The deposit, a cancel and a change of date, in plain words

Why half is paid first

When a booking is confirmed, an hour of her day is held for you. Nobody else can book that hour. The hours around it are also harder to fill. The deposit makes the promise work in both directions. It is not an extra charge, and it is not money held to one side. It is the first half of the price itself. It is worked out from the figure in the profile of the therapist you named, written in the booking thread after the hour is agreed, and paid before she sets out.

The seven cases with a deposit

Each profile on the therapists page gives the full figures, for one guest or two, with one therapist or two. Half of the figure for your booking is the deposit. It is asked for in these seven cases:

• you book more than twenty-four hours before the start, which includes almost every booking made before a trip;
• you book the overnight, which is eight hours, whatever time it starts;
• you book two therapists at the same time, for any length;
• the address is at Schiphol or at an airport hotel, which is arranged on its own, with her journey time agreed with you before anything is fixed;
• the date is a busy date: King's Day, Pride, the Amsterdam Dance Event, the days from Christmas to New Year, or a week with a large conference, and the house will tell you if you ask;
• the booking is three hours or longer, on any date;
• it is your first booking with the house, at any hour and for any length.

Some halves, so the numbers are real. One hour at 180 euros: 90 first, 90 at the door. Ninety minutes at 270 euros, booked for tomorrow: 135 first. Three hours at 540 euros: 270 first. The overnight at 1,250 euros: 625 first and 625 at the door. The overnight with two therapists at 2,880 euros: 1,440 first. Two guests with one therapist each, for two hours, at 1,440 euros: 720 first.

The one case with no deposit

A guest the house has booked for before, asking for one or two hours later on the same day, at an address in the city, pays nothing first. The whole price is paid when she arrives. Change any one part of that and a deposit applies again: another date, a second therapist, three hours or more, an airport hotel, a busy date, or a first booking.

How the deposit is paid

By card, first of all. Revolut, Wise and crypto are also possible if you prefer them. The house does not use PayPal, and it does not use bank transfers. Cash cannot be a deposit, because a deposit is paid before she leaves and cash can only be paid in the room. The amount and the payment details appear in the booking thread after the hour is agreed. They appear nowhere else, and they never arrive in any other way. Each price you read here is a euro price. The second part, the balance, is settled in the room at the start of the visit. It can be paid in cash in another major currency, and the exact sum in that currency is written in the thread before she sets out. In what order the messages come is set out on the booking page.

What a cancel costs: three steps

A cancel never makes you owe the house damages. The only thing that can be kept is the part of the price already earned when your message arrives. The notice you give decides that part, and nothing else does:

• More than twenty-four hours before the booked hour: nothing is kept. The whole deposit comes back to you.
• Less than twenty-four hours before, and she has not left yet: half of the deposit is kept as price already earned. The other half comes back.
• Once she has set out towards you: the whole deposit is kept as price already earned.

Two things can make even the last step smaller. If someone else books the hour you gave up, the whole deposit comes back, because the hour was not lost. And if you can show that the real loss to the house was smaller than the part it kept, it keeps only that smaller part.

A worked example, step by step

You book two hours for 22:00 on a Thursday. The price is 360 euros, and the deposit is 180. If you cancel on Wednesday afternoon, more than a day ahead, all 180 euros come back. If you cancel at 16:00 on Thursday, before she has left, 90 is kept and 90 comes back. If you cancel at 21:45 on Thursday, when she is already on her way, the 180 stays with the house. It still comes back in full if another guest takes the hour.

A booking with no deposit

The same-day hour or two for a returning guest has no deposit, so the three steps above have nothing to work on. If you cancel before she has left for your door, you owe nothing at all. If you cancel after she has set out, you owe the part of the price that stands for her journey, and the house asks for nothing more than that.

Moving the booking to another day

You may move a booking once without cost. Two conditions apply. Your message must arrive more than twenty-four hours before the booked hour, and the new date must be within fourteen days. When both are true, the whole deposit moves to the new date. A second move, or a move asked for in the last twenty-four hours, is treated as a cancel made at that moment. The three steps above decide what is kept, and whatever is not kept moves to the new date.

Things nobody can control

Sometimes a booking is stopped by something outside the control of both sides. Public transport shuts down, there is serious trouble in the city, or an official order makes the journey impossible. Then nothing is lost, and there is nothing to discuss. The deposit becomes credit, which you can use on a later date that you do not need to choose now. A cold, a change of plan, a long meeting, a flight moved by the airline or a late wish to sleep instead are on your side of the line. Each of those is a move or a cancel, read on the three steps.

If the house cannot keep the booking

If the house cannot perform the session you booked, you choose what happens, not the house. You can have the whole deposit back. Or you can keep it as credit for a new date, for as long as you need to decide. If the therapist you named cannot come, the house tells you as soon as it knows. Then you name another therapist from the profiles, or you take the deposit back.

The fourteen-day rule for bookings made at a distance

A booking made in writing, without meeting first, is a service agreed at a distance. Dutch law covers these agreements in Book 6 of the Civil Code, articles 6:230m to 6:230z, which carry the European consumer rules. Under those rules a consumer can usually withdraw from a distance agreement within fourteen days. Article 6:230p lists the agreements where that right does not apply. One of them is a service linked to leisure, where the agreement gives a specific date or period. Every booking here gives an hour on a named day, which is the case that article describes. So the fourteen-day right does not arise for these bookings. These terms do not ask you to give up any right, because there is no such right to give up.

For a booking on the same day there is a second step. Before she sets out, the house asks you to write in the thread that you want the session to happen straight away, and that you understand the fourteen-day right will not apply once it has happened. The rest of the agreement is on the terms page.

A session that ends early

If you end a session before the booked time is over, the full price is still due, and nothing is paid back. The hours were held for you, she made the journey, and the time left over cannot be offered to another guest.

She alone decides what a session holds. She tells you her limits before it starts, and they stay the same for the whole visit. If her safety or her comfort is not respected, or if a limit she named is pushed, the visit ends at once. The price of the booked time is still due, and nothing at all is added to it.

False bookings, and the short note the house keeps

A booking is a false booking if one of these four things is true:

• the name on it is not the real name of the person booking;
• it came from a phone number or an account that belongs to someone else;
• it was only a joke, with no visit meant;
• a no-show followed one of the three things above.

A missed booking alone is not a false booking. A guest who booked honestly and then did not open the door has made an ordinary cancel, and the three steps decide the cost like any other.

When a booking is false, or when a visit ended because a limit was pushed, the house writes a short note for its own use. The note gives the date, what happened, and the name and number used for the booking. The house holds it for twelve months. Nobody outside the house sees it. It answers one question only: whether a new booking from that name is accepted. If you want to object to a note, or have it corrected or removed, the privacy page tells you how. If the facts show a crime, the house may report it to the police.

If you book in your own name and you are there when she knocks, nothing in this section is about you. Practical questions about the door, the hour and what to have ready are answered in the FAQ.