Laura, companion in Airport Hotels

Green eyes do the introduction, then you notice the rest: long light brown hair, sun-kissed from somewhere with better weather, and a body kept athletic by something she does early in the morning and will not brag about. Laura is 169 cm. Mid twenties. Paddington is her home ground, fifteen minutes from the airport on the fast train and about twenty five on the Elizabeth line, which makes her about the quickest arrival on this list when a flight lands early.

She has an enthusiasm that survives the fourth hotel corridor of the week. Genuinely interested in why people travel, where they have just come from, what they are dreading tomorrow. Her English is easy and quick, and she is comfortable with a table of colleagues and equally comfortable when it is just you and the noise of the extractor fan. Nothing about her suggests she would rather be somewhere else.

The one with the glass roof is her benchmark for a hotel evening out here: the covered courtyard, the pool under glass, a bar still going after the rest of the Bath Road has gone to bed. Ten minutes from the central terminals, a little more from Terminal 5. She has an opinion on every hotel on this row and will share it if asked, including which ones sound quiet in the brochure and are not.

Airport bookings of every kind are collected under Airport Hotels. Send the desk your hotel, your terminal and the hour, and if the schedule slips, say so and she will move with it. Booking has the practical detail.

An airport hotel is a strange little world and she enjoys it rather than tolerating it. Everyone in the building is between two other places, nobody is local, and the whole thing runs on a twenty four hour clock. She uses that: a drink at an hour that would be odd anywhere else, a conversation with no tomorrow attached, a room service order at eleven that arrives without comment.

She also knows the limits. Kitchens close, bars thin out, and the good rooms are the ones on the far side from the taxiway. If you tell her the hotel in advance she will tell you what to expect from it, honestly, including whether it is worth eating there. Then she arrives on time, looking like she has come from somewhere better, and stays until the evening has properly finished.