The vocabulary of a booking, kept short
Short definitions of the terms that turn up between a first message and a closed door, written the way the house applies them, for a reader too tired to guess.
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Outcall
Outcall means the therapist makes the journey to the room where you are staying, so after a day on your feet the only distance left to cover is to the door.
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Arrival window
The arrival window is forty to sixty minutes, measured from the moment your booking is confirmed until her knock, anywhere in central Amsterdam at any hour.
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Deposit
The deposit is half the fee for the booking, paid before she sets out, and it secures most bookings, a first booking with the house included, at any length.
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Balance on arrival
The balance is whatever part of the fee has not gone ahead as a deposit, paid at the door when she arrives, in euro or in cash in another major currency.
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Cancellation and refunds
What is kept after you cancel depends on notice alone: a whole deposit returns with a day to spare, half inside the last day, none once she has set out.
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Free move
A free move is the one change of date that costs nothing: asked for over a day ahead, to a date within fourteen days, with the deposit carried over.
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False bookings
A false booking is one made in a name not the client's own, from someone else's number or profile, as a prank, or any of those followed by a no-show.
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Twenty-one or over
Twenty-one or over is the age rule for everyone in the room: the guest who books, anyone with him, and every therapist on the roster, without exception.
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Overnight
An overnight is a fixed block of eight hours with one therapist, priced as one sum rather than by the hour, and always secured with half of it paid ahead.
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Booking thread
The booking thread is the written exchange where the hour, length, figure and deposit are agreed, and the only place payment details ever appear.
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Peak date
A peak date is a busy stretch in the city calendar when every booking carries a half deposit: King's Day, Pride, the Dance Event, the year end.
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Returning guest
A returning guest is one the house has looked after before; his same-day hour or two at a city address is paid in full on arrival, with no deposit.
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Session length
Session length is the time booked in your room: an hour, ninety minutes, two or three hours, or an eight hour overnight, each at one fixed figure.
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Schiphol by arrangement
Schiphol by arrangement means an airport or airport hotel room is booked on its own terms, with the journey time agreed first and half the fee paid ahead.
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Her limits
Her limits are what the therapist says, before anything starts, about what the session will include; they are hers to set and they hold for the whole visit.