Refined is the word guests reach for with Margo, usually after a pause while they look for a better one. Slim at 166 cm, with dark brown hair kept long and dead straight, she has eyes, brown and level, that reveal almost nothing until she chooses to let them. Her wardrobe borrows from old lounges: a black crepe dress with a low back, slim patent heels, a velvet evening bag and a single strand of pearls. In her early thirties, Margo carries the ease of a woman with nothing to prove to a doorman or a head waiter.
Mystery is not an act with Margo. She simply prefers questions to confessions, so conversation with her unfolds as a slow reveal. Contemporary art gives her plenty to discuss, the piano gives her an ear for rhythm in talk as well as music, and gardening gives her a patience that shows in the way she listens. English is the language she speaks, low, even and unhurried. Guests who spend all week negotiating tend to find her restful; guests who enjoy a puzzle find her fascinating.
Her preferred W2 evening starts at the Italian Gardens at the head of the Long Water, a short walk from Lancaster Gate station, where Victorian fountain basins sit in a formal stone terrace. She likes them at dusk, when the office crowd has gone and the urns catch the last of the light. Then a slow return across the Bayswater Road to a park facing hotel lounge for a drink, a quiet dinner and, if a pianist is playing, one request she will choose for you.
Margo meets guests at the park side hotels of Lancaster Gate and along the Bayswater Road. Overnights with her are planned ahead, so send the desk your dates and hotel early.