What to Write in the First Message, Word for Word

The first message is shorter than most guests expect

Somewhere between deciding to write and actually opening WhatsApp, a lot of people convince themselves the first message needs to be clever, or long, or somehow prove something. It needs none of that. The desk reads a great many opening messages every night, and the ones that work best are almost always the plainest: a name, a place, a time, a length. Everything past that is simply a bonus for the conversation that follows.

The four things worth including

Whoever you have in mind, or a description if you have not settled on a name. Where you are staying, hotel or home address, though the room number can wait until later in the chat. When you would like to begin, tonight, tomorrow, a specific hour. And roughly how long, an hour, a couple of hours, dinner, overnight. Four short facts, in any order, and the desk has everything it needs to answer within minutes.

Molly, who lives in Soho and lights up any conversation about house music or vintage cars, is often the girl guests message with the shortest openers of all, since her profile already answers most of the obvious questions before the first reply even arrives.

What a message never needs to include

There is no need to explain yourself, describe your own appearance, justify why you are writing or apologise for being nervous. None of it changes the reply, and all of it takes longer to type than the message actually needs. Room numbers and full names wait until the desk asks for them as part of confirming the booking, so there is no need to volunteer either in the opening line.

A few real openers, worth adapting

Something as simple as, hello, I would like to book Stacy for two hours this evening at my hotel near Sloane Square, does the whole job in one sentence. So does, hi, I am new to this and would like some help choosing someone for dinner tomorrow, which tells the desk exactly what kind of reply will be most useful. Neither needs polishing, and both would receive the same warm, straightforward answer.

Stacy, in Chelsea, tends to attract exactly that second kind of message, guests who mention they are choosing for the first time, and she has a knack for making the rest of the conversation feel entirely unremarkable.

Wording the message to match the evening

The four facts stay the same whatever kind of evening you have in mind, but naming the shape of it helps the desk answer more usefully on the first reply. For a short hotel visit, simply naming the length is enough, two hours is a common first booking and needs no further explanation. For a longer evening, mentioning dinner or an overnight upfront means the desk can suggest a companion who particularly enjoys that length of booking rather than one better suited to a quick hour.

None of this needs extra sentences, a single added word usually does it: dinner, overnight, tonight, tomorrow. The desk fills in the rest through the reply that follows, so the opening message can stay exactly as short as it wants to be.

What happens the moment you press send

A reply usually lands within ten to fifteen minutes, at any hour, confirming whether the companion you named is free and what her evening looks like at your chosen length. From there the conversation moves naturally through the booking steps, your details checked once, a deposit arranged, and a confirmed time for her to arrive. None of it requires you to have said anything more than those first four facts.

Tone, and why it matters less than people assume

Guests occasionally spend longer than they need to worrying about tone, whether a message sounds too formal, too casual, too eager or not eager enough. None of it changes the reply you get. A message that reads like a text to a friend and one that reads like a polite email to a stranger both receive exactly the same warm, practical response, because the desk is listening for the four facts rather than judging the phrasing around them. Punctuation, capital letters, a stray typo sent from a phone in a taxi, all of it is entirely beside the point.

The only tone worth avoiding is one that skips the facts entirely in favour of a long story about why you are writing. It is not unwelcome, simply slower, since the desk still needs to circle back and ask for whichever of the four details did not make it into the first message.

If you genuinely do not know where to start

Skip the name entirely and describe the evening instead: warm and easy conversation over a drink, or dinner somewhere quiet with someone curious and well travelled. The desk will suggest two or three girls who are free and suit exactly that description, drawing on the fares from £400 on the rates page, and the rest of the message can simply confirm whichever one appeals most.