A name, or a sketch
Choose a companion from the roster, or describe the evening, the room and the company, and leave the choosing to Cressida.
The desk is openLondon after dark
Booking · By message only
Booking: one thread with Cressida, and a companion at your door
A booking with the Society is a short written exchange and nothing more. Nobody fills in a form and nobody picks up a telephone; the whole of it takes place on WhatsApp or Telegram, as you like, and it may begin at any hour of any day.
Below are the four steps, the single check made before your companion sets out, and what to expect in the way of timing.
At 19:00
First word
A few lines now, and the evening is settled by return.
How it runs · four movements
Four movements
No forms, no accounts: the whole arrangement happens in one thread with Cressida.
The particulars
The date, the hour, a length from the tariff, and the hotel or the street where the evening will take place.
A single reply
Cressida names the companion who is free, the minute she will arrive and the figure. Nothing is fixed until you answer yes.
Her arrival
A car brings her to the hotel or the house. The fee passes from you to her, privately, in the first minutes, and is not mentioned again.
The message · copy and send
Ready to send
Fill in each bracket and send it on WhatsApp or Telegram. Cressida answers every point in a single reply, usually within minutes.
- 01
Who: a name from the roster, or a sketch of the evening you would like.
- 02
When: the date, the hour and how long.
- 03
Where: the address; for a hotel, the name on the reservation and, once confirmed, the room number.
- 04
Nothing more: no account, no forms, no documents.
To Cressida · Berkeley Square SocietyDraft · unsent
Good evening Cressida. May I book [name] for [length] on [date], from [time]? I shall be at [hotel name], and will pass on the room number once you confirm.
§ 01
Verification, done quietly
Before anyone sets out, Cressida checks two things: whose name the room is reserved under and its number, or, at a private address, the street and the house number. The question comes once, it protects your companion and you alike, and the answer stays in the conversation where you gave it.
§ 02
How soon you hear, and how soon she arrives
A first reply usually comes within minutes, by day or by night, and seldom takes longer than a quarter of an hour. For a hotel in W1, beside Berkeley Square or elsewhere in Mayfair, expect your companion inside sixty minutes of Cressida's confirmation. Plans made a day or two in advance run to the minute.
§ 03
Worth saying when you write
If the evening has a shape, say so: black tie or an open collar, a business dinner at which she should know the host's name, a subject that ought to stay off the table. Your companion reads the brief on her way to you, so the evening can begin without explanations.
§ 04
What the Society will never ask
Every figure is quoted in the thread in which the evening is arranged, and it always matches the rates page. Nobody writing for the Society asks for identity papers, passwords or a fee that surfaces halfway through a conversation, whether it is called insurance, a release fee or anything else. A message that does is not from Cressida: stop replying, and write to her through the links on this page.
Questions · 4
Before you send it
For a formal dinner, an overnight or anything with a dress code, yes. The steps are unchanged; the choice of companion is simply wider.
No. A first name is enough to begin. The surname on the reservation is asked for once, shortly before your companion sets out, and only because the room is booked under it.
Just write the new number in. If she is already in the car, Cressida passes it straight to her, and the arrival time seldom changes.
Never. Everything is done in writing, which keeps each detail exact and leaves nothing to be overheard. If you would rather use Telegram than WhatsApp, simply write there instead.
The desk is open · every hour
Begin with a line
The first message can be short. Cressida will ask for anything that is missing, and nothing that is not needed.