Signature evenings: ten spreads in this issue, from one hour to a whole weekend

Most guests begin with a hotel visit, an hour or two at your suite or your London address, where the knock usually comes about an hour after Bella confirms. The dinner date wraps four hours around one reservation. The girlfriend experience is less a length than a mood, affection and ease arriving together on the very first evening. The late edition is a proper night out, bars and a late table included, which finishes wherever you happen to be staying.

Some plans need more pages. Duo bookings pair two friends from the roster around a passion they share. Couples evenings welcome a warm third voice to a table that a couple chose together. The society pages cover galas, launches and client dinners where a composed plus one makes the difference. The special edition runs ten hours from supper to breakfast, the jet set format follows your flight or your train, and the double issue keeps one name in your diary for days rather than hours.

Each format begins wherever you are. The five neighbourhoods we write about most, from Mount Street to Park Lane, have their own pages under In Your Area, yet the desk sends companions right across central London. Journeys inside Zones 1 and 2 are already part of the figure; beyond them, Bella adds the taxi both ways as one sum before you agree. Any hotel or restaurant named in these spreads is there to help you picture the evening, and not one of them is connected with the agency in any way.

Write the plan in a sentence instead: the day, the hour, the address and the length. Bella reads every message herself, suggests the format and the companion who suit it, and answers in writing, usually within ten to fifteen minutes. The booking page has a ready-made message if you would rather not type one from scratch.