Questions guests put to Octavia, with her answers on file

Give Octavia both names and tell her what the evening involves. She knows how each of them carries a long dinner, a crowded bar or a quiet suite, and will say plainly which fits better. The introductions show both files side by side if you would rather decide alone.

If her diary allows, yes. Each evening is arranged and confirmed on its own, at the length you choose. For two days together as a single plan, the weekend arrangement is usually simpler, and Octavia will say which suits your dates.

The desk never closes, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve included. Companions choose their own hours, though, and fewer choose to work on the great holidays, so write early. The fee is the same on every day of the year.

Those nearest Albemarle Street: Brown's, The Ritz, The Stafford, Dukes, Claridge's and The Connaught, among others listed on the Mayfair page and the St James's page. They are named as destinations only. No hotel has any arrangement with this house, and none is told anything in advance.

A companion will still come. Both lie beyond Zone 2, so the taxi fare in each direction is added, and Octavia writes it beside the fee as one total before you agree. The fee itself does not change with the distance.

No. Many begin at a restaurant, a hotel bar or a gallery opening and continue at your hotel or residence afterwards. Tell Octavia where and when, and she will send your companion straight to the venue, dressed for it. Dover Street has several bars suited to a first drink.

However you like. Agree it beforehand or simply follow your own lead; a friend visiting London is the usual answer, and nobody asks twice. She never mentions the house, and she behaves as the guest she is.

Never. You hand her fee to her yourself and it goes nowhere else, so no folio, room account or restaurant bill carries any trace of it. What the hotel sees is a guest meeting a well dressed friend in the lobby.

Yes. Erase the conversation from your side at any moment, and ask Octavia to clear hers; she will. Booking details serve that one evening and are not copied into any file. The privacy notice sets out the rest, including your rights under UK data law.

No. Nobody here asks for card details of any kind, for identity papers, or for payment in vouchers, gift cards or cryptocurrency, and no charge is ever added in the middle of a conversation. If a message wants any of these, it is not from us: stop replying and write to Octavia through the links on this site.

No. Whatever the length, and wherever you read about it here, the fee covers time and companionship only, full stop. Nothing else is on offer, hinted at or for sale, and a request for anything more closes the evening immediately, without the fee being returned.

No, in either direction. The ladder carries no discount for regulars and no supplement for late hours, weekends or short notice. The figure Octavia writes is the figure you hand over, whichever companion you meet and whenever the evening falls.

No. Wherever she sets out from, Knightsbridge or Paddington, her journey costs you nothing inside the two central zones. Only your own address can change the total: beyond Zone 2 a taxi fare is added, and it is always quoted before you confirm.

That she has told Octavia she is keeping hours that day. It is not a promise of any particular hour, so Octavia still checks before naming her to you. A companion who is away shows her return date instead, and nobody is marked available by default.

Always. Each companion decides which days and evenings she keeps free and tells Octavia; nobody is scheduled, pressed or assigned. She receives her fee herself, and she may amend her file, pause it or withdraw it whenever she wishes.

Yes. Octavia meets every companion in person and sees her identification before a file is opened. Guests must be adults as well, and where a guest's age seems uncertain, Octavia simply does not proceed.

Should she feel unsafe, slighted or pushed, or find her host heavily intoxicated, she may leave at once, and the fee stands. It rarely happens. Courtesy is expected on both sides, and she arrives on time, well presented and glad to be there.

Only genuine notes written after completed evenings, each carrying a first name and the month it was written, moderated for discretion and never rewritten to change their meaning. Less than perfect ratings stay when they are fair. Invented praise never appears, and a companion who objects to a note about herself sees it withdrawn.