AN AUSTRIAN brothel is offering a summer special that competitors will find hard to match — free sex. Its owner says it’s his way of protesting a tax squeeze.

“Effective immediately: Free Entrance! Free Drinks! Free Sex!” the Pascha bordello writes on its website.

The Oesterreich daily quotes owner Hermann Mueller as saying he will pay the women working for him to make up for the money they would normally get from clients.

Mr Mueller said he would offset the losses with income from his other brothels. A woman answering the telephone at the establishment confirmed the offer on Sunday.

Prostitution in Austria is legal and regulated. Mueller, who runs brothels in Germany and Austria, says he is pushing back against what he says is unfair taxation of nearly four million euros ($A5.81 million) in the past decade.

According to a local news website, the round-the-clock offer will run for between four to eight weeks. Hundreds of customers have reportedly been sent away with queues of men stretching around the block.