Deposits, cancellations and the booking a regular pays at the door

What a deposit is for

Once a therapist agrees to an hour, that hour is gone from her evening, together with the time either side of it, which is too short to offer anyone else. The deposit makes the commitment run both ways. It is not a bond held apart and returned afterwards. It is the opening half of the fee, taken from the figure in the profile of the woman you booked, stated in writing in your thread once the hour is agreed, and settled before she leaves for your door.

The seven bookings that carry half ahead

The profiles on the roster each show the full table, for one guest or a couple and for one therapist or two, and half of the figure that fits your booking is what goes first. That half is asked for on:

• any booking arranged more than twenty-four hours before it starts, which includes nearly every evening fixed before a trip;
• the eight hour overnight, whatever time it begins;
• two therapists together, at any length;
• an address at Schiphol or at an airport hotel, arranged apart from the city with the journey time agreed with you first;
• a peak date: King's Day, Pride, the Amsterdam Dance Event, the days from Christmas to New Year, or a large conference week, any of which the house will name on request;
• a session lasting three hours or longer, on any day;
• a client's very first booking with the house, at whatever hour and length.

The half is always taken from the whole fee of the booking in question, so it grows with the booking and with nothing else. Ninety minutes fixed the week before a trip sends half its own fee first. Two hours with two therapists sends half of a fee that is already double the solo one. Three hours for a couple sharing one therapist, and the overnight in each of its forms, follow the same arithmetic: half of whatever that particular booking totals before she sets out, the remainder on arrival.

The booking paid entirely on arrival

A guest the house has looked after before, asking on the day itself for one or two hours at an address inside the city, sends nothing ahead and settles the whole fee when she arrives. That covers an hour, ninety minutes or two hours, for one guest or for a couple sharing a therapist, at the fee her profile gives for that length. The house recognises a returning client only through the written thread of an earlier booking that went ahead, and threads are cleared twelve months after their last message. Change any part of that request, whether the date, the length past two hours, a second therapist, an airport address or a peak date, and half goes ahead once more. The same applies if the earlier thread cannot be found.

Paying the two halves

Card is the usual route for a deposit, with Revolut, Wise or cryptocurrency for guests who would rather use one of those. The house does not take bank transfers or PayPal. Cash cannot serve as a deposit, since a deposit is settled before she sets out and cash only changes hands in the room. The exact sum and where it goes are written into your thread after the hour is agreed and are published nowhere else. Fees are set in euro, and each one already includes every tax. The balance, or the whole fee on a door booking, is paid when she arrives, and cash in another major currency is accepted at an exact sum in that currency confirmed in writing before she leaves. The booking page shows how the messages run from first line to knock.

What cancelling costs

A cancellation never makes you answerable to the house for damages. What the house may keep is only the part of the fee already earned at the moment your message arrives, and the notice you give decides that part:

• more than twenty-four hours before the booked start: nothing is kept, and the deposit comes back whole;
• within the last twenty-four hours, while she has not yet set out: half the deposit is kept as fee already earned and the other half is returned;
• after she has set out towards you: the whole deposit is kept as fee already earned.

Two things can bring that down. Should another client take the hour you gave up, the deposit is returned in full, because the time was not lost. Should you show that the house lost less than the part it kept, it keeps only that lower figure.

An example in proportions. A regular fixes two hours for a Thursday evening from home and pays half the fee ahead. A Tuesday cancellation brings the whole deposit back. Cancelled on Thursday afternoon, before she has left, the house keeps half the deposit and returns the other half, a quarter of the full fee each way. If the message comes at a quarter to nine, with her already crossing the city, none of the deposit comes back, unless another guest takes the hour.

Cancelling a booking with nothing paid ahead

A returning client's same-day hour or two in the city carries no deposit, so the scale above has nothing to work on. Called off before she has left for your address, it costs nothing at all. Called off after she has left, it costs the share of the fee that her journey represents, and the house asks for nothing more.

Moving to another date

You may change the date once without charge, provided the request reaches your thread more than twenty-four hours before the booked time and the new date is no more than fourteen days away. With both conditions met, the deposit moves across complete. A second change, or one requested inside the final day, is measured on the notice scale just as a cancellation sent at that moment would be, and whatever the scale does not keep moves on to the new date. A trip postponed by months rather than days is a cancellation, read on the scale when the message arrives.

Events beyond anyone's control

Sometimes a booking is stopped by something neither side could prevent: transport shut down, serious disruption across the city, or an official instruction that rules the journey out. Then nothing is forfeited and there is nothing to dispute. The deposit turns into credit, kept for a date you do not need to pick straight away. A cold, a change of heart, a meeting that ran long, a flight rescheduled by the airline or a late decision to sleep instead all fall on your side of that line, and each is treated as a move or a cancellation on the scale above.

If the house cannot provide the session

If the house cannot carry out the session you booked, the choice is yours. You can take the deposit back in full, or keep it as credit towards a later date for as long as you need to decide. If the woman you booked is unable to come, you hear so as soon as the house knows, and you either name someone else from the roster or take the deposit back.

The fourteen-day withdrawal right

A booking agreed in writing, without the two sides meeting first, is a distance contract for a service. Such contracts are governed by Book 6 of the Dutch Civil Code, in articles 6:230m to 6:230z, the part that brings the European consumer rules into Dutch law. They normally allow a consumer fourteen days to withdraw from a distance contract. Article 6:230p lists the contracts to which that right does not extend, and it includes services connected with leisure activities where the contract sets a specific date or period of performance. Each booking here fixes an hour on a named day, which is the situation that article covers, so the fourteen-day right does not arise. These terms ask you to give up no right, because no such right exists here to give up.

For a same-day session there is also a second basis. Before she leaves, the house asks you to state in the thread that you want the session carried out at once and that you understand the fourteen-day right will not apply to it once it has been carried out. A regular gives that statement on each same-day booking; it does not carry over from an earlier trip. The rest of what the two sides agree is written in the terms.

Sessions that end early

If you decide partway through that you would like to stop, the session ends there and the full fee for the booked time stays payable, with nothing refunded. The time was held for you, she made the journey, and what remains of it cannot be offered to anyone else by then.

She decides what the session includes and names her limits before it begins, and those limits hold for the whole visit, however many times you have booked before. If her safety or comfort is not respected, or one of her limits is pressed, the visit ends at that point. The fee for the reserved time remains due, and nothing whatever is added to it.

False bookings and the internal note

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

• it was made under a name that is not the client's own;
• it came from a phone number or a profile that belongs to someone else;
• it was made as a joke;
• a no-show followed any of the three above.

Simply missing an appointment does not fall under any of them. A guest who booked in good faith and then did not open the door has cancelled in the ordinary way, and the notice scale deals with it like any other cancellation.

Where a booking does meet one of the criteria, or a visit is ended because a limit was pressed, the house records a short internal note with the date, what happened, and the name and number used for the booking. It is kept for twelve months and seen by nobody outside the house, and it answers one question only: whether a further booking from that name is accepted. The privacy page explains how to object to such a note or have it corrected or deleted. Where the facts point towards a criminal offence, the house may report the matter to the police.

A guest who books in his own name and is there when she knocks need give this section no further thought. Questions about entry, timing and what to have ready at the door are answered in the FAQ.