Sex & Relationships

New company lets ladies rent guys for dates, handyman tasks and more

A couple Mondays ago, Anne, a fashion manager from Brooklyn Heights, had a mini panic attack. Her boss extended an 11th-hour invite to an event and told Anne she could bring a date. But Anne didn’t have a “suitable” plus-one, and she didn’t want to go alone. Her solution? She Googled “New York City guys” and stumbled upon Rent a Gent, a new company that lets you rent a smart dude for an evening and do whatever you want with him, except sex — meaning he can literally be anything from your date to your handyman. “When I first discovered the service, I thought to myself, ‘Do I really need to do this?’ ” recalls Anne, 31. “But then I was like, ‘You know what, I’ll do it — whatever. It’s only a few hours. I have nothing to lose.’ ”

Except her dignity, perhaps? Sex and relationship expert Emily Morse, host of the “Sex With Emily” podcast, is skeptical. “I think women who spend money to hire a date in an attempt to impress others will ultimately end up feeling empty, not to mention sexually frustrated,” she says. “But I could see the service working as a trendy gift idea for your friend who’d get a kick out of an Ivy League hottie mowing her lawn.”

Even though it might seem like a glorified escort service to some, others say the company’s all about female empowerment. Women select one of the 17 guys available for hire and pay a flat fee of $300 an hour for their chosen man to come do whatever they please. The site even has a “100 percent happiness guarantee,” meaning women receive a full refund if they aren’t satisfied.

CEO and co-founder Sara Shikhman started Rent a Gent in May after she’d gone to too many boring bachelorette parties. “The standard MO was, ‘Guy comes in, gets naked in five minutes, and five minutes later, everyone’s sitting on the couch, bored,” she recalls. “I realized that women want to be entertained by good-looking guys who are also smart and talented. So now, my team and I hit LinkedIn, Monster and other career sites to recruit mostly Ivy League-educated men who are also actors, bartenders, cooks and more.”

The company booked their first client in November. Since then, almost 150 women have used it.

“I wanted to come off as elegant, classy and smart at my work party, which is why I couldn’t trust any of the guys I’d casually dated to come to my event with me,” Anne says. “My gent was very smart — he ended up talking with my co-worker about how freedom had changed through the centuries. I was so impressed, as was my boss. And my female co-workers were like, ‘Where did you find him? He’s so hot and amazing!’ ”

Although she claims she felt empowered, Anne still kept mum. “My best friends know that I used the site,” she says, “but I wanted to keep it a secret from my co-workers — that would be too close for comfort.”