Booking Around the London Calendar

London runs on a calendar most people only notice when it inconveniences them. Certain weeks the city fills, the hotels double and the diary closes early. If you book around it rather than into it, everything is easier and cheaper.

The weeks the city fills

Late November to the third week of December. Party season, and the busiest stretch of the year by a distance. Restaurants gone by October, hotels up by half, and the diary closing four or five days out rather than the same afternoon. If you want a specific escort in December, ask in November.

Late June and early July. Wimbledon, Henley, the tail of the summer season. Fills the west of the city in particular, so Kensington and Knightsbridge tighten first.

Late May. Chelsea Flower Show. Short, sharp and locally enormous. Anything within a mile of Sloane Square is booked out.

Any week with a large conference at ExCeL or Olympia. The one nobody plans for. Hotel prices give it away before anything else does.

The weeks it empties

The other half of the picture, and the more useful one.

January. Quiet, cheap, and the easiest month of the year to book anybody at short notice. Restaurants have tables, hotels are half price, and the city is pleasantly grim.

Mid August. London leaves. The people who remain have the run of it.

The week between Christmas and New Year. Odd and rather good. Very little is open, but what is has room.

The weekly rhythm, which matters more

Bigger effect than the annual calendar for most bookings.

Thursday and Friday are the busiest evenings. Same day is possible but you are picking from who is left.

Saturday is busy earlier and quieter late.

Sunday to Wednesday is where the choice is. Same day bookings are straightforward, the roster is open, and the restaurants have tables. If the day of the week is genuinely yours to choose, choose Tuesday.

How much notice actually helps

More than people think, and it costs nothing.

Same day works most of the time outside the busy weeks, but you are choosing from availability rather than from the roster.

A day or two is the sweet spot. Almost anybody, almost any time, and enough room to arrange something specific.

A week or more is what you want for a duo, an overnight, a dinner date at a restaurant worth booking, or anything in December.

Duos deserve a line of their own. Two diaries have to agree, so the notice that works for one booking is thin for two. Our duo and trio page lists who actually pairs up.

Events, and being honest about them

If the evening is built around something with a fixed time, say so when you ring. A curtain up at half seven or a table held for twenty minutes changes what we suggest and how we arrange the arrival.

The same goes for a party or a work function. Those are their own kind of booking and worth reading up on first: party and event bookings covers what to tell people and what not to spring on anybody.

Two things that do not change

Rates do not move with the calendar. December costs the same as January, unlike every hotel in the city.

And a cancellation with reasonable notice costs nothing and needs no explanation, in any week of the year. What does not work is repeatedly cancelling on the day, which is the one thing that will get somebody taken off the books.

The short version

Book December in November. Book Tuesday if you can. Give two days rather than two hours, and a week if there are two of them.

We are open from ten in the morning until late, seven days. Ring +44 20 7846 3480 and tell us the date, or browse the roster first.