Sex for sale: What lies behind the rise in pop-up brothels across Cork City? 

The internet has taken prostitution off the streets and into short-term lets, with women being moved around the country to satisfy sex buyers’ desire for 'new faces'

The ready availability of Airbnbs and other short-term lets are facilitating a spike in prostitution across Cork City, Garda sources say. File picture: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

A woman in a leopard-print fleece dressing gown and fluffy slippers smoked a cigarette in the early afternoon sun outside a short-term rental on a quiet Cork street, dark hair tied back in a perfunctory ponytail.

Black plastic bin bags were taped across the ground-floor windows of the building, recently renovated and leased as a short-term rental.