Company for two, at dinner and afterwards
Couples book this house for an evening together with a third person in it, most often a dinner and a bar afterwards, sometimes a show, occasionally a quiet evening at their own address. It is a smaller share of the diary than the other nine occasions and it is the one the host asks the most questions about, for good reason.
The card does not change. An hour is £250, four hours with a dinner in them is £900, and there is no separate rate because the booking has two names on your side of it. What does change is the conversation beforehand, which is longer and more direct than for any other kind of evening.
Suited to Couples
Ladies the host suggests most often for this kind of evening. Any name on the list can be asked for.
Who books this, and why
Usually couples visiting London who want an evening out with company rather than a table for two on a trip where they have already talked about everything. Sometimes a couple marking an occasion. Sometimes two people who simply enjoy good company and want a third at dinner. The common thread is that both of them want it, which is the only thing the host genuinely needs to establish before anything is arranged.
The host would like to hear from both of you
One message from one half of a couple is where these evenings go wrong, so the host asks for a line from each of you in the same conversation before the booking is confirmed. It is not a test and it takes a minute. It simply means that nobody arrives at a restaurant to find that one person was expecting a quiet dinner for two. Companions on this list have the same right to decline a booking that you have, and clarity beforehand protects everybody at the table.
An evening that works for three
Three across a table is better than three in a row, so ask for a round table when you book the restaurant. Soho is well supplied with them. A show works nicely because it gives the evening a spine, and the walk to a bar afterwards through Leicester Square does the rest. What tends not to work is an unplanned evening in a hotel room, simply because three people with no plan and no bar to walk to is harder work than anybody expects. Give the evening somewhere to go.
Agreed beforehand, in writing
Whatever the three of you have in mind for the evening, it is described to the host beforehand and confirmed in the chat, and nothing is negotiated on the night. Fees are for time and companionship only, which is as true of this occasion as of the other nine, and the host will say so directly rather than leaving it implied. Anything outside that is not arranged here. Guests who want a house that will imply otherwise on a booking form will have to look elsewhere, and the terms page is equally plain about it.
Names who are easy with couples
Cindy is blonde, blue eyed and warm with both halves of a table rather than one. Lucy has curly dark brown hair, is twenty four, and is the least self conscious person on the list. Thea is green eyed and good at making a third person feel like the natural shape of the evening. Nora is honey blonde, athletic and genuinely enjoys a long dinner. All four have taken bookings like this before, three of them sit in the blondes group, and all four are on the same card as everybody else.
Booking it
Write with the date, the length and where you are staying, and expect a slightly longer conversation than usual before it is confirmed. A quarter of the fee by bank transfer holds the evening. The name and room number confirm it in the ordinary way, and the balance is cash or transfer as you prefer. The booking page has the sequence, and the host reads messages at every hour of the night.
Couples, asked at the door
Short, plain answers. Anything else, the host takes by message at any hour.
No. It sits on the same published card as every other occasion, from £250 for an hour. There is no third person supplement and nothing is added once the evening has started.
So that everyone at the table has agreed to the same evening. It takes one line each in the same conversation and it prevents the single most common way these bookings go wrong.
Yes, and it is a sensible way to begin. Book a shorter evening, meet somewhere small and public, and extend in the chat at the card rate if all three of you are enjoying it.
She can, exactly as she can decline any other. The host will simply tell you and suggest somebody else, without explanation and without any deposit having been taken.
More occasions
- 01 · Hotel outcall companionshipRoom visitsThis is the plainest line the house writes and the one written most often. You give the hotel, the hour and how long you would like her to stay. The host gives you a name and a figure. She walks...Step inside
- 02 · Dinner date companionshipDinner datesA dinner booking is four hours and £900, and in this postcode those four hours have a particular shape. Soho eats early for the theatres and then eats again at half past ten when the casts and the...Step inside
- 03 · Overnight companionshipOvernightsAn overnight is ten hours and £1,800. It usually begins somewhere between ten and midnight, which in Soho is not late at all, and runs through to the morning. It is the one booking the house asks...Step inside
- 04 · Girlfriend experience companionshipGirlfriend experienceThe phrase gets used loosely across this industry, so here is what it means at this door and nothing more. It is an evening with the formality taken out of it. She arrives as somebody pleased to...Step inside
- 05 · Travel companionshipTravel companionTwo different bookings share this page. The first is an airport run, a companion with you for the journey out to Heathrow or Gatwick or for the hours after you land, which carries a three hour...Step inside
- 06 · Business event companionshipBusiness eventsSoho works for a living, and its working evenings have a particular texture. Production companies on Wardour Street, agencies off Golden Square, post houses and record labels and the restaurants...Step inside
- 07 · Duo companionshipDuo bookingsA duo is two names on the same booking, arriving together at the same address at the same hour. It is asked for most often for a long night out, where a pair carries an evening more easily than...Step inside
- 08 · Night out companionshipNights outThis is the occasion Soho was built for. Three hours at £700 is the usual shape, four at £900 if dinner is inside it, and the whole night if you would rather not decide in advance. She meets you...Step inside
- 09 · Extended booking companionshipExtended bookingsSome guests are in London for a week rather than an evening, and would rather write one arrangement than send eight separate messages. An extended booking is exactly that. Several nights, or a run...Step inside
Book Couples
Share the date, the venue and the pace you have in mind. The host replies with names that fit.