Booking
From the first message to the knock at the door
Booking at an airport is arithmetic and one message. You supply an hour or a flight number and a hotel name; the desk supplies an arrival time it can keep, or an honest alternative. There are no accounts to open.
From landing to door
Send the shape of the evening
The date, the start time or your flight number, how long, and the hotel in full. A name from the line-up, or describe the evening and ask.
Give the desk the hotel, not the terminal
Buildings out here are named after terminals they are nowhere near, so the full hotel name fixes the address. For a private house: street, postcode, landmark.
Confirm who you are
Saskia asks for your full name, the hotel and the room number in writing before she leaves. Those details confirm the booking and go nowhere else.
Take the arrival time
A real arrival time comes back and the slot is held, calculated from where she starts and what the M4 is doing. She messages again when she sets off.
Meet her where you like
The lobby, the bar, or the door of the room. Keep the room number for the message rather than for reception.
Settle in person, then stop planning
The figure for the duration you chose is handed to her in person once she is inside. Want longer? Say so before the booked time ends.
One message, already written
Fill in the brackets and send it as it is. Nothing else is needed to start.
Hello, I would like to book [name] on [date] at [time] for [duration]. I am staying at [hotel name], and will share the room number on confirmation.
Booking from the air
A flight number beats a clock time and survives a delay: slip two hours and the evening slips with you.
How much warning to give
Two or three hours is comfortable almost anywhere on this map. An hour is workable at the terminals and on the Bath Road. Ninety minutes is the honest ask for Stanwell, Longford and the Colnbrook side, and more again between five and seven when the M4 westbound stops moving. Late requests get a straight answer, sometimes that tonight will not work.
What the desk will never ask you for
Account details, codes, numbers or anything resembling them. There is no registration, no sign up form and no mailing list. One chat is the whole record of a booking; delete your side afterwards, and the privacy page covers the rest.
Changing your mind
Three hours of notice or more and the booking moves or cancels at no cost. Inside two hours, half the fee stands; a guest who does not appear owes all of it. There is a quarter of an hour of grace on the agreed time, after which a new time is arranged.
Questions before you write
No. There is nothing to register for and no form to fill in. One message on WhatsApp or Telegram starts a booking.
Your full name, the hotel in full, and the room number once you have one. For a private address, the street, the postcode and a landmark.
Any hour. This is an airport and the desk keeps airport hours. The real constraint is the drive from town at the moment you ask.
Yes, and for the villages and for overnights it is much better. A day or two of warning lets her keep the evening clear.
Tell the desk as soon as the board changes. With three hours of notice or more it cancels at no cost, and tomorrow's rebooking can usually take the same evening.