Booking ahead of a return trip or on the day: the deposit and door rules for regulars

Every regular eventually settles into one of two habits. Some write from home, a week or two before the flight, and arrive in Amsterdam with the evening already fixed. Others wait until they are in the city, see how the day goes, and write in the afternoon. Neither habit is more correct than the other. What matters is that they are treated differently by the house, for reasons that have nothing to do with the guest and everything to do with how long an hour is being held. This guide walks through one evening booked both ways.

The evening in question

Take a guest on his third trip to the city. He stays in a hotel in Oud-Zuid, he has a free evening on the Wednesday of a four night stay, and he would like ninety minutes with a woman he found on the roster. At the card rate that is 270 euros. The only open question is when he writes.

Route one: fixed from home

He writes on the Wednesday of the previous week. The message gives the date, the hour in Amsterdam time, his hotel with the room still unknown, the length, her name, and a line saying he has booked twice before. The reply confirms whether she is free that Wednesday at that hour and, because the booking is being made more than twenty-four hours before its start, asks for half: 135 euros, by card, Revolut, Wise or cryptocurrency, to details written into the thread once the hour is agreed. The other 135 is paid at the door.

On the day, he sends his room number as soon as he has it. That one line is all the thread needs, and it is worth sending early rather than at the last minute.

What route one gives him

• The widest choice. A week of notice is usually enough to secure a particular name at a particular hour.
• Certainty before the trip. The evening is settled before the first meeting is.
• Room to plan something larger. Longer sessions, two therapists and the overnight all benefit from notice, and all of them carry half ahead anyway.

What route one costs him

• A deposit, every time, however many trips he has made.
• Exposure to the notice scale if plans change, which is set out further down.

Route two: written on the afternoon itself

He waits. At four on the Wednesday, back from a meeting, he writes: booked twice before from this number, tonight at nine, ninety minutes, hotel in Oud-Zuid with the room and floor, her name. The reply checks her evening. If she is free, the booking is confirmed, and because it meets all four conditions of the door rule, nothing goes ahead. He is a returning client, the booking is for the same day, it is ninety minutes, and the address is in the city. The whole 270 euros is paid when she arrives.

Because the session is the same day, the reply also asks him to confirm in the thread that he wants it carried out straight away and understands that the fourteen-day withdrawal right will not apply once it has been. He types a line saying so. That is the only extra step.

What route two gives him

• No deposit. For a returning client booking one or two hours on the day at a city address, the entire fee is settled at the door.
• Flexibility. He only commits once he knows how the day has gone.
• Almost nothing to lose if he changes his mind before she sets out.

What route two costs him

• Choice. The woman he wanted may already be booked that evening. If so, the reply tells him who is free at nine, and he decides whether to take one of them, move the hour or leave it.
• Scope. The door rule covers one or two hours only. If on the afternoon he decides he wants three hours, two therapists or the overnight, half goes ahead after all.

The rule each route triggers, in one table of words

The house asks for half ahead on seven kinds of booking, and waives it on one. The seven are:

1. a booking made more than twenty-four hours before its start;
2. an overnight of eight hours;
3. two therapists at once;
4. an address at Schiphol or an airport hotel, with the journey time agreed first;
5. a peak date: King's Day, Pride, the Amsterdam Dance Event, Christmas to New Year, or a large conference week;
6. three hours or longer;
7. a client's first booking with the house.

The one exception is a returning client's same-day booking of one or two hours at a city address. Route one falls into the first case on the list. Route two falls into the exception, provided none of the other cases applies. That is the whole difference between them.

Where route two stops working

A regular who always books on the day should know the handful of situations in which his habit carries a deposit anyway.

A peak date

If the Wednesday happens to fall in King's Day week, during Pride, in the week of the Amsterdam Dance Event, between Christmas and New Year or in a large conference week, half goes ahead on the day just as it does a week before. Those dates also fill earlier, which makes route one the more sensible choice for them. If you are not sure whether a date counts, ask in the thread.

An airport hotel

A regular who stays at Schiphol on one trip and in the centre on the next will find that the door rule applies to the second and not the first. Airport addresses sit outside the forty to sixty minute window that covers central Amsterdam. The journey time is agreed in the thread before anything is fixed, and half goes ahead.

A changed number or an expired thread

The door rule depends on the house being able to see an earlier booking in the thread. A new phone, a different contact, or a gap of more than twelve months since the last message leaves nothing to see. The booking is then handled as a first one, with half ahead, and route two costs the same as route one that trip.

Changing plans on each route

On route one, with a deposit

The notice scale applies. Cancel more than twenty-four hours before the start, and all 135 euros comes back. Cancel inside the final twenty-four hours but before she has left, and half the deposit, 67.50, is kept as fee already earned, with 67.50 returned. Cancel once she is on her way, and the 135 is kept. If someone else books the released hour, the deposit is returned in full, and if the guest can show that the house lost less than it kept, it keeps only that smaller amount.

There is also one free move. If the request reaches the thread more than twenty-four hours before the booked time and the new date falls within fourteen days, the deposit travels to the new date intact. That suits a regular whose meeting schedule shifts by a day or two. It does not stretch to a trip postponed by a whole quarter, which is a cancellation read on the scale.

On route two, without a deposit

If he calls it off before she has set out, nothing is owed. If he calls it off once she is already on her way, he pays the part of the fee her journey represents and nothing more. The house never asks for damages on a cancellation, on either route.

What both routes share

Whichever route he takes, much stays identical.

• The figure: 270 euros for ninety minutes on either route, with no surcharge for booking on the day and no discount for booking early.
• The window: forty to sixty minutes from confirmation to knock anywhere in central Amsterdam.
• Her decisions: she says at the start what the session includes and where her limits are, and she may decline a booking or end a visit whenever she chooses. If a limit is pushed the visit ends, the fee for the reserved time stays due, and nothing is added.
• The age rule: everyone present twenty-one or over, with a photo document shown at the door if she asks.
• The balance: paid at the door on arrival, in euros, or in cash in another major currency at a sum confirmed in writing beforehand.

An ended-early session

On either route, a session ended before its booked time, for any reason and by either side, stays payable in full for the time reserved. The time was held for him and she travelled out to reach him. If he knows before she sets out that he would rather have an hour than ninety minutes, he can say so in the thread and the booking becomes an hour at 180.

How regulars tend to choose

Patterns among guests who have booked several times are consistent. Those with fixed schedules and a particular name in mind lean towards route one; the deposit is a small price for certainty. Those whose days are unpredictable, and who are happy with whoever is free, lean towards route two; the door rule suits them. A good many regulars mix the two, booking the ordinary evening on the day and fixing the unusual one, a longer session or a different format, from home.

A practical sequence for route two

If on-the-day booking is your habit, a few things make it smoother:

• write by late afternoon rather than at nine for nine, since the window runs from confirmation and a later message narrows the choice;
• write from the number that holds your earlier thread;
• open with the line saying you have booked before;
• give the room and floor, not only the hotel;
• have the balance ready before she arrives, so the first minutes are not spent looking for it.

A practical sequence for route one

If you prefer to fix things from home:

• write a week or so before the trip, earlier for a peak date;
• give the date of the evening, not of your arrival;
• pay the deposit once the hour is agreed, using the details in the thread and nowhere else;
• send the room number as soon as you have it;
• if the trip moves by a few days, ask for the free move more than a day before the booked time.

The booking page sets out the exchange step by step, and the cancellation policy gives the full notice scale with further examples.