A room number, an hour and a length. That is nearly all a room visit needs, and it is the booking that fills most pages of the night desk's log. One companion comes to your hotel room, suite or serviced flat for the time you choose, from one hour upward, and the clock starts at her knock.
One hour costs £250 at noon and the same £250 at four in the morning. Her cab is folded into that figure for every central route on the board, Zones 1 and 2 included. Longer visits climb the same ladder: £400 buys ninety minutes, £500 two hours, £700 three, and every rung is printed on the rates page.
A typical entry reads like this. A guest lands late, checks in, showers and writes at ten past eleven: a name from the rota or a line about the evening, then the hotel, a start time and a length. Henrietta answers within minutes with who is free, the figure and an arrival time. One check follows, then a short note that she has left. A room in Mayfair or Soho typically sees her within forty minutes; elsewhere in the centre, allow up to an hour.
Before she sets off, the desk confirms three details inside the chat you already have open: the name the room is registered to, the hotel and the room number. Reception is never telephoned and nothing appears on your bill. At a serviced flat or a private house, the street address and the name by the bell take their place. The check exists so she walks the corridor knowing exactly who expects her, and so no stranger can borrow your booking.
Most good hotels regard an invited visitor as the guest's own affair, and she crosses the lobby like anyone arriving for a drink. A few properties run their lifts on room keys late at night, and one or two prefer evening visitors to be collected downstairs. Where that applies, Henrietta tells you in advance and you step out of the lift to meet her. Plenty of guests choose the lobby route anyway: a glass at the Connaught Bar or the Blue Bar at The Berkeley, then up together. Lifts that want a room key after dark are covered, hotel by hotel, in the Knightsbridge evening guest notes.
One hour suits the guest with an early alarm: a drink poured, a proper conversation, lights out by one. Ninety minutes lets the talk wander somewhere unexpected. Two hours is where many first visits settle, long enough to order room service for two and eat it slowly. Three hours is a proper evening, and it is also the length every airport booking begins with. If the time is running short, say so before it ends; when her night allows, the visit moves up a rung and you settle only the gap between the two figures.
Samanta, 174 cm and based in Mayfair, collects hotel staircases the way other people collect menus, and arrives already knowing the building. Angelika, her Mayfair neighbour, plays tennis at dawn and carries that upright, athletic ease into any lobby at night. Karolina, from Covent Garden, is poised and dry witted, a good antidote to a loud day of meetings. Tiffany, from Soho, loves an older hotel with crooked corridors and will ask the night porter its history. Angelika, Karolina and Samanta all sit under statuesque.
A room visit is not only for hotel guests. A serviced apartment in Kensington, a mews house off Eaton Square or a flat taken for the month near Bank all book the same way, at the same figures. Only the check changes. Past Zone 2, her taxi out and back is quoted alongside the fee, so you approve a single total before she leaves. Still choosing where to stay? The district by district hotel notes are a good place to begin.
Change the hour or cancel while the start is still three or more hours off, and nothing is owed. Held up yourself? She allows a quarter of an hour's grace, after which Henrietta simply books a later start rather than shortening your time. Each step from first message to knock is set out on the booking page. Send the hotel and the hour; Henrietta does the rest.
Straight answers from the night desk. Anything missing goes to Henrietta in one message.
Across Zones 1 and 2 she normally knocks within an hour of the check, W1 and SW1 being the quickest routes. East of Temple and south of the river, allow a little extra after midnight. The airport hotels need three hours booked and some planning.
No. Nothing on the ladder is shorter than one hour, £250, whatever the time of day, and no half hours are sold.
No. She arrives as your visitor, just as a friend would. If your hotel asks for late guests to be met downstairs, the desk mentions it beforehand and you collect her from the lobby.
In person, directly to her, as she arrives: the exact figure written in your confirmation. Nothing is charged to your room and nothing appears on the hotel bill.
Describe the plan for room visits in a line or two, and the desk comes back with names, a figure and a time.
