Golden Gay: Zurich's first gay escort club is a hit

Mar. 15 2013

by Marc Dedonder

UPDATE: Barely four months after opening, the Golden Gay shut down its escort service in May 2010 and carried on as an ordinary sauna — the paying clientele it had counted on never really materialized.

In a plush, refined setting in Zurich's Binz district, the Golden Gay Spa & Wellness — which opened its doors in mid-January 2010 — offers escort services to a gay clientele. Two months in, the venture is already paying off, and the escort club is proving to be a genuine hit.

Much of the Golden Gay's appeal lies in the comfort and sense of well-being it offers its guests. Regulars and visiting tourists alike drop in, whether out of curiosity or habit. Before the project launched, many assumed a venue like the Golden Gay would threaten Zurich's traditional saunas. Not so. It seems the clientele it attracts has little appetite for the city's gay saunas, and that a luxury escort concept aimed at gay men suits them far better.

Spread across three floors and 1,200 square meters, the Golden Gay caters to its male clientele with Jacuzzis, steam rooms, saunas, video booths, a lounge bar, several game rooms and around a hundred private lockers. Marble and gilded wallpaper set the tone its owners are reaching for: they bill the place as the most exclusive and luxurious club of its kind in Europe.

The prices are steep — and that, of course, is precisely the point of the luxury positioning. Entry costs 33 euros, with additional services added on request. For 138 euros an hour, a guest can enjoy the private company of a male escort, with as many as ten working the premises. And should you want the establishment's finest and largest suite, the Golden Gay will add a further 103 euros to your bill.

Its owner, Erich Brandenberger, says he is proud to be the first in Switzerland to secure official authorization to run an establishment of this kind — in a city where the half-dozen existing gay saunas are expressly forbidden from allowing paid services.

For now, at least, the future looks bright for Zurich's Golden Gay.