A season in SW1: the same name across several evenings, a weekend or a week
Some visits are long enough to have a rhythm. A week of meetings with four free evenings in it, a weekend that begins on Friday afternoon, a stay in a serviced flat that runs into a second week. Booking the same companion across those days is a different thing from booking several separate evenings, and it is arranged differently.
A weekend is quoted as one sum rather than counted in hours, once Rosie knows the dates and roughly what the days look like. Individual evenings across a longer stay stay on the ordinary ladder.
Why one name across several evenings
The second evening with the same companion is almost always better than the first, and the fourth is better again. Nothing needs explaining twice, the conversation picks up rather than restarts, and by midweek she knows which of the rooms near your hotel you actually like. Guests who have tried both ways rarely go back to a different name each night. It is the single easiest improvement available to anyone staying longer than a weekend.
The weekend, priced once
Friday evening to Sunday afternoon is the usual shape, and it is quoted as a single figure once Rosie knows the dates, the address and whether there is anything fixed in the middle of it, a lunch, a wedding, a train. It is not ten separate bookings with a discount on the end; it is one arrangement with its own rhythm, and the hours in it are not counted out loud. The weekend figure is given on request rather than printed, because no two are the same.
A week, evening by evening
The more common version is simpler. You are in town from Monday to Friday, three or four of those nights are yours, and the same companion takes each of them at the ordinary tariff: £750 for two hours, £1,300 for a dinner, £2,400 if one of them becomes a whole night. Rosie holds the dates in her diary at the start of the week so that Thursday is not a gamble on Wednesday. Every figure is on the rates page.
Daylight between the evenings
Long stays make room for the daytime, which short ones never do. An hour on Sloane Street, lunch at Orange Square, an afternoon at Tate Britain down in Pimlico or a walk across the park before a late meeting all cost exactly what an evening costs and often become the better memory. Mixing daylight and evening hours across one stay is entirely ordinary here; simply tell Rosie which days have gaps in them.
Moving hotels, or moving in
A stay that starts in a hotel near Victoria and moves to a serviced flat in Belgravia halfway through is no trouble at all. Send the new address when you have it and everything else stays as agreed. The confirmation is done once at the start of the stay rather than repeated every evening, which is one of the quieter advantages of booking the same name across several nights.
Four plates for a longer arrangement
Patricia is 28, Belgravia based, slender and entirely unhurried, which wears well over several days. Liana is 28 and keeps a week interesting without ever making it complicated. Margo is 31 and the name most often asked for a second and third time. Vanessa is 25 and travels easily, which matters when a stay has a night out of town in the middle of it.
When the stay shortens
Trips are cut short and meetings appear where free evenings used to be. Tell Rosie as soon as you know. Individual evenings follow the ordinary courtesy: three hours or more and they move or cancel with nothing owed, inside two hours half the figure applies. A weekend quoted as one sum is agreed with its own terms in writing at the time, in plain language, so that nobody is reading the small print on a Friday afternoon. Send her the dates and she will put the whole thing in writing first.
Faces for a season in sw1
Chosen for this kind of evening from what each of them enjoys. Every face in the edit may still be asked for.
A season in SW1, explained
4 answers. Tap a question to open it; anything missing, ask Rosie directly.
Individual evenings across a stay keep the ordinary tariff. A whole weekend is quoted as one sum on request, which usually reads rather differently from counting the hours out one by one.
Rosie will say so at the start of the week rather than the night before, and will offer another name for that one evening if you would like her to.
No. The confirmation is made once at the start of the stay. If you move hotels, one message with the new address is all that is needed.
A week or two for a weekend, since a whole diary has to be cleared. Evenings across a working week can usually be held with a few days of notice.
Other ways to spend the evening
- 01Behind the white stucco: Belgravia's small hotels and their private-house manners5 min readThe Hari on Chesham Place, The Halkin, Hotel 41 above Buckingham Palace Road and the small houses of Ebury Street: SW1 hotels that behave like private homes, and how to stay well.
- 02Hush as an ingredient: the corner tables of Belgravia, chosen for a low-voiced dinner5 min readLa Poule au Pot by candlelight, Pétrus on Kinnerton Street, The Goring's dining room and Hunan on Pimlico Road: SW1 rooms where conversation stays at the table.
Describe the evening in a single line.
A dinner, a gala, a quiet night in the suite: describe it to Rosie and she will name whoever suits it best.