I have the same issue. I have 8 strippers and 7 prostitutes 2 host hired marked locations for lap dances table dances stripper poles and sex and have the host station. No customers show up, the staff just stands around. After 8 hours of being open get notice from employees about over worked and that they are reporting the business.
If I try to be a patron in my brothel I get a spot or try to "order" from a prostitute the sim just sits there with a menu. Lots of food did appear on tables once, when trying to order anal for group.
The strip club from WW I can get working fine. Strippers show up dance serve drinks and customers show up. It can be ran for more than 8 hours by setting schedule
So to me it looks like the issue is for some reason it is built with restaurant scripts, that are over riding brothel in my game.
The host station seams kind of forced system for a brothel. I would think instead of the customer getting a spot assigned to them the worker would get a spot/room assigned to them by the madam/pimp(PC) then you talk to the one you like and they take you to their spot.
Perhaps an option to assign shift hours to staff as individuals a 8 hour limit to a brothel seams limiting. You have sufficient slots to hire for several shifts.
It would also be nice to have an option to filter available employees by gender. Had a issue filling staff, had only 1 female looking for a job and 5 males.(I have no interest managing male strippers and prostitutes.) so had to track down sims and hire them in world.
Perhaps some different options to hire staff, for those that want a criminal brothel. Paying a crime syndicate to import random females, or working off dept.
Instead of the full brothel get a working pimp system so your sim can manage hookers without the full on busness.
