Deposits, moves and cancellations for regular Schiphol visitors

Why a Schiphol booking is settled in two halves

Once a therapist has agreed to an evening out by the runways, that evening is spoken for. The journey to Schiphol-Oost, Schiphol-Rijk or the airport is planned around it, and the hours on either side can no longer be offered to anyone else in any useful way. The deposit is what makes the guest's half of that commitment real. It is not a sum held in reserve and handed back afterwards; it is the first half of the fee, worked out on the figure printed in the profile of the therapist you chose, stated in writing in the booking thread when the hour is agreed, and paid before she leaves.

The seven bookings that carry half, with the figures

Each profile on the roster lists the complete set of figures, for one guest and for a couple, with one therapist or two, and the deposit is half of whichever figure applies. These are the seven kinds of booking that carry it:

• any booking arranged more than twenty-four hours before its start, which takes in almost every request a weekly visitor sends before the week begins;
• an eight hour overnight, at whatever hour it begins;
• two therapists at the same time, for any length;
• a room at Schiphol, in the business district or at an airport hotel, which is arranged on its own, with the journey time agreed with you before anything is fixed;
• a peak date: King's Day, Pride, the Amsterdam Dance Event, the days from Christmas to New Year, or a large conference week, each named by the house on request;
• a session of three hours or longer, on any date at all;
• a client's first booking with the house, whatever its length or hour.

Set against real bookings, the halves look like this. Ninety minutes on a Tuesday at Schiphol-Rijk is confirmed with half of that session's fee, and two hours on the last night of a project with half of the two hour fee. An overnight before a late flight asks for half of the block ahead, and when two therapists share that night it is priced on its own line, half of which goes first. Three hours for one guest is confirmed with half the three hour figure, a sum equal to the whole fee for ninety minutes. Two hours for a couple with a therapist each costs four times the single two hours, and half of that larger sum goes ahead.

A single kind of booking is paid entirely on arrival. A guest the house has looked after before, at an address inside the city, asking for one or two hours with one therapist later the same day, settles the whole fee at the door. Take that same request out to an airport hotel, push it to another day, add a second therapist, lengthen it to three hours, place it on a peak date or make it a first booking, and half goes ahead once more.

Paying the two halves

The deposit is paid by card as the first choice, and by Revolut, Wise or cryptocurrency for guests who prefer those routes. Neither PayPal nor a bank transfer is used for either half. Cash cannot be a deposit, since the deposit is settled before she sets out and cash can only change hands once she is in the room. The exact deposit and the way to pay it are given in the booking thread after the hour is agreed, and nowhere else. Each rate quoted on this site is stated in euro. The balance is settled at the door when she arrives, and cash in another major currency is welcome for it, with the precise sum in that currency confirmed to you in writing before she leaves. The steps are listed in order on the booking page.

The cost of a cancellation, step by step

No cancellation leaves a guest liable to the house for damages. What may be kept is the part of the fee already earned when your message reaches the thread, and the notice you give decides that part alone:

• With more than twenty-four hours left before the booked time: nothing is kept, and the deposit is returned in full.
• Inside the final day, before she has set out: one half of the deposit is kept as fee already earned and the other half goes back to you.
• Once she has set out: all of the deposit is kept as fee already earned.

Two things can reduce even the final step. Should another client take the hour you released, the whole deposit comes back to you, because the time turned out not to be lost. And if you can show that the house lost less than the part it kept, only that smaller amount is kept.

Consider ninety minutes at a hotel in Schiphol-Oost, booked for eight on a Wednesday evening, with half of its fee paid ahead. Cancelled on the Monday, that whole half returns. Cancelled at noon on the Wednesday, while she has not yet left, a quarter of the fee is kept and the other quarter returns. Cancelled at half past seven with her already on the way out to the airport, the deposit is forfeit in full, unless the evening is taken by someone else.

A same-day city booking with nothing ahead

A regular's same-day hour or two at a city address is settled at the door, so there is no deposit for the steps above to keep. Cancelled before she has set out, that booking costs the guest nothing. Cancelled after she has set out, it costs the part of the fee her journey represents, which is the whole of what the house then asks.

Moving a booking to another date

A booking may change date once at no cost. The request must reach the thread more than twenty-four hours before the booked time, and the new date must fall within fourteen days. With both conditions satisfied, the full deposit moves to the new date. A second change, or a change asked for inside the last twenty-four hours, is measured on the notice scale exactly as a cancellation sent at that moment would be, and the part the scale does not keep carries on to the new date.

Force majeure, and the credit it becomes

Sometimes a booking is stopped by something neither side controls: a shutdown of transport, a serious disruption around the airport or in the city, an official instruction that makes the journey impossible. When that happens, nothing is forfeited and nothing is disputed. The deposit becomes credit, held against a new date that you need not choose straight away. A roster swap, a moved meeting, a rebooked flight, a cold, or a late decision to stay in and sleep all fall on the guest's side of that line, and each of them is treated as a move or a cancellation on the scale above.

If the house cannot perform

Should the house be unable to perform the session you booked, what happens next is your decision, not the house's. You can have the deposit returned in full, or leave it as credit against another date for as long as it takes you to pick one. If the therapist you asked for cannot come after all, the house tells you the moment it knows, and you either pick another name from the roster or take back the deposit.

Distance contracts and the fourteen days to withdraw

When a booking is agreed in writing and the two sides have not met beforehand, the service is contracted at a distance. Such contracts are governed by Book 6 of the Dutch Civil Code, articles 6:230m to 6:230z, which carry the European consumer rules into Dutch law. Those rules usually give a consumer fourteen days to withdraw from a contract made at a distance. Article 6:230p lists the contracts to which that right does not apply, and among them are services connected with leisure activities where the contract fixes a specific date or period of performance. Every booking with this house names an hour on a stated day, which is the case that article describes. The fourteen-day right therefore does not arise for these bookings, and nothing in these terms asks you to give up a right, because no such right exists here to give up.

A session booked for the same day stands on one more footing besides. Before she leaves, you are asked to write in the thread that you want the session carried out straight away and that you accept the fourteen-day right will not apply to it once it has been carried out. Everything else agreed between the two sides is set out in the terms.

A session cut short, by you or by her

If you end a session before the booked time is up, because an early report or a first meeting has come to mind, the full fee remains payable and nothing is refunded. The time was set aside for you, she made the journey out to the airport, and whatever is left of it cannot be offered to anyone else at that point in the evening.

The therapist decides what a session includes and states her limits before it starts, and those limits stand for the whole visit. If her safety or comfort is not respected, or a limit she has named is pushed, the visit ends there and then. The fee for the reserved time remains due, and nothing is added to it.

What makes a booking false, and the note written about it

Any one of the following makes a booking a false booking:

• the name given was not the client's own;
• the phone number or profile used belongs to another person;
• the request was sent as a prank;
• a no-show came after any of the three above.

Simply missing an appointment is not one of them. A guest who booked honestly and then did not come to the door has made an ordinary cancellation, which is read on the notice scale like any other.

When a booking does meet one of the criteria, or a visit is ended because a limit was pushed, the house writes a brief internal note. The note holds the date, an account of what took place and the name and number behind the booking, and it is kept for twelve months. Nobody outside the house sees it, and it answers one question only: whether another booking from that name is accepted. The privacy page explains how to object to a note and how to have it corrected or deleted. If the facts suggest a criminal offence, the matter may go to the police.

None of this touches a regular who books under his own name and is in the room when she knocks. The practical questions about lifts, key cards and timing are answered in the FAQ.