Deposits, changes on the night, and what a cancelled hour costs

What a deposit is for

Once a booking is confirmed, an hour of a therapist's evening belongs to you. She turns down other requests for it, plans her night around it and, when the time comes, crosses the city to reach it. The deposit is the guest's half of that promise. It is not a guarantee set aside and handed back later. It is the first half of the fee for the session itself, worked out from the figure on the profile of the therapist you chose, stated in the booking thread once the hour is agreed, and settled before she sets out.

The seven bookings that carry half the fee ahead

Each profile on the roster lists the figures for one guest and for a couple, with one therapist or with two. Half of the figure that applies is paid ahead on:

• a booking arranged more than twenty-four hours before it begins, which takes in anything set up before the trip;
• an overnight of eight hours, whenever it starts;
• any booking with two therapists, of any length;
• a room at Schiphol or at an airport hotel, arranged on its own once her journey time has been agreed with you;
• a peak date: King's Day, Pride, the Amsterdam Dance Event, the days from Christmas to New Year, or a large conference week, which the house will name if you ask;
• a session of three hours or longer, on any date;
• the first booking any guest makes with the house, at any length and any hour.

Put into euros, the halves are easy to read. A first hour at 180 euros means 90 ahead and 90 at the door. A first ninety minutes after dinner, at 270 euros, confirms with 135. Three hours, 540 euros in all, needs 270 of it ahead. An overnight at 1,250 euros confirms with 625, and the same night with two therapists, at 2,880 euros, confirms with 1,440. A couple taking two hours with a therapist each pays 1,440 euros in all, of which 720 goes ahead.

There is one booking with nothing ahead. A guest the house has already looked after, asking for one or two hours later on the same day at an address in the city, pays the whole figure when she arrives. Change any one of those conditions, by choosing another day, a second therapist, three hours or more, an airport hotel, a peak date, or by being new to the house, and half goes ahead once again.

Paying the deposit and the balance

The deposit is paid by card as a rule, and by Revolut, Wise or cryptocurrency for guests who prefer one of those. PayPal and bank transfers are not among the ways to pay it. Cash cannot be a deposit, for the simple reason that the deposit is settled before she sets out and cash is only ever handed over in the room. The exact amount and the way to pay it are written in the booking thread once the hour is agreed, and they appear nowhere else. The balance is settled at the start of the visit. Cash in another major currency is welcome for the balance, provided the exact sum in that currency has been confirmed to you in writing before she leaves. The booking page sets out the order in which the messages run.

The notice scale

A cancellation never leaves a guest owing the house damages. The only thing that may be kept is the part of the fee already earned when your message arrives, and the amount of notice is what fixes that part:

• Notice of more than twenty-four hours before the booked start: nothing is kept, and the deposit comes back whole.
• Notice inside the last twenty-four hours, with her not yet on her way: half of the deposit is kept as fee already earned, and the other half is refunded.
• Notice after she has set out: all of the deposit is kept as fee already earned.

Even the last line can soften. When another guest books the hour you gave back, the full deposit is refunded, since no time was lost in the end. And when you can show the house lost less than the share it kept, it keeps only that lower figure.

An example from a typical evening. Ninety minutes at half past eleven, a first booking, 135 euros ahead. A message the afternoon before brings back all 135. A message at ten that night, while she is still at home, keeps 67.50 and refunds 67.50. A message at twenty past eleven, with her already crossing the canal ring, keeps the 135, unless another guest takes the hour.

A same-day booking with nothing paid ahead

The returning guest's hour or two later the same day, at a city address, has no deposit behind it, so the scale has nothing to work on. Cancelled before she leaves for your door, it costs nothing. Cancelled after she has set out, it costs the part of the fee that her journey represents, and the house asks for nothing more than that.

A later hour on the same night

Evenings run long, and a later start on the same night is the change guests ask for more than any other. While she has not yet set out, moving the hour later on the same night is an adjustment within the booking, not a cancellation or a change of date, and it costs nothing if she can keep the new time. If she cannot, the reply says so and tells you who is free at the later hour; you may name one of them, keep the hour you had, or cancel, and a cancellation is read on the scale above at the moment it is sent. After she has set out, write at once with an honest time; if the session cannot go ahead, it counts as a cancellation sent after she was on her way.

Moving to another date

A booking may be moved to another date once without charge. The request must reach the thread more than twenty-four hours before the booked start, and the new date must be no more than fourteen days away. When both are met, the whole deposit carries over. A second move, or a move requested inside the final day, is read on the notice scale as though it were a cancellation sent at that moment, and the part of the deposit the scale does not keep carries over to the new date.

Events outside anyone's control

Sometimes neither side can make a booking happen: a shutdown of the transport network, a serious disruption in the city, or an instruction from the authorities that rules out her journey. In those cases nothing is lost and nothing is disputed. The deposit becomes credit instead, held until you pick a new evening, with no deadline pressed on you. A dinner that overran, a club you did not want to leave, a cold, a meeting moved or a late decision to sleep instead are on the guest's side of that line, and each is read as a change of date or a cancellation under the rules above.

When the house cannot perform

If the house is unable to deliver the session you booked, the choice of what happens next is yours. You can have the deposit back in full, or keep it as credit for a new date, with as long as you need to pick one. If the therapist you named cannot come, you are told as soon as the house knows, and you may name another woman from the roster, the reply saying who is free, or have the deposit back.

Bookings made at a distance and the fourteen-day right

A booking agreed in writing, without the two sides meeting beforehand, is a service contract concluded at a distance. The rules for contracts of that kind are in articles 6:230m to 6:230z of Book 6 of the Dutch Civil Code, where the European consumer rules were written into national law. Those rules usually give a consumer fourteen days to withdraw from a distance contract. Article 6:230p lists the contracts to which the right does not apply, and it includes services related to leisure activities where the contract fixes a specific date or period of performance. Every booking made here fixes an hour on a named day, the situation that exception was drafted for, and so the fourteen-day right does not come into existence. No right is being waived by these terms, because there is none to waive.

For a session on the day it is booked, there is an additional safeguard. Before she sets out, the house asks you to write in the thread that you want the session carried out straight away and that you understand the fourteen-day right will not apply once it has been carried out. The rest of what the two sides agree is in the terms.

A session ended before its time

If you choose to end a session before the booked time is over, the whole fee stays payable and nothing is refunded. The time was held for you, she travelled to reach you, and the minutes left over cannot be offered to anyone else so late in the evening.

What a session includes is for the therapist to decide, and she sets out her limits before it starts; they apply until she leaves. If her safety or her comfort is disregarded, or a limit she has named is pressed, the visit stops there. The fee for the time reserved remains due, and not a cent is added to it.

False bookings and the internal note

A booking is treated as false when any one of these applies:

• it was made under a name that is not the guest's own;
• it was made from a phone number or a profile that belongs to another person;
• it was made as a prank;
• it was followed by a no-show after one of the three above.

A missed appointment, taken alone, meets none of those tests. A guest who booked in good faith and then was not at the door has made an ordinary late cancellation, which is dealt with on the notice scale.

When a booking does meet one of the tests, or a visit is stopped because a limit was pressed, the house makes a brief internal record: the date, an outline of what occurred, and the name and number used to book. It is kept for twelve months, is seen by nobody outside the house, and answers one question only, which is whether another booking from that name will be accepted. The privacy page explains how to object to such a record or ask for it to be corrected or erased. If the facts suggest a criminal offence, the house may report it to the police.

A guest who books under his own name and opens his own door when she knocks will never need anything in this section. The practical questions about entrances, timing and what to have ready are answered on the questions page.