Two Travellers, Forty Years On: Booking as a Couple

Some of the couples who write to this house met when a trip to Amsterdam meant a rucksack and a youth hostel bunk. Forty years later they come back with a suitcase each and a hotel room with a view of the water, and one evening of the trip is set aside for something they have talked about for a while. There are two ways to arrange it, and the choice between them is mostly about the room.

Both of you have said yes

Before anything else: a booking for a couple is only made when both people have agreed to it. It cannot be arranged as a surprise, a gift or a favour to a partner who has not been asked, however affectionately the idea is meant. The thread may ask for confirmation from both of you. Everyone present must be twenty-one or over, and she may ask each of you for a photo document at the door.

One therapist for the two of you

The first arrangement is a single therapist working with both guests, one after the other or in turns through the session, at 360 euros an hour. Ninety minutes is 540 and two hours 720. This suits a hotel double or an apartment bedroom of ordinary size, because only one person is working at a time and the room needs space on one side of the bed.

It is the quieter of the two arrangements, and the easier one to fit into a room that was booked for sleeping rather than for space.

A therapist each

The second arrangement is two therapists, one for each of you, working at the same time, at 720 euros an hour. Ninety minutes is 1,080 and two hours 1,440. It needs a larger room: two people working on either side of one bed, or two beds with space around each. A suite, a large apartment or a twin room with the beds pulled apart all work; a compact canal-house bedroom usually does not. Describe the room in the thread and the reply will say whether it fits.

Any booking with two therapists carries half the fee in advance, whatever its length and however far ahead it is made, because two diaries have to meet at the same hour.

Choosing who comes

You can name one therapist or two from the roster, or describe the evening and hear who is free. Each profile gives her age, languages, the district she sets out from and photographs published with her agreement. For a therapist each, the two of you may prefer to choose one apiece. Each therapist decides for herself which bookings she accepts and what her session includes, and each tells you her limits at the start.

The room, for two guests

Everything that matters for one guest matters twice as much for two. Warm the room an hour ahead. Use a lamp rather than the overhead light. Clear two chairs, or one chair and a table, for coats and bags. Ask housekeeping for extra pillows. The couples massage page goes further into how the space is arranged.

Paying for two

Where a deposit is due, it is half the figure for the arrangement you chose: 360 euros on two hours with one therapist between you, 720 on two hours with a therapist each. It is paid once, by whichever of you prefers, by card, Revolut, Wise or cryptocurrency, and the balance is paid on arrival just as it is for a single guest. Nothing is added for the second guest beyond the rate itself.

An anniversary, or just an evening

Couples book for a reason and without one. A wedding anniversary with a round number, the last night of a long trip, a return to the city where they first travelled together. None of it needs explaining in the thread, though mentioning an occasion can help set the mood. The figures do not change for an occasion, and nothing is added for evenings or weekends.

If only one of you would like it

It is also common for one partner to book an evening alone while the other has a different plan, a concert, a long dinner with an old friend. That is an ordinary single booking, arranged in the ordinary way. The retirement trip page mentions both patterns, and neither needs any explanation.