Karolina, companion in Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3

At 174 cm she is used to being looked at and has long since stopped noticing. Karolina is slim, her black hair worn long and straight, the eyes brown, and she has a stillness that reads as confidence in a room full of people checking screens. Late twenties. Covent Garden is her part of town, so she knows what the airport is not: no crowds outside a theatre, no walk home, a car both ways and a plan made in advance. She dresses accordingly, simply and well.

Composure is the thing people remember. She does not chase a conversation, she waits for it, and then she is properly in it. English, spoken carefully and with real attention to what you actually said rather than what she expected you to say. She suits guests who have talked all day and would rather be the quieter person in the room for once.

The hotel inside the central area is her usual meeting point, a short hop from the arrivals hall and close enough that a delayed bag does not wreck the evening. She likes it for the practical reasons: the lift is quick, nobody in the lobby is interested in anybody else, and the free transfer between terminals means a guest arriving at Terminal 5 can still make the evening without a taxi fare. Dinner, if you want it, happens before ten or not at all.

Her central terminal nights sit under Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3. Tell the desk which hotel and roughly when you clear customs, and she will time her arrival to yours. Rates sets out the durations.

The central area is the busiest part of the airport and she works around that rather than against it. Before nine the hotel lobbies here are a moving crowd of crews and connections, so she will suggest you meet upstairs and come down later, once the last wave of arrivals has cleared and the bar belongs to about six people.

She is a slow starter by design. One drink, a proper look at each other, the day taken apart in order. If you have a morning departure she will ask about it early so the evening can be shaped around your alarm rather than ignoring it. If you have three days here instead, she will point out what is worth doing with them and what is not.