A lot of people complain about the rent system; I think most of them expanded too quickly. Your rent won't actually rise unless you build new facilities or hire new employees.
Buying items is a better use of your initial funds, so you can get the most out of a few employees. Wait until you have some savings before you expand.
I totally agree about being able to filter the gender of your guests though. I think a lot of players would prefer to have only certain gender combinations in their scenes.