From message to knock
From first message to knock, in five steps
Bookings are made in writing, day or night. Maude works the day desk, which in this postcode means from about nine in the morning until well past midnight, and answers inside fifteen minutes for most of it.
Nothing below asks for more than you need to give. Four facts start it and one check finishes it.
How an evening is arranged
One written message does the whole thing. Nothing is spoken aloud in a lift, a lobby or a bar.
Settle four things
The day, the start time, the length and the address. A hotel room, a serviced flat or a private home all work equally well, anywhere on the E14 and around map.
Pick a name, or describe the evening
Choose a face from the desk, or write two lines about what the evening is, a client dinner, a late supper upstairs, a quiet hour, and Maude comes back with two or three who are genuinely free.
Send the message
Paste the script below with the brackets filled in. One message is enough. No form, no account, no call.
One check
Sent once: the name your hotel holds the room under, the hotel and the room number. At a private address it is the building, the floor and the entrance she should use. It is asked once and never again.
Confirmed, then she leaves
The reply names her, the figure in pounds and the time she will be at your door. She arrives dressed for the building, and the figure goes to her as she steps in.
Hello, I would like to book [name] on [date] at [time] for [duration]. I am staying at [hotel name], and will share the room number on confirmation.
What the desk needs, and what it does not
A first name, a date, a time, a length and an address. That is the entire list. No identity document, no employer, no history and never a photograph of you.
The check exists so a woman travelling alone at ten at night knows the door she is knocking on. It takes one message, and the detail goes afterwards, as privacy explains.
Timing, honestly
From a confirmed booking to a knock, allow forty five minutes to an hour across Canary Wharf, the City and London Bridge. Add about ten minutes after the last trains, and a little more for E16.
If she will be late you hear it from the desk before you notice it. If nothing can be arranged for the hour you want, you are told plainly rather than kept on a maybe. Every figure sits on rates.
Questions the desk is asked
How far ahead should I write?
Two or three hours is comfortable for a weekday evening and the same day is usually workable. Friday and Saturday fill by mid afternoon. Under an hour depends entirely on where she happens to be standing.
Can I book without naming the hotel?
You can open that way and most people do. The hotel and room come before she sets off, not before you write, and nothing is confirmed until they do.
What if I want to extend on the night?
Say so before the booked length runs out. If her evening has room, the difference between one rung and the next is the whole cost, and the desk sorts it in one message.
Is there a call option?
No. Everything here is done in writing, which leaves you a record of exactly what was agreed and leaves nobody guessing at a name heard over a bad line.
Send the room and the hour
Write the district, the time and the length of the booking. The desk answers with a name and an arrival window, and the evening is set.