Deposits, cancellations and a date that cannot be given back

What a deposit is doing on an event date

A confirmed booking takes an hour out of someone's evening. From the moment she agrees to be at your door at nine on King's Day, that hour is hers only in theory; in practice it belongs to your booking, and on a date when every hour is asked for, it cannot be given to anyone else at short notice. The deposit is how the guest takes on a share of that commitment too. It is the first half of the fee itself, not a separate sum held and returned, and it is worked out on the figure shown in the profile of the woman you named. The amount is written in the booking thread once the hour is agreed, and paid before she sets out.

The seven kinds of booking that carry half

All the figures sit in the profiles on the roster, for one guest and for a couple, with one therapist or two. Half of the figure that applies is paid ahead on:

• any booking fixed more than twenty-four hours before it starts, which covers almost everything arranged from home before an event trip;
• the eight hour overnight, whatever time it begins;
• two therapists together, for any length;
• a room at Schiphol or an airport hotel, arranged on its own terms with the travel time agreed before anything else;
• a peak date: King's Day, Pride, the Amsterdam Dance Event, the run from Christmas to New Year, or a large conference week, which the house identifies when asked;
• a session of three hours or more, on any day;
• a guest's first booking with the house, whatever its length or hour.

In figures, halves become easy to picture. An overnight on the thirty-first at EUR 1,250 means EUR 625 in advance and EUR 625 on arrival. With two therapists for one guest the overnight is EUR 2,880, so EUR 1,440 goes first. Three hours on King's Day evening at EUR 540 is confirmed with EUR 270. A couple with a therapist each for ninety minutes during the dance event pays EUR 1,080, half of it EUR 540. An hour on the parade Saturday at EUR 180 is confirmed with EUR 90.

Only one kind of booking has nothing paid ahead. A guest the house has looked after before, at an address in the city, writing on the day for one or two hours, on a date that is not peak, pays everything when she arrives. Change any part of that, whether a later date, a second therapist, a third hour, an airport hotel, a peak date or a first booking, and half goes ahead again.

How each half is paid

The deposit goes by card as the first choice, or by Revolut, Wise or cryptocurrency for guests who would rather. Bank transfer is not used, and neither is PayPal. Cash cannot act as a deposit, for the simple reason that a deposit is settled before she leaves home and cash is only handed over in the room. The amount and the place to pay it are given in the booking thread after the hour is agreed, and nowhere else. All figures are in euro and include all taxes. The balance is paid at the door on arrival, and a guest finishing a trip with cash in another major currency may settle it in that currency, once the exact sum has been confirmed in writing before she sets out. The order of messages is set out on the booking page.

The notice scale

A cancellation never leaves you owing the house damages. What can be kept is the part of the fee already earned when your message arrives, and the notice you give is what sets that part:

• Cancelled more than twenty-four hours before the booked time: nothing is kept, and the whole deposit comes back to you.
• Cancelled within the last twenty-four hours, while she has not yet left: half the deposit is kept as fee already earned, and the other half is repaid.
• Cancelled after she has left for your door: the deposit is kept in full, as fee already earned.

Two things lower even the last of these. If the hour you released is taken by another guest, the deposit is repaid in full, since the time was not lost after all. And if you can show that the house lost less than the part it kept, it keeps only that smaller sum.

A worked case from the night of the thirty-first. Two hours from ten on the evening of the thirty-first at EUR 360, confirmed with EUR 180. Cancelled on the twenty-ninth, every euro of the EUR 180 returns. Cancelled at four in the afternoon on the thirty-first, before she has left, EUR 90 is kept and EUR 90 repaid. Cancelled at half past nine, with her already making her way through the crowds, the EUR 180 stays with the house, unless another guest takes the hour.

A same-day hour with nothing paid ahead

A returning client's same-day hour or two at a city address, on an ordinary date, has no deposit behind it, so the scale above has nothing to work on. Called off before she has set out, it costs nothing at all. Called off after she has set out, it costs the share of the fee that her journey represents, and the house asks for nothing beyond that.

Changing the date

One change of date is free. It has to be asked for in the thread more than twenty-four hours before the booked time, and the new date has to fall within fourteen days of the old one. With both conditions met, the deposit moves across in full. A second change, or a change asked for inside the last day, is measured on the notice scale exactly as a cancellation arriving at that moment would be, and whatever the scale does not keep goes on to the new date. On an event trip the free change is most often used to slide from a crowded evening to the calmer one after it, or to follow a festival timetable once it is published.

Events, crowds and force majeure

Sometimes a booking is stopped by something truly outside either side's control: a transport shutdown, a serious disruption in the city, or an official instruction that makes the journey impossible. Then nothing is forfeited and nothing needs arguing. The deposit turns into credit, held for a date you can choose later. The ordinary features of a big date are a different matter. Crowds, closed bridges, diverted trams and a reduced service around midnight are all published weeks ahead, and they belong to planning the hour. An illness, a flight moved by an airline, a game that went to extra time, a set that overran or a late decision to stay out are all on the guest's side, and each is read as a move or a cancellation on the scale.

If the house cannot keep the booking

Should the house be unable to provide the session you booked, the decision is yours. You can have the deposit back in full, or keep it as credit against another date for as long as you need to choose one. If the woman you named cannot come, you are told as soon as the house knows, and you can take another name from the roster or take the deposit back.

The fourteen-day rule and distance bookings

A booking made in writing, without the two sides meeting beforehand, is a service agreed at a distance. The Dutch Civil Code deals with such agreements in Book 6, articles 6:230m to 6:230z, which carry the European consumer rules into Dutch law. Under them a consumer usually has fourteen days to withdraw from an agreement made at a distance. Article 6:230p lists the agreements to which that right does not extend, and among them are services related to leisure activities where the agreement sets a specific date or period of performance. Every booking with this house names a particular hour on a particular day, which is exactly the situation the article describes. The fourteen-day right therefore does not arise, and nothing in these terms asks you to waive a right, because no such right exists here to waive.

For a same-day session there is a second, separate basis. Before she sets out, the house asks you to confirm in the thread that you want the session carried out straight away, and that you understand the fourteen-day right will not apply once it has been performed. Everything else the two sides agree on sits in the terms page.

A session ended before its time

If you decide partway through that you have had enough, and end the session before the booked time is up, the full fee remains payable and nothing is refunded. The time was held for you, she made the journey, and what is left of it cannot be offered to anyone else, on a festival night least of all.

What a session includes is her decision, and she says what her limits are before it begins. Those limits hold for the whole visit. If her safety or her comfort is disregarded, or one of her limits is pushed, the visit ends at that point. What is owed is the fee for the time reserved, with nothing added.

False bookings, and the note that is kept

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

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

A missed appointment alone is none of these. A guest who booked honestly and did not open the door has made an ordinary cancellation, read on the notice scale like any other.

When a booking fits one of those cases, or a visit ends because a limit was pushed, the house writes a short internal note: the date, what happened, and the name and number the booking came from. It is kept for twelve months, shown to nobody outside the house, and used to answer one question only, whether another booking from that name is accepted. Objecting to a note, or asking for it to be put right or removed, is explained on the privacy page. If the facts indicate a criminal offence, the house may inform the police.

A guest who books in their own name and is in the room when she knocks will never need this section. The practical questions about the door, the timing and what to have ready are answered in the FAQ.