Journal · 2026-08-14
A First Message Typed Under the Table
Five facts, two lines, one thumb. A booking made from a restaurant is usually written in a hurry, and a hurried message is fine as long as nothing is missing.
A surprising number of bookings are written with one hand below the edge of a restaurant table while the other holds a fork. It is not the ideal way to type anything, and nobody expects polished prose. What the reply needs is not good writing but complete information, and it is remarkably easy to leave out one piece of it when your attention is half on the conversation at the table.
The five facts
A first message that gets a complete answer, rather than a question back, carries five things:
- where you are staying: the street or building, and the room number if you have it;
- when you expect to be back, in Amsterdam time;
- how long you would like, from an hour to the eight-hour overnight;
- one guest or two, and one therapist or two;
- a name from the roster, or a sentence about the kind of hour you have in mind.
Written briefly, that can be two lines. Something like: staying near Dam Square, room on the fourth floor, back about 23:15, ninety minutes, just me, would like Clara if she is free, otherwise someone quiet. That is enough for a full reply.
The facts people leave out
The return time is the one people forget first. Guests write as if the booking starts the moment they send it, and then the reply has to ask when they will actually be at the room. At a restaurant, where you have another forty minutes at the table, that question costs a round trip in the thread at exactly the moment you are trying to look attentive to the person opposite.
The second is the entrance. If your building locks its street door at a certain hour, asks visitors to call up, or needs a keycard for the lift, put it in the first message. It is much easier to sort out in writing at ten than on the phone at eleven.
The third is the room number, which many guests genuinely do not know because they checked in at six and have been out ever since. That is fine. Say the floor if you know it, and send the number once you are back in the room.
What comes back
The reply names who is free at your hour, gives the figure for the length you asked for, and states the arrival window. If you named someone and she is not free, it says so and tells you who is; the choice of who to book stays with you. For a first booking, the reply also gives the amount of the deposit, which is half the fee, and the way to settle it.
Your answer can be one word. Once the hour is agreed and any deposit is settled, the booking is confirmed, and the phone can go face down on the table for the rest of the meal.
Doing it discreetly
There is nothing in the thread that needs hiding, but not everybody at the table needs to watch you type it either. A few things make it easier.
Write during a natural break: when the plates are cleared, while someone is choosing wine, or on the way to the washroom. Two minutes away from the table is enough for the whole exchange if the first message is complete.
Turn the notification preview off for the thread, so replies do not appear in large letters on a phone lying next to the bread basket.
Name an hour rather than asking for as soon as possible. It means the exchange can happen at nine, with plenty of time, instead of at a moment when you really need to be paying attention to the table.
Numbers, not estimates
At a table, the temptation is to write back later or around eleven. Both leave the reply to guess. A time with minutes in it, 23:15 rather than eleven-ish, lets the timing be arranged properly. If you do not know, say so, and give the earliest and latest you think likely. The house would rather have an honest range than a confident guess that turns out to be wrong by half an hour.
The same applies to length. If you are not sure whether you want an hour or ninety minutes, ask for ninety. It is much easier to be glad of the extra time than to wish for it once the hour is almost gone, and the figures are simple: 180 euros for an hour, 270 for ninety minutes, 360 for two hours.
The booking page lists the same five facts in more detail, and the page about the evening after dinner explains why the message should leave the restaurant before you do.