The economics of an evening with us can be written on a coaster. You read a price on the site. You book, and the office confirms. On most bookings, your first among them, half of that figure then goes ahead inside the thread by card, Revolut, Wise or crypto; the rest waits until a woman is standing in your doorway, where you settle it by whichever of three methods you named, and money is never mentioned again. That is the entire system. Its simplicity is not laziness; it is a feature we defend with some care.
The three doors
Cash is the classic and still the majority. Euros ideally, but this is a port city and we honour the fact: pounds, dollars, francs and the rest of the major currencies are taken too, at an amount in that currency put to you in writing before she sets out, so the notes from the airport exchange you never got around to spending have a purpose after all. Card works when you say so in advance, she brings the reader, and the whole thing takes the fifteen seconds it takes anywhere. Crypto serves the guests who would rather not carry notes; say it when you book and the transfer is confirmed at the door alongside everything else.
What moves in advance, and what never does
We are asked occasionally why most bookings send half the fee ahead. The honest answer is that a confirmed night closes her diary to everyone else, and the deposit holds it closed; cancel with more than a day to spare and it comes back, while a later cancellation keeps the part of the fee already earned by then. Only a returning guest's same-day hour or two is still paid entirely at the door. A first-timer who has read horror stories elsewhere can test any request in one sentence: our deposit is asked for inside the booking thread, after we confirm, by card, Revolut, Wise or crypto. A bank transfer, a gift card, a payment link from a number you never wrote to, or money wanted before any confirmation is not us. Honest guests never meet the other side of this, but a false booking goes into a short internal note and may be reported to the police, because a woman crossing the city for a prank is no small thing.
The same logic bans surprises at the far end. The balance at the door is the figure from the site less whatever deposit went ahead, the night rate is the day rate, the weekend is a week day, and travel inside the ring was always included. A guest counting out notes at 3 a.m. should be doing arithmetic he already did at midnight, and nothing else.
One practical line to end on: name your method when you book. It is the difference between a doorway that takes ten seconds and one that takes a phone call, and doorways, in our trade, are meant to be the smooth part.