About the agency, and why it reads like a museum label

The district that lends us its name is built around collections, and the best labels in them share a habit: they state what the object is, where it came from and one detail worth noticing, then they stop. We adopted that habit. An entry in the gallery gives a first name, an age and a home district, and everything else waits on her own page for anyone who wants to read further.

The same restraint runs through the rest of the site. Fees are printed whole, each condition is stated once and kept consistent from page to page, and nothing is described more warmly than it deserves.

We make introductions. A guest describes the evening; the desk suggests or confirms a companion, verifies the booking, takes the deposit and fixes the time. The fee covers her time and company for the hours agreed. Nothing else is arranged, offered or implied, and no page here says otherwise.

No one is listed without first meeting the desk in person. At that meeting we see photo identification, confirm she is 18 or over and legally able to work here, and compare her with every portrait she wants published, as the photo policy describes. She decides which photographs appear, how her entry reads and whether it stays. We do not deal with agents, managers or anyone speaking on a companion's behalf.

Our home room is South Kensington, and the districts we know best lie a short taxi ride from it: Chelsea, Kensington, Earls Court, Holland Park and Notting Hill. Reaching any other address inside Zones 1 and 2 adds nothing to the fee. We keep no premises for visitors; every booking is a visit to your hotel or home.

The desk is staffed day and night, every day of the week. A person, never an automated reply, answers within 10 to 15 minutes, at breakfast or at three in the morning alike.

A note from a guest can appear on a companion's page only after a booking has actually taken place. We read each one first, print it under the writer's first name and the month, and strike out anything explicit, while leaving the writer's opinion exactly as it was given. A three-star note stays up beside the five-star ones; we would rather be believed than flattered. Any companion can have a note about her taken down, and no feedback is ever invented, bought or multiplied.

We ask guests for courtesy, punctuality and honesty about the booking, and companions for the same, along with an arrival that suits the setting. A companion is free to leave any booking that leaves her feeling unsafe or pressured. If you ever have reason to think someone is not working by her own choice, the helpline named at the foot of every page takes reports in confidence, and the terms set out our position in full.

There is no founding year on this site, no tally of satisfied guests and no list of partner hotels. Hotels appear as addresses, because that is all they are to us. What we can show sits on the pages themselves: fixed fees on the rates page, a dated check beneath every portrait and a desk that answers when you write.