Houston's most popular hotels for prostitution busts



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Some of Houston's highest rated hotels have topped a list of locations where prostitution arrests were made.

Half of the top 20 Houston area hotels where prostitution busts were made happened at businesses owned by Hilton Hotels, Marriott International, and InterContinental Hotels Group, according to an analysis conducted by Chron.com using data provided by the Houston Police Department (HPD). Many of these hotels are also where HPD regularly conducts prostitution stings.

The data from HPD included addresses for all prostitution arrests made at Houston hotels from Jan. 1, 2012, through July 7 this year.

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At the top of the list was the Hyatt Regency at 1200 Louisiana Street with 136 arrests. In second was JW Marriott at 5150 Westhiemer Road with 83 arrests.

Hyatt managing director Tom Netting, who has been with the company since 2013, attributed the hotel's position atop the list to ongoing sting operations HPD coordinates with the hotel.

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"The Hyatt Regency Houston supports and cooperates with HPD in their proactive activities and when able, provides rooms for undercover sting activity and training. All known prostitution arrests at the Hyatt Regency Houston are from answering requests from Houston law enforcement," Netting told Chron.com.

High end hotels tend to have more arrests because HPD vice officers are conducting investigations at these locations and are actively seeking out suspects, the department told Chron.com. The department partners with hotel management and they allow their officers to use their facilities to address human trafficking issues before they occur.

"Additionally, these locations are preferred by the girls to attract higher paying clientele and it's a safer environment for them to conduct their illicit activity," the HPD added. "There are arrests that are made at other lower end hotels and motels, but more commonly, the arrests occur on the surrounding streets as opposed to the hotel locations."

Check out the slideshow above for the top 20 hotels in Houston where prostitution arrests occurred.



