An escort agency takes the booking, sends an escort to the client and keeps a share of the fee. A directory only lists adverts, and the escort deals with clients herself. Agencies are lawful in the UK if they introduce clients and do not control the people they send. This guide explains how they work, how they differ from directories and independents, the law, and how to check one before you book.
What an escort agency does
An agency takes enquiries by phone, message or form, matches the client with an escort, agrees the time, the place and the length, and charges the fee, from which the escort receives a share. Many agencies vet the people they send, and some ask the client for a reference or a deposit. The arrangement is the same whether the business calls itself an agency, a booking service or an introduction service.
Agency, directory and independent
- Agency. Arranges the booking and takes a share of the fee. The client deals with the agency.
- Directory. Lists adverts and takes a listing fee from the people who advertise. The client contacts the escort directly, and the directory arranges nothing.
- Independent. One escort who advertises, screens and sees clients herself, often through a directory or her own website. Independent or agency compares them.
The words blur. Some directories call themselves agencies, and some agencies list their workers as independent, so look at who takes the booking and who keeps the money.
How agencies make money
Most take a share of the fee for each booking, and the split varies from one agency to another. Some add a booking fee or a charge for travel. Whatever the arrangement, the rate should be clear before anything is agreed, and so should what it includes. What escorts charge has the measured London rates.
The law
In England and Wales an agency that introduces clients and takes a fee is lawful. The offences are controlling another person’s prostitution for gain, under section 53 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and keeping or managing a brothel. An agency crosses the line when it controls the escort and not only the booking: setting her hours, fining her, keeping her earnings or deciding what she must do.
Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own offences for living on the earnings of prostitution and for controlling it, and paying for sex is itself a crime in Northern Ireland. Is escorting legal in the UK? sets the offences out, and What is a brothel? covers the premises.
How to check an agency
- It gives a business name, a phone number and a website that agree with each other.
- Its terms are clear: the rate, what it includes, the length, any fee and how you pay.
- It tells you who is coming and lets you check the photographs are recent. Be wary where it will not.
- It does not ask for a deposit by gift card or cryptocurrency, or for payment before anything has been agreed.
- There are reviews on more than one site. How to read escort reviews covers the signs of a fake one.
Warning signs
- A rate far below the measured market.
- A different person arriving from the one in the photographs.
- Pressure to pay upfront, or a price that changes at the door.
- Several “independent” profiles sharing one phone number.
- Anyone who seems frightened, coached or controlled. Leave, and see safety and help.
Agencies in your city
There are agencies in most large UK cities. This site measures London and does not list or recommend any, but the city pages set out the law where you live and how far London is: UK escorts by city. How booking works covers the first message.