Hotel room body to body in Amsterdam begins and ends in the bathroom. The shower before, the rinse after, and what a tiny canal-house bathroom changes.
Guests picture a session as something that happens on the bed. The women on our roster think of it as something that begins and ends a few metres away, under running water. The bathroom is where the day gets washed off before the hour and where the oil comes away after it, and in a hotel room it is often the space that deserves the most forethought.
Full-length contact changes the arithmetic of hygiene. When a whole body is the instrument, both people should reach the bed clean, warm and unhurried, and a shower achieves all three at once. Most guests take theirs during the few minutes she spends dressing the bed and warming the oil, which is the neatest possible use of that time. Anyone who has just stepped off a tram or come back from a long dinner will find the session opens better for it. Our etiquette and hygiene guide covers the finer points; the short version is soap, warm water and no cologne, since fragrance fights with warm oil.
Hotel bathrooms in this city vary far more than hotel bedrooms do. Canal-house boutiques squeeze a shower into what used to be a cupboard, sometimes beneath a sloping beam that tall guests discover the hard way. The newer towers around Zuidas favour wide rain showers and strong water pressure. Grand addresses along the Amstel and the older hotels near Dam Square often keep a proper bathtub. None of these is a problem, though it helps her to know in advance, so a line in the thread saying the shower is tiny or that the room has a bath lets her plan.
For a soapy session the bathroom stops being a prelude and becomes the studio. A tub is a treat, a walk-in shower suits the standing and seated form perfectly, and even a narrow stall can work as long as the hot water keeps coming. She looks at the space when she arrives and decides within a minute how best to use it.
She brings her own linens for the bed and her own towels for the session, so the hotel's stock stays largely untouched. Keep two of the hotel's big bath towels by the shower for yourself; hers stay with the bed. Oil on a white hotel sheet is the single trace housekeeping would notice, which is exactly why her linens go down first and come up last.
When the session tapers off, nobody should hurry toward the water. A few minutes lying still does more good than any stroke did. Then comes the second shower, and it deserves doing properly, because oil left on skin overnight is pleasant for about an hour and then much less so on hotel bedding. Warm water and a little soap are plenty. Nuru gel comes away even more easily, with plain water. If she needs the bathroom to rinse her arms or change, she will ask, and a guest who offers before she has to is remembered kindly.
The last stage of the ritual is invisible. Her linens and towels return to her bag, the bed looks as it did before she arrived, and the bathroom holds nothing but a couple of damp hotel towels. She crosses the lobby again like any other visitor, and the room goes back to being simply yours. If you are staying on, a glass of water and sleep are the best follow-up. If you check out early the next morning, a shower before bed saves you ten minutes you will want later.
Both showers belong inside the booked time rather than outside it, and nobody stands in the doorway watching the clock while they run. An hour at €180 covers the setting up, the session and the rinse. For guests who want the bathroom to be part of the pleasure rather than a piece of logistics, two hours at €360 leave room for an unhurried lather and the signature oil session in the same evening. Our page on sessions at your hotel handles the lobby, the lift and the room number; this has been the part behind the second door. Every guest must be 21 or older.