The deposit, the notice scale and a trip that moves

What half the fee is doing

When an evening in Amsterdam is agreed weeks in advance, a woman sets that evening aside for a guest she has not met, on the strength of a few written lines from another country. From then on, nobody else can book her for that hour, and the hours on either side of it become awkward to offer. Half the fee, sent ahead, is what puts the guest's side of that arrangement on the same footing as hers. It is not a security that sits apart and waits to be handed back. It is the first half of the price, worked out on the figure printed in her profile, stated in writing in the booking thread once the evening is agreed, and paid before she sets out.

The seven bookings that go ahead with half

All four rows of the rate table are printed on every profile on the roster, for one guest or a couple and for one therapist or two, and half of the applicable figure is what is sent in advance. That applies to seven kinds of booking:

• any booking made more than twenty-four hours before it starts, which takes in every booking fixed from home before a trip;
• an eight hour overnight, whatever its start;
• any booking with two therapists at the same time, at any length;
• a room at Schiphol or at one of the airport hotels, arranged separately with the journey time agreed with you before anything is fixed;
• a peak date, which means King's Day, Pride, the Amsterdam Dance Event, Christmas through to New Year, or a large conference week, each of which the house will name on request;
• three hours or more, on any date;
• a guest's first booking with the house, at any length and any hour.

The half, across every shape. A single hour for one guest is confirmed by half its fee; the rule is identical for ninety minutes for a couple sharing a therapist, an overnight for one guest with two therapists and three hours for a couple with a therapist each. Two hours fixed for a date next month is no different: the fee her profile shows is halved, and that half is what confirms it.

Only one kind of booking is settled entirely on arrival: a same-day hour or two at a city address, asked for by a guest the house has looked after before. Change any part of that, whether the date, the number of therapists, the length past three hours, an airport hotel as the address, a peak date or a first booking, and half goes ahead once more. A traveller still at home cannot make that booking, which is why a booking from home always carries half.

Sending half from abroad, and settling the rest

The deposit goes by card as a rule, and by Revolut, Wise or cryptocurrency for anyone who would rather. Bank transfers and PayPal are left out. Cash cannot act as a deposit, since a deposit is paid before she leaves and cash is only ever handed over in the room. The exact amount and the details for paying it are written in the booking thread after the evening is agreed, and appear nowhere else. All figures are in euros and include all taxes; a card issued abroad converts at its own bank's rate. The balance is paid at the door when she arrives, and a balance in cash in another major currency is accepted provided the exact sum in that currency was confirmed to you in writing before she set out. The booking page shows the sequence the messages follow.

What giving up the evening costs

A cancellation never leaves you owing the house damages. What it can keep is limited to the part of the fee that has already been earned by the time your message reaches the thread, and the only thing that decides that part is how much notice you gave:

• more than twenty-four hours before the booked time: none of it has been earned, and the whole deposit is returned to you;
• inside the last twenty-four hours, with her not yet on her way: half the deposit counts as fee already earned and is kept, and the other half is returned;
• after she has set out: the whole deposit counts as fee already earned and is kept.

Two things can lower even the third of those. If the evening you gave up is booked by another guest, the deposit is returned in full, since the time was not lost. And if you can show that what the house actually lost was less than the part it kept, it keeps only that lesser amount. The twenty-four hours are counted in Amsterdam time from the booked hour, whatever the clock says where you are writing from.

Take a single hour for one guest, booked from home for a Friday at eight in the evening and confirmed with half its fee. Cancelled on the Wednesday, every part of that deposit is returned. Cancelled at noon on the Friday, before she has left, the deposit is split down the middle, one part kept and one returned. Cancelled at a quarter to eight with her already crossing the city, the deposit is kept whole, unless the evening is taken by someone else.

When there was no deposit to begin with

The returning guest's same-day hour or two at a city address is taken without anything sent ahead, so the scale has nothing to work on. If it is called off before she has set out, nothing at all is owed. If it is called off after she has set out, what is owed is the share of the fee that her journey represents, and the house asks for nothing more than that.

Moving the evening to another date

A trip that shifts gets one free change of date. The request must reach the thread more than twenty-four hours before the booked time, and the new date must fall within fourteen days of the old one. When both are true, the deposit moves across to the new date whole. A second change, or a change asked for inside the final day, is read on the notice scale exactly as a cancellation sent at that moment would be, and whatever the scale does not keep moves on to the new date. A change of hour on the same evening is not a change of date, and her diary decides whether it can be made.

Force majeure, and the flight that does not count

Some events stop an evening for both sides at once: a transport shutdown, a serious disruption in the city, an official instruction that rules the journey out. In that event nobody forfeits anything and there is nothing to argue over. The deposit is turned into credit, held for a date you need not choose straight away. A flight moved or cancelled by an airline does not fall into that category, and neither do a cold, a change of plan, a meeting that ran long or a late decision to stay in. Each of those is a move or a cancellation on your side, measured on the scale above.

When the house is the one that cannot

If the house cannot perform the booking, you decide what follows, not the house. You can have the deposit returned in full, or keep it as credit for a new date for however long it takes you to settle on one. If the woman you named cannot come, the house tells you the moment it knows, and you either name another woman who is free that evening or have the deposit returned.

A booking made at a distance, and the fourteen days

A booking agreed in writing, without the two sides ever meeting beforehand, is a service contracted at a distance. The rules on such contracts are in Book 6 of the Dutch Civil Code, articles 6:230m to 6:230z, which carry the European consumer rules into Dutch law. Under those rules a consumer can ordinarily withdraw from a distance contract within fourteen days. Article 6:230p lists the contracts that right does not reach, and one of them is a service connected with leisure activities where the contract names a specific date or period of performance. Each booking with this house names an hour on a named date, which is the case the article describes, so the fourteen-day right does not come into existence here. These terms therefore do not ask you to waive anything; there is no such right to waive.

For a session on the same day as it is agreed, there is also a second footing. Before she sets out, the house asks you to write 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. Whatever else the two sides have agreed is written in the terms.

An evening ended before its time

If you decide partway through that the evening is over and end the session before the booked time runs out, the full fee still stands and nothing is returned. The time was held for you, she made the journey, and whatever remains of it cannot be offered to anyone else by then.

She decides what a session includes, and she states her limits before it begins; they stand for the whole visit. If her safety or her comfort is not respected, or a limit she has named is pressed on, the visit ends at that point. The fee for the reserved time remains due, and not a cent is added to it.

False bookings, and the note that is written

A booking counts as false if any one of these applies:

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

A missed evening, on its own, meets none of those. A guest who booked honestly and then could not keep the evening, because a flight failed or a plan fell through, has made an ordinary cancellation, and it is read on the notice scale like any other.

Where a booking does meet one of them, or a visit is ended because a limit was pressed on, the house writes a brief internal note: the date, what happened, and the name and number used for the booking. It is kept for twelve months, no one outside the house sees it, and it answers one question only, which is whether a further booking from that name is accepted. The privacy page explains the route for objecting to a note and for having it corrected or erased. Should the facts indicate a criminal offence, the house may take the matter to the police.

A traveller who books in his own name, weeks ahead, and is in the room when she knocks will never need any of this section. The practical questions about the day itself are answered in the FAQ.