, companies face a growing risk of criminal liability for complicity in international crimes. Bazin has never replied.
The same year Accor’s CEO told Telegraph that the “fiduciary duty to make money for shareholders holds sway” and that the only way Accor will terminate its Russian business is by imposing stricter sanctions that will legally oblige the company. In another interview, Bazin said that Accor has never stopped operating in a conflict zone, giving as an example Myanmar, where the Rohingya genocide took place.
Yet Bazin did not appear to explain to shareholders whether staying in countries associated with ongoing human rights violations exposed Accor to added legal, reputational, or commercial risk, or why Accor was willing to incur said potential risks for relatively small markets such as Russia and Myanmar that account for only a small portion of Accor’s revenue.
The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings recommended hotel staff should be trained to detect potential trafficking victims, particularly Ukrainian children.
Are Accor’s Official Human Rights Policies Nothing but a Marketing Façade?
Accor’s Human Rights Policy pledges that Accor upholds “the highest standards of protection” for vulnerable people, with particular attention to human rights in conflict zones. It commits the group to never encouraging, organizing, or profiting from human trafficking and to bringing any related information to the attention of competent authorities. Accor has a dedicated program called WATCH to fight the sexual exploitation of children.
Accor states it has mechanisms and online human rights training modules to help staff identify and report at-risk situations, and that its Accor Integrity Line whistleblowing platform was open to all hotel employees. Accor has confirmed that is a due diligence policy accounting for geographic risk factors, with Russia identified as a high-risk geography. Its employees in Russia knew the rules.
Accor has built an industry-leading reputation for fighting against human trafficking. Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) published a highlight report titled “Final Results of the Initiative on Hotels and Human Trafficking at the World Cup” in July 2010. The report evaluated eight major international hotel chains (including Hilton, Hyatt, and Starwood) on their anti-trafficking policies in context of the FIFA world cup 2010 in South Africa. It specifically named Accor and Carlson (now Radisson) as the “leading companies” in the industry.
We believe all of Accor’s extensive policies and accolades stand in stark contrast to the findings of our investigation. We do not know exactly what training the front desk employees we communicated with did or did not receive. We do know that 80% of the Accor respondents apparently agreed to accommodate requests that were specifically engineered to raise red flags.
We cannot help but wonder: Are Accor’s anti-human trafficking policies just a marketing charade for investors?
Legal Debate
The legal implications from our investigation are difficult to assess because they involve a complicated governance structure, multiple jurisdictions, and a complex interplay between various domestic legal frameworks, in addition to international law standards. We consulted with a range of experts who expressed the potentially devastating consequences Accor could face due to the findings of this report if substantiated. The findings made possible by Grizzly Research’s investigation would benefit from further substantiation through evidence that unlawful conduct was in fact committed. Grizzly Research never followed through and no actual crimes were committed as part of the investigation.
Tamar Ruseishvili, international lawyer and LL.M. graduate of Harvard Law School, noted that the conduct described could raise serious questions under international law. She explained that if substantiated, the provision of accommodation or related services that potentially materially assisted the transfer of children from occupied territory could potentially engage international criminal law.
According to Ruseishvili, “If personnel of a private entity knowingly provided accommodation or related services that potentially materially assisted the unlawful transfer of children, individual criminal responsibility could arise depending on the evidence of knowledge and contribution.” She further observed that, in the gravest circumstances and depending on the facts established, such conduct could also be relevant to the legal framework concerning the forcible transfer of children under the Genocide Convention.
Tamar Ruseishvili’s written comment for this report is reproduced in full in the Appendix.
We additionally commissioned a written analysis about our report from a human rights and French law perspective. We copied the full analysis in the Appendix. This human rights expert prefers to stay anonymous.
Industry experts told us unanimously that Accor’s corporate, franchise and management structure would not necessarily absolve Accor’s responsibility for risks of human rights violations across its branded network. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the French law n°2017-399 relating to the duty of vigilance of parent companies and contracting companies do not confine a company’s responsibility to harm it directly causes or helps cause. They also cover abuses linked to its operations, products, or services through business relationships, including franchisees and managed properties. In conflict-affected environments, companies are expected to assess those risks and use their leverage to prevent or mitigate harm.
Revelations About Accor in Recently Disclosed Epstein Files
We found multiple references to Accor in the recently revealed Epstein files.
Accor CEO Sébastien Bazin’s Alleged Direct Connection to Jeffrey Epstein
Since August 2013, Sébastien Bazin has been Accor’s chairman of the board and CEO. Bazin is widely considered one of the most politically integrated and influential CEOs in France. He was chairman of football giant Paris Saint-Germain and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was on Accor’s board of directors from 2017 to 2025.
On August 13, 2016, the French conductor Frédéric Chaslin informed Epstein in an email that he had lunch a few days earlier with Sébastien Bazin. Bazin allegedly told Chaslin he knew Epstein. At the time of the email exchange, Epstein had already been convicted for procuring a minor for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.
Source: https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02454991.pdf
This email does not imply wrongdoing by Bazin nor does it prove that Bazin did in fact know Epstein personally. But the relationship between Accor and Epstein appears to go a lot deeper than this.
Rixos Antalya’s Training “Changed Lives” of Epstein’s Masseuses
In March 2017, Accor and Rixos publicly announced their strategic partnership. As part of this plan Accor holds a 50% interest in the joint venture management company that owns the Rixos assets. Accor effectively became a Rixos owner.
Coincidentally, only two months after this announcement, plans were made to organize Epstein’s private masseuse training at the Antalya Rixos spa. Fettah Tamince, founder of Rixos, apparently personally coordinated a welcome by Epstein’s masseuses. His private assistant wrote Epstein “Will take good care of the ladies, no worries.”
Source: https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02648139.pdf
In June 2017, the Antalya Rixos Hotel wrote, “We are looking forward to welcoming the girls” to Epstein.
Source: https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02217160.pdf
Epstein was not just happy. He said the Rixos training for his masseuse changed his life and theirs.
Source: https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00650646.pdf
Epstein loved the Rixos spa. Though it is unclear what he loved exactly, “treatments, style of the spa, beautiful girls or they had very nice erotic mas[s]age?”
Source: https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02415711.pdf
Epstein Frequently Visited Accor Hotels
Booking records, receipts and correspondence place Epstein or his associates at properties operating under the Accor affiliated brands Rixos, Sofitel, Pullman, Swissôtel, Mövenpick, MGallery, Fairmont, Hoxton, Adagio, Delano and SLS in Turkey, France, China, Latvia, Canada and other countries. The Epstein files show that Accor branded hotels repeatedly appeared as places where Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and women in Epstein’s orbit stayed. The records do not suggest that Accor was involved in Epstein’s criminal conduct. They show, rather, that a convicted sex offender and his circle used to stay at the Accor hotels in different countries.
Epstein’s Interest in the Alleged Sexual Assault Incident Involving Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Accor Premises
In 2012, Epstein was informed about the Sofitel — a part of Accor Group — prostitution ring scandal. An email stated that “semen stains could be [the] basis for settlement of [a] civil suit,” adding that they “indicate Sofitel employees [were] involved in a prostitution ring” and that “the Accor Group would not want this coming out in trial.”
Source: https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02014406.pdf
The email appears to have referred to the civil suit brought by Sofitel housekeeper Nafissatou Diallo against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the International Monetary Fund and the leading candidate for the French presidency, over her claim that he raped her in his hotel room in May 2011. Prosecutors later dropped the criminal case, saying credibility issues made the allegations impossible to prove.
The scandal ended Strauss-Kahn’s political career, and the civil case was settled in December 2012. Reporting by an investigative journalist shared with Epstein suggested that Accor may have influenced or facilitated the hotel’s handling of the incident to destroy Strauss-Kahn’s career. Accor, after being briefed by the Sofitel management, promptly notified the Elysée about DSK’s arrest. Epstein seems to have been keenly interested in this case.
The Alleged “Deadman Switch” Video at an Accor Affiliated Spa
Isaac Kappy was a Hollywood actor who, in 2018, publicly accused several top Hollywood celebrities of participating in child sex trafficking and pedophilia rings, framing his claims within claims of a global elite cabal exploiting children. Kappy died by, officially, suicide on May 13, 2019 after jumping from a bridge onto oncoming traffic.
At the same time, an anonymous and uncommented video was published on 4Chan. Many speculated that Kappy was the anonymous poster via a Deadman Switch–here is a forum debate on it from May 18, 2019. While we do not usually assign a lot of credibility to 4Chan content, Cory Daniel provides a useful forensic comment on the incident.
The video itself shows a group of prepubescent girls in fashionable bikinis in a luxury spa. While the 14-seconds clip does not reveal any criminal activity and the connection to Kappy seems mostly inferred from the timing of publication, we find it noteworthy that, as Daniel points out, the location of the scene seems to be identical with Epstein’s masseuse training location at Rixos Antalya, Turkey.
Court Rulings, Police Enforcement, Local Media, Social Media, and Guest Reviews Describe Sexual Exploitation and Organized Prostitution in Accor’s Hotels
We found several concerning reports about sexual abuse in the Accor locations. These cases on their own do not necessarily imply systemic wrongdoing by Accor, its subsidiaries and local hotel operators. Frankly, in a company of Accor’s size some bad things are bound to happen over the years even with good prevention measures.
After our email investigation we are more concerned that the past reported cases could hint at a more systemic risk at the company as opposed to isolated instances.
Novotel Southampton, U.K.
In 2024, the Novotel Southampton staff failed to prevent a two-hours-long rape of 12-year-old girls in a hotel room. The judge and prosecutor agreed that it was obvious from the girl’s appearance that she was a child.
Ibis Hotels in the U.K.
Ibis in Bradford, the UK became a place of sexual exploitation of minors for two consecutive years.
In 2016, two pedophiles carried out a “vile and degrading” attack on a 13-year-old girl at Ibis hotel in Bradford, the UK. Both were jailed for 14 years.
In 2017, a 22-year-old male had a romantic date with a 12-year-old girl at Ibis Budget in Bradford, the UK. He was acquitted of rape by the British court.
Another Ibis hotel failed to share with the authorities and then destroyed CCTV footage of a potential sexual offense involving a 13-year-old girl and older males and females.
Mercure Hotel Chester, U.K.
At Mercure Hotel Chester, a man was convicted of sexual offences against children, with one assault occurring at the hotel. He was sentenced to more than nine years in prison.
In another case, a 27-year-old male allegedly raped another male at Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel in the U.K.
Ibis Hotel Freiburg, Germany
A 2019 article from Die Zeit describes how a 52-year-old man regularly had sex with a twelve-year-old girl from 2013 on in an Accor hotel of the Ibis brand in Freiburg, Germany.
Mövenpick Hotel, Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan cricket player’s friend allegedly raped a Norwegian woman in the athlete’s Mövenpick room.
Novotel Pacific Bay Resort, Australia
Members of a professional rugby league team were alleged to have committed sexual assault at the resort in Coffs Harbour; police investigated but brought no charges due to insufficient evidence.
Grand Mercure Roxy / Ibis, Singapore
A self-described healer sexually assaulted clients during sessions held at hotel premises and was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Novotel Hyderabad Airport, India
A corporate executive was arrested for sexual assault committed at the hotel.
Novotel Wollongong, Australia
A man sexually assaulted two women in a hotel room; he was found guilty and sentenced in 2024.
Mercure Windhoek, Namibia
At the Mercure Hotel Windhoek in Namibia, former and current employees accused the general manager, Luke Sacco, of sexual harassment, fostering a hostile workplace, and replacing Namibians in supervisory and management roles with foreigners. Accor responded that it complies with Namibian law, treats employee matters confidentially, and has procedures to address grievances, but did not directly answer the specific accusations.
Fairmont Hotel Jakarta, Indonesia
A redditor reported in 2024 about an incident at an Accor hotel of the Fairmont brand:
Sofitel Siem Reap, Cambodia
A 2025 post on TripAdvisor describes a “very suspicious” behaving 12- to 13-year-old child with her “papa” and “madam”. The scene gave the American observers all “the same sick feeling.” Most interestingly, the resort manager responded to this post and describes the suspects as “a very respectable family” without explaining the relationship between the obviously not blood-related child and “papa.”
The post itself reads like a horror story and if the descriptions are indeed true, the situation should have raised multiple red flags with hotel staff.
Fairmont Dubai, U.A.E.
Reviews spanning a five-year period suggest that Fairmont Dubai failed to address reports of sex workers operating in one of its bars.
An Australian business traveler describes on TripAdvisor how “a parade of woman (…) lined up like dolls, waiting to be chose” raises “all kinds of awful questions about human trafficking and what kind of violence could occur behind closed doors.”
Another traveler shared that Fairmont’s bar Cin Cin “is a jungle of Escort -Prostitute when they catch customer they can go directly in room as guest without pass through reception for registration.”
Another review talks about Fairmont in Dubai “crawling with hookers, most of which seemed to be pimped by the hotel’s second floor bar.”
Other reviewers say that “bars in the hotel are full of hookers” (2018), “hookers all over the hotel” (2019), guests need to “climb over hookers” (2022). Another guest finds it “absolutely disgusted to find that Fairmont would allow prostitutes to openly hang out in the Cin Cin bar and try/harrass for business.” (2024) Another guest found trouble in “explaining to your child why a man is on the phone discussing rates for the ‘Russian one’ and the ‘Asian one’ whilst you wait for the elevator.” (2022) Yet another guest observed “several young girls, quite clearly professionals, making their way out of the hotel after earning their cash.” (2023)
A Reddit user describes how she saw “escorts everywhere” at a Fairmont hotel, without specifying the location further.
One can easily find online escort ads targeted at the Fairmont guests. We refrain from posting links to apparently active prostitution sites.
Fairmont Nile City, Egypt
In 2014, Fairmont Nile City became an alleged crime scene of a gang rape where six men dragged the victim, abducted her to the Fairmont room, gang raped her and tagged the victim’s body with their initials.
Since then, online reviews have continued to raise alarming allegations of prostitution at the Fairmont location.
A TripAdvisor user complains that “the level of prostitution across the hotel is massive and not manageable and extremely irritating.”
Other reviewers call the hotel a “prostitution shop” (2023) or give it the nickname “Arabian nights with prostitution for sale.” (2023)
Other guests even expressed concerns about their own daughters’ safety due to the rampant prostitution. In Egypt, prostitution is a criminal offense.
Sofitel Cartagena, Colombia
A user on TripAdvisor reports a teenage Colombian girl that “was so young and it was just really gross and sad” because “it was very clear to all at the pool that she was paid to be there.”
Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach, U.A.E.
Guests describe on TripAdvisor how “at night the call girls used to sit in the lobby and people were taking them to the room and partying all night.” (2022) Another guest complains how the “hotel openly allows guests to wander around the hotel with blatant prostitutes.” (2018)
Sofitel Agadir, Morocco
A guest complains that “we were surprised when we saw many “prostitutes” at the bar and at the swimming pool, smoking “chicha” seducing and hanging with men from Gulf countries : it was disgusting.” (2016) Another guest confirms: “honestly you see a lot of hookers With the guests in the hotel.” (2021)
Sentences for soliciting or engaging in prostitution in Morocco typically range from one month to one year in prison. However, penalties for exploiting minors are significantly harsher, reaching up to 10–20 years.
Sofitel Bangkok, Thailand
A Reddit user recently described that she “couldn’t walk around without being groped” and she observed “multiple sex workers.”
Fairmont Copley Plaza Boston, U.S.A.
A guest complains on TripAdvisor about this “Mafia business.” And “all the drunk hookers”.
Rixos Premium, Dubai
A guest wrote on TripAdvisor that staff at three different Rixos hotels in Dubai suggested escort services to her and her friend.
Accor Hotels, Aerocity, New Delhi
In one example, an escort agency in India advertises “escorts near Accor hotels.” We refrain from posting links to apparently active prostitution services.
Fairmont Golf Resort St. Andrews, Scotland
According to an article by the student newspaper The Saint in March 2024, female staff at Fairmont St Andrews experienced sexual harassment and groping by both high-profile guests and senior management. Allegations include the failure by the resort’s leadership to protect young employees, with many victims claiming their reports were ignored or downplayed.
Ibis Northampton, U.K.
A guest describes a scene as follows “at around 2am to be greeted by a gaggle of unnecessarily unattractive hookers causing a fracas in the lobby.”
Conclusion
Our investigation uncovers what we view as potentially systemic issues at Accor group in regard to human and especially child trafficking. The apparent connections between Epstein and Accor seem even more concerning in light of our findings and deserve in our opinion further scrutiny by shareholders and regulators.
We do not wish ill upon Accor and its many employees, but fear that there are deeply rooted problems that need to be addressed. Until the problems we outline in this report are addressed, we think Accor has a severe risk of a public scandal hanging over its head.
We view this as a crucial moment in history for the company. Accor’s board, its shareholders, and regulators have to make an important choice. One option is to try to protect powerful people at the company from accountability, ignore our concerns, and hide behind legal language with craftily written human rights policies. The other option is to address the issues, work for transparency, punish wrongdoers at the company, and focus on protecting victims on a practical level. We hope the company chooses the latter option.
Appendix
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