Agency, platform or direct booking: what the difference is

Anyone searching for the first time quickly notices that behind similar-looking sites sit three fundamentally different models. Which one suits you depends on how much work you want to do yourself, and how visible you are willing to be while doing it.

1. The agency

An agency selects, vets and makes the introduction. Your enquiry goes there first, not directly to a person. You describe your setting, receive a selection, and then decide.

Advantage: the pre-selection has already happened. You don't sift yourself, and somebody stands between you and an arbitrary listing. If something is unclear, there is someone to ask.

Drawback: it takes more than a click, and you depend on the agency's judgement. If the filtering there is poor, you get the downside of both models: waiting, without any real pre-selection.

2. The open platform

A platform provides listings and connects you directly. Anyone who creates a profile is generally visible without anyone having checked whether the details are true. The business model is reach, not selection.

Advantage: fast, large, immediate. You see a lot and decide at once. If you know exactly what you want and move confidently in such environments, it is efficient.

Drawback: the filtering work is entirely yours, including judging whether a profile is genuine. And your first contact goes straight to a person nobody has checked anything about.

3. Direct booking

Some companions work without any intermediary, through their own site. You write directly to the person who will actually turn up.

Advantage: no third party, no information detour, and you speak from the outset with the person it is about.

Drawback: there is no independent vetting, no alternative if the appointment falls through, and nowhere to turn if something isn't right. When it fits, it is the most direct option. When it doesn't, you are on your own.

What each model costs you in privacy

This point is rarely compared, yet it is often the decisive one.

With a platform, depending on the provider, you create an account, leave a history and write directly to several people. That produces traces in several places at once.

With direct booking you share your contact details immediately with a single person, with no process in between.

With an agency it depends how it is built. If it requires an account and public profiles, the same applies as for a platform. If it works without registration and without public images, the circle of people who know stays small.

How to tell which one you're dealing with

Three questions usually settle it. Does my first message go to a person or to an organisation? Did someone have to be accepted to appear here, or merely create a profile? Do I need an account?

The answers place almost any site within a minute.

Which model suits when

If you are experienced, know exactly what you are looking for, and visibility isn't an issue for you, a platform is fast and entirely legitimate. If you already know a specific person, direct booking is the obvious route.

If you are searching for the first time, if you are visible professionally or privately, or if you simply don't want to do the sifting, an agency with genuine vetting is the calmer path. That is our model, and it isn't the right choice for everyone.

How to tell whether an agency actually filters is covered in how strictly an agency filters. Our own process is on how it works.