Deposits, cancellations and the notice scale for a hotel stay

Five evenings on the ladder, costed

Take a guest in a Zuidas tower who fixes three hours with one therapist for next Friday. Half of that evening's fee goes ahead as the deposit, and the matching half falls due in the suite on the night. A guest alone with two therapists for three hours splits a larger fee along the very same line, and so does a couple with a therapist each for two hours. An overnight, whether one therapist stays or two, is secured by half of its block figure. Someone writing for the first time from a museum-quarter boutique and asking for ninety minutes tonight sends half before she sets out and settles the other half at the door. The amounts themselves are never restated here; they sit in the rates table on each woman's page.

Only one shape of booking skips the deposit altogether. A guest the house has looked after on an earlier stay, back in a canal-ring room and asking for an hour or two that same evening, pays the whole fee on arrival. Turn it into a first booking, move it to another night or stretch it to three hours, and half the fee is due in advance once more. The rates for one guest and for a couple, with one therapist or two, are printed in every therapist profile.

The seven bookings that carry a deposit

Half the fee is the deposit on each of the following, because each one holds an hour well ahead of the evening itself:

• a booking placed more than twenty-four hours before the session starts;
• the overnight of eight hours;
• any booking with two therapists, at whatever length;
• a booking at Schiphol or at an airport hotel, arranged in advance, with the travel time settled with you first;
• a peak date, such as King's Day, ADE, Pride, Christmas, New Year or a large conference week, named on request;
• a session lasting three hours or longer, on any day;
• the first booking a guest makes with the house, whatever its length or hour.

Card is the first way to pay a deposit. Revolut, Wise and cryptocurrency are accepted as well, for guests who would rather use one of them. A deposit cannot be paid in cash, because cash belongs to the balance and the balance is settled in the room. The exact sum and the way to pay it are confirmed to you in writing, in the booking conversation, before she sets out. Every price on this site is stated in euro, and the euro figure is the price of the booking. The balance is settled in the room when she arrives. If you settle the balance in cash in another major currency, the amount in that currency is confirmed to you in writing before she sets out. The booking page lists the steps in the order they happen.

Cancelling, and the notice scale

Cancelling a booking never leaves you owing damages. The house keeps only the part of the fee it has already earned when your message arrives, and the notice you give sets that part:

• Notice of more than twenty-four hours before the booked time: the house keeps nothing, and the deposit is returned in full.
• Notice inside the last twenty-four hours, while she has not yet set out: the house keeps half the deposit as fee already earned, and the other half is returned.
• Notice after she has set out: the house keeps the whole deposit as fee already earned.

If another guest takes the hour you gave up, your deposit is returned in full. If you show that the house lost less than the amount it kept, the house keeps no more than that loss.

Picture an overnight called off on the Thursday before the Saturday. Two days out, the night can still go to someone else, so every part of the deposit travels back. The same message sent at noon on the Saturday returns half of the deposit and keeps the other half as fee earned. Sent while she is already crossing the city towards the Zuidas, it means the deposit is kept in full, unless the night is taken by another guest after all.

Changing the date

Each booking may be moved once at no charge. The request must arrive in the booking conversation more than twenty-four hours before the booked time. The new date must fall within fourteen days of the original one. When those conditions are met, the whole deposit carries over to the new date. Any later move, and any move requested inside the last twenty-four hours, is measured on the notice scale, in the same way as a cancellation sent at that moment. The part of the deposit that the scale does not keep carries over to the new date.

A delayed connection reported on the Tuesday for a Saturday evening therefore costs nothing to move. Reported on the Saturday afternoon, before she has left, it takes half the deposit on to the new evening and leaves the other half behind as fee already earned.

If the house cannot keep the booking

If the house cannot perform the session you booked, the choice is yours. You may have the whole deposit back. You may instead take a new date, and the house holds the deposit for as long as you need to choose one. If the therapist you chose cannot come, you are told as soon as the house hears of it, and you either pick someone else from the roster or take the deposit back.

A change on your side is a different matter. A dinner that overruns, a clash in the diary, a cold, a rebooked flight or a move to another hotel counts as a cancellation or a move, and the notice scale applies to it. Moving hotels inside central Amsterdam usually needs only the new address and room number in the thread.

Bookings made without a deposit

A returning guest's same-day hour or two carries no deposit. If that booking is cancelled before she has set out, nothing is owed. If it is cancelled after she has set out, the house asks only for the share of the fee that corresponds to the journey she has already begun.

The fourteen-day right

Book 6 of the Dutch Civil Code, in articles 6:230m to 6:230z, carries the EU Consumer Rights Directive into Dutch law. Under those articles a consumer normally has fourteen days to withdraw from a service agreed at a distance. A booking made by message is agreed at a distance. Article 6:230p takes certain contracts out of that right. One category it takes out is services related to leisure activities where the contract fixes a specific date or period. A booking with this house is always for a named hour on a named day, which is the situation that exception is meant for. The fourteen-day right does not arise for such a booking.

A same-day session also rests on a second footing. Before she sets out, the house asks you to confirm in the booking conversation that you want the session performed at once. In that same message you confirm that you understand the fourteen-day right will not apply once the session has been performed. The rest of the agreement is in the terms.

A session that ends early

If you end a session before the booked time is over, the full fee remains due. The time was reserved for you, she made the journey to your room, and the minutes left over cannot be offered to another guest.

Your therapist decides what a session includes and where her limits are. If her safety or her comfort is not respected, or a limit she has set is pressed, she ends the visit at that moment. By then she has reached your door, or the room itself, so you owe the fee for the time reserved, the hour having been held and the journey made, and nothing is charged on top of it.

False bookings and the internal note

A booking counts as a false booking when any one of these is true:

• it was made under a name that is not the guest's;
• it was made from a phone number or a profile that belongs to another person;
• it was made as a joke;
• it ended in a no-show after any of the three above.

An ordinary missed appointment is not a false booking. It is handled as a cancellation, on the notice scale.

When a booking meets one of those criteria, or when a visit ends because a limit was pressed, the house makes a short internal note. The note records the date, what happened, and the name and number used for the booking. The house keeps the note for twelve months. The note is never shared with anyone, and its only use is to decide whether to accept another booking from the same person. The privacy page explains how to object to the note or have it removed. If what happened may amount to a criminal offence, the house may report it to the police.

A guest who books in his own name and opens the door when she knocks never comes near any of this. The FAQ covers the practical side of a stay, and a question about one particular booking belongs in that booking's own conversation.