Wheels down at City Airport, and a companion already on her way

Send your flight number and your hotel when you book. Philippa follows the arrival time, and the companion sets off so that she reaches your lobby shortly after you do, not an hour before. The hotels on Royal Victoria Dock are closest: the Crowne Plaza Docklands, the Aloft and the Novotel by ExCeL. They sit in Zone 3, so the fare for her cab, out and back, is quoted with the confirmation. Stay on the estate at Canary Wharf instead and her travel is included. If you land after eleven the choice of names narrows, so write before you board rather than after you land.

The first departures leave early, and many guests spend the previous night at a Docklands hotel rather than gamble on the morning traffic. An evening booking of two or three hours, finishing in good time for sleep, is the usual shape. Tell the desk the departure time and the hour you would like to be asleep, and she plans the evening backwards from both. If the final night of a long trip is one you would rather share, the overnight fits as well: she leaves when you head for the check-in desk.

The Elizabeth line has put Heathrow within an hour of the estate, but an airport hotel booking there is still quoted differently. At Heathrow or Gatwick three hours is the minimum, and the drive out is part of those three hours, so the booking starts at £700. Hotels at Royal Docks and ExCeL and at City Airport carry no such minimum; any length on the rates ladder applies, from one hour.

More guests landing at Heathrow now skip the airport hotel altogether and ride the Elizabeth line east, usually without changing, to Canary Wharf. It makes a late arrival far simpler. Land, clear the terminal, and send the desk the time of your train. She meets you at your hotel on the estate, where her travel is included, instead of at a hotel by the runway with its three-hour minimum.

Write as soon as the flight is booked, or from the departure lounge if the evening is a late decision. Include the flight number, the scheduled arrival, the hotel and the length you want. Philippa confirms a companion, the fee and any Zone 3 taxi, then checks the arrival again an hour before she sets off. The booking page has the standard message; for a flight, add the number at the end.

Some guests take a companion with them: a weekend in the country, two days in another city, a work trip with empty evenings. These are priced on request and set out in writing, dates, destination and plans first, before either side commits. Her tickets and her room are booked by you, in advance, to the standard you would book for yourself. Her role is the evenings and whatever else the two of you plan; the rest of each day stays hers.

Nora asks for your landing time and plans the evening around it, often with a bottle already chilling; honey blonde and athletic, she prefers a day of notice. Laura rides, skis and loves slow journeys through Italy. Samanta, 174 cm and exact about everything, is learning a new language and has an opinion on every design hotel she has stayed in. Nancy, golden blonde and cheerful, lives for road trips and open water. Nora and Laura also feature under toned and athletic.