Couples massage in Amsterdam near the cruise terminal on the IJ

Where couples actually stay when they sail from here

The quay is close enough to the centre that nobody books a hotel next to it out of necessity. In practice the rooms fall into three groups. The first is the stretch immediately behind the station on the water side, which is where couples end up when they booked late and wanted to be able to see where they were going in the morning. The second is the eastern waterfront, quieter, a little further out, and popular with couples who wanted a view of the IJ rather than a view of a tram stop. The third, and the largest, is the ordinary centre: the canal ring, the streets around Dam Square, and the area towards the Jordaan, which is where couples stay when the sailing is one part of a longer trip rather than the whole reason for it. All three are central addresses as far as a booking is concerned.

Forty to sixty minutes, from wherever she starts

There is no premises for anyone to leave from, so every journey begins where the therapist lives. Four districts hold the roster between them: ten in the centre, six in De Pijp, four in Oud-Zuid and three in the Jordaan. Amsterdam is small enough that this puts somebody within reach of the water without anyone having to plan for it, and the arrival window is forty to sixty minutes to any central address, counted from the moment the hour is agreed rather than from the first message. That figure does not shorten for a room five minutes from the quay and does not lengthen for one out towards Vondelpark. It is the same window in Centrum, the Jordaan, Oud-Zuid, De Pijp, the Zuidas, around Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein, by Dam Square, near Vondelpark and in the Red Light District.

Nothing is added for being near the water

A surcharge for a particular district would be arbitrary in a city this size and none is charged. Her journey inside the ring costs nothing whatever, and a room two streets from the passenger quay is on exactly the same tariff as a room in De Pijp. For two guests the rate for a given length is identical wherever the room is, whether one therapist is shared or each of you has one. Nothing moves for the day of the week, for the season or for the hour of the day. The one arrangement priced differently in practice is a room at a Schiphol airport hotel, and that is arranged rather than surcharged.

Rooms by the water, and what they are like to work in

Waterfront rooms have one characteristic worth knowing about in advance, which is glass. A great many of them are built around a large window facing the IJ, which is the reason anybody books them and also the reason the room can be brighter at nine in the evening in June than a couple expects. She will deal with the lamps, but heavy curtains are not universal and a room with a wall of glass and a thin blind is a colder room than it looks. Warmth matters more than light for most of what is on the formats page, and a room that cannot be warmed properly is a poor setting for body to body or nuru work. If the room is cold, say so in the thread and the arrangement can allow for it.

The terminal itself, and why it is not an address

Nothing is arranged at the quay, on the apron, in a waiting hall or aboard a vessel. A booking is taken for a room the two of you hold, and the passenger terminal is not a room anybody holds. The same goes for the station, for a lounge and for a coach. This occasionally disappoints a couple with four hours between disembarkation and a flight, and the honest answer is that four hours in a day room is a booking and four hours in a terminal is not. The turnaround day page sets out how couples in exactly that position solve it, which is usually by taking a room for the afternoon rather than by trying to make a public building work.

Getting the address into the thread correctly

A street and a district settle it. Hotel names are not used on this site and are not needed in a message either; the street, the number and the room number are what a journey is planned from. Where the building has a rule about visitors, put it in the thread rather than discovering it together at ten at night. Some buildings near the station lock the street entrance after a certain hour, some ask that guests come down to the lobby, and both are ordinary and easily worked around when they are known in advance. The room number can follow later in the same thread once the two of you have checked in, which is what most couples booking from home end up doing.

Schiphol, on the day you fly in

A room at a Schiphol airport hotel is the one address outside central Amsterdam that the house takes, and it works differently. It is arranged rather than quoted, with the length of her journey agreed with you before the hour is fixed, and it carries the same rates as a city address with half the fee confirming the booking. Couples land there on the day before embarkation more often than they expect to, because a late flight and an early transfer occasionally make a night near the airport the sensible choice over a night in the centre. The fly-in day page works through what that evening looks like and how much of it is realistically available.

What to write when the room is near the water

The same five things every booking runs on, with one addition. The street and district, the date and hour in Amsterdam time, the length, whether it is one therapist or two, and the hour the two of you have to be somewhere the next morning. The addition is the state of the room, which matters more by the water than elsewhere: whether it is warm, whether there is floor space beside the bed, and whether the cases are already open on it. Two therapists need clear floor on both sides. The reply names who is free, gives the figure and gives the arrival window, and nothing is asked of either of you before that is agreed. The booking page has the order the messages run in.