Hotel visits: high class company at your suite door, any hour in W1

Give Bella the three cover lines of your evening: which hotel, what time, how many hours. She checks the reservation once, matching the registered guest name to the room, and replies with a name, an arrival time and the figure. Reception is never telephoned and nobody at the front desk is asked anything. Your companion comes straight up, or waits in the bar downstairs should you prefer to open with a cocktail, and you settle her fee with her personally as the booking starts. After that the evening runs to your clock, and nobody looks at it.

The Dorchester and 45 Park Lane looking over the park, The Connaught on its corner of Carlos Place, Claridge's a little further along Brook Street: our companions walk into these buildings week in, week out, so the lift banks, the late doors and the quieter side entrances hold no surprises. The same is true of The Beaumont and The Biltmore around Grosvenor Square, and of Brown's and The Westbury near Bond Street. She dresses for the hotel you are in, tailored and understated for a townhouse, a little more polish for a grand old lobby with a pianist in the corner.

The single hour at £400 is the classic opening, a drink and a real conversation with no pressure on either side. Ninety minutes at £600 adds breathing room. Two hours at £750 is where plenty of returning guests settle, long enough to order from room service or stroll to a table nearby and back again. If the evening is going well, stretch it on the spot: tell her, send Bella a line, and the booking simply moves down to the next row of the price list.

No hotel is required. A serviced apartment off Park Street, a mews house tucked behind Berkeley Square or a family home in Marylebone is equally welcome. For a private address Bella confirms the street with you once before anyone sets out, and your companion arrives the way a friend invited for supper would, without any fuss on the doorstep. The agency has no premises of its own, so every booking is outcall and she always comes to you.

The desk never closes and the rates never shift with the clock. A visit after a delayed flight or a very long dinner is priced exactly like an early evening one. Late requests go most smoothly with the women who keep late hours by choice: Stacy is often free at short notice, and Michelle replies quickly on most nights of the week. Give Bella your hotel and she will tell you honestly who can reach you, and how soon.

Mayfair is compact. From Hyde Park Corner to Oxford Street is barely a mile, and most of the hotels in this spread sit within ten minutes of one another by car. That is why a same evening hotel visit here is rarely a problem, and why Bella can usually promise a knock well inside the hour once your details check out. Staying further afield in Zones 1 or 2 changes nothing about the figure, only the minutes on the clock.