Four hands is two therapists at one client's door at once, billed at double the single rate by the hour and at sixteen solo hours for a night, half ahead.
Two women. One door. One client. Four hands is the old spa name for it, and in body-to-body the name undercounts, because hands are the least of what is working.
Two therapists cost one client double the single rate, hour for hour. Two hours with the pair cost what four solo hours would, three cost six, and each hour after that adds two more. The pair also stays the night, and that night is priced as sixteen solo hours rather than at the discounted solo block. A couple that books the same pair pays four times the single rate by the hour and twice the pair's night. The figures themselves are printed on each woman's page.
Every pair books with half up front. First booking or fiftieth, tonight or next month, no difference. The two-hour pairing sends half its total ahead, the three-hour one the same share, and so does a pair's overnight for one client. The reason is plain arithmetic of a different kind: two diaries close on the same hour once both women have taken the booking. Cancel, and the notice scale decides how much of the half counts as fee already earned.
People mix these up. Four hands is one client with two therapists. Two clients sharing a room, each with a therapist of their own, is another booking with another shape and its own row, where each hour the couple books costs four solo hours. Say which one you mean in the first line and nobody in the thread will have to guess.
Name two therapists, or name one and ask the thread who else is free at that hour; each woman decides for herself whether she takes it. Give the length in hours. Mention the bed, because a pair needs to move around both long sides of it, and a double wedged against a wall makes that hard. A little more heat than you would set for one is sensible too.
The format has its own four-hand page, the journal reads it as a duet, and the half ahead is explained under deposit.