Couples: one companion, welcomed by two guests

Before confirming, the desk asks a few simple questions: the sort of evening you are picturing, where it should start, and what would make it feel relaxed for each of you. The answers help match the right companion, and they mean she arrives knowing the plan instead of guessing at it. Either partner can send the details, as long as the message makes clear the evening is for two.

Meet at 19:30 in a hotel bar near Lancaster Gate. Walk ten minutes to dinner on Westbourne Grove or Queensway, where tables for three are easy to find and plates arrive ready to share. Afterwards, a slow loop back beside the park railings, then one more drink at the hotel. Four hours covers the lot without anyone reaching for a phone.

Where the evening starts shapes the first ten minutes, so choose somewhere with low tables and space to sit side by side. The large hotels on the Bayswater Road have lounges built for exactly that, and the bars of Notting Hill's townhouse hotels feel more like a friend's sitting room than a public room. A tall bar counter is the one setting to avoid: three people in a row make for a conversation carried over someone's shoulder. If you are unsure, send the desk your hotel and it will suggest a better first stop nearby.

She is a guest of you both. That means dividing her attention evenly, drawing the quieter partner into the conversation and never taking sides in a friendly disagreement over the wine. The aim is that within the first half hour, the three of you have stopped feeling like strangers.

Every couple sets its own pace, and the plan can stay as simple as dinner and good conversation. If either of you wants to slow down or finish early, say so; she will not take it personally, and the booking closes graciously. Her fee is for time and companionship alone, and beyond the booked hours nothing about the evening is set in stone.

Not every couple wants a late night. Afternoon tea in a park side hotel, a stroll through Kensington Gardens and an early dinner make an equally good booking, especially for visitors whose body clocks are still somewhere over the Atlantic. Tell the desk if you plan an afternoon, so she arrives dressed for daylight rather than a candlelit room.

A performance gives a couples evening a natural focus. The Coronet Theatre and the Gate Picturehouse both sit on Notting Hill Gate, a short ride from W2, and the Canal Café Theatre at Little Venice stages comedy in a room so small that everyone laughs together. Book three seats side by side and choose the four hour line, so that dinner and the show both fit without a sprint between them.

Michelle is sociable and practical in equal measure, and keeps a table of three talking through any lull. Thea has an easy warmth that takes in everyone at the table from the first drink. Molly is quick to laugh and gently teasing, which puts both partners at ease early on. Danielle is calm and thoughtful, and perfectly comfortable letting a silence settle. Michelle, Thea and Danielle are all companions in their late twenties.