False bookings, and the short note the house keeps

A false booking is a booking that was never honestly meant. The house treats a booking as false if any one of four things is true:

• it was placed in a name that does not belong to the person booking;
• it came from a phone number or a profile that belongs to someone else;
• it was made as a joke;
• a no-show followed one of the three above.

What is not a false booking

A missed appointment on its own. A guest who booked honestly, in his own name, and then did not answer the door, fell asleep or changed his mind at the last minute has made an ordinary cancellation. It is handled on the notice scale like any other, and nothing further follows from it. A guest over fifty who is worried about this after a missed evening can stop worrying.

The note, and what it holds

When a booking does meet one of the four criteria, or when a visit is ended because a limit the therapist had named was pressed, the house writes a short internal note. Its contents are the date, a line on what happened, and the name and number used to make the booking. It is kept for twelve months and seen by nobody outside the house. It settles one question only: whether a further booking from that name is accepted.

Objecting to a note

If you believe a note about you is wrong, you can object to it, ask for it to be corrected or ask for it to be removed. How to do that, and what the house must do in reply, is set out on the privacy page. Formal requests go by e-mail to [email protected].

Where it goes further

Where the facts point to a criminal offence, such as someone booking in another person's name to cause them trouble, the house may report the matter to the police. That is rare, and it has nothing to do with a guest who booked in good faith.

The short version

Book in your own name, from your own number, and be in the room when she knocks. Nothing on this page will ever concern you.