A Visitor From Home, and a Booking for Two in Amsterdam

Somewhere in the middle of most long stays, someone visits. A partner flies in for ten days, a friend comes for a long weekend, a sibling arrives with a list of museums. After weeks of solitary evenings the flat suddenly has two people in it, and the long-stay guest turns host. When the visitor is a partner, a booking for two often comes up in conversation, sometimes as a treat, sometimes as a way of sharing a part of the stay that the visitor has only heard about.

The two ways a couple can book

There are two shapes. A couple can share one therapist, who works with each of you in turn or together according to what she offers. Or each of you can have a therapist of your own, at the same time, in the same room. Both are ordinary requests. The rates come from the same matrix as any other booking: two of you with one woman means each length at double the solo fee, and two of you with a woman apiece means four times it. The couples massage page explains how each format tends to run.

Both guests, fully on board

One point matters more than any other. Both people must want the booking, and both must be twenty-one or over. A photo document may be asked for from each of you at the door. A booking made as a surprise for a partner who has not agreed to it is not a booking the house can take, and a visit where it becomes clear one person does not want to be there ends before it begins. Talk about it first, and mention in the first message that there will be two of you.

The deposit when a visitor is in town

A couple booking with one therapist, on the day, from a guest who has booked before, follows the same rule as a single booking: one or two hours at a city address, same day, paid at the door. A couple booking with two therapists always carries half ahead, whatever the timing, because two diaries have to clear the same hours. So does anything arranged more than twenty-four hours in advance. Since visits tend to be planned, most couple bookings on a long stay end up carrying a deposit.

Timing within the visit

A visit from home has its own shape. The first day is lost to travel and catching up. The middle days fill with sightseeing. The last day is lost to packing. The evening that works for a booking is usually the second or third, once the visitor has recovered from the flight and before the visit starts to wind down. A late afternoon booking after a long day of walking is a common choice, and two hours is the usual length for a couple.

The flat for two

A flat that works well for one person at a booking needs a little more thought for two. Space is the obvious question: is the bed large enough, and is there room for two therapists to work if you have booked two? If not, a couple with one therapist may suit the flat better. The heating matters twice as much. And the neighbours may notice more than usual, so a quieter format is worth considering in a building with thin floors.

A friend rather than a partner

Not every visitor is a partner, and a friend staying for a long weekend is a different situation. A booking for two is for two people who want to share a session. A friend who would like an evening of their own can book separately, at another hour, in their own name, as their first booking with the house. Two single bookings on the same evening at the same address are simply two bookings, each arranged on its own terms.

After the visitor leaves

The flat goes quiet again, often more quiet than before, and the first evening alone after a visit can be a flat one. Some long-stay guests plan a booking of their own for the second or third evening after the visitor has gone, precisely because they know that week will be harder than most. It is not a bad idea.

Whatever the booking, the essentials do not change: forty to sixty minutes from confirmation in central Amsterdam, the therapist deciding what each session includes, and the booking page setting out what the first message should say.