Vanessa, one train from your arrivals gate

Little Venice to Paddington Basin is a ten minute ride along the Grand Union Canal, and Vanessa cycles it most days, past the painted narrowboats and the café barges. She is sweet natured, curious and relaxed, and she has the easy calm of someone who knows every short cut in W2. Mornings start with a coffee on the towpath and a list of new words on her phone, and afternoons tend to end in a bookshop or a perfume hall.

Slim and 173 cm, Vanessa wears her sandy brown hair long, lifted with soft balayage, and has hazel eyes and a taste for understated coastal clothes, a striped top, wide trousers, a light scarf. She is in her mid twenties. She is always learning a language, Portuguese at the moment, from an app and a patient friend, though her bookings are all in English. She collects fragrances too and will happily compare notes on the scent of your hotel lobby. She is patient with jet lag and good at quiet.

Airports are her speciality. Guests landing at Heathrow like her because she makes the transition easy: the train from Paddington, a drink at the Sofitel at Terminal 5, and an evening that turns a long travel day into something pleasant. Her gift is timing: she knows how long the train takes, when the terminal hotel lifts get busy, and how to make a two hour delay feel like part of the plan. A quiet evening around Paddington pleases her equally, a walk along the canal at dusk and a table by the water.

Vanessa lives in Paddington, a short train ride from Heathrow. Midweek bookings suit her best; tell Henrietta your flight or hotel and the time.