The room is a decision, and it is yours.

A hotel room you book yourself. A hotel room chosen for you, in an area you name. Or your own home. There is also a fourth answer, which is that you have not decided, and that is a complete answer at the point of writing — the inquiry form accepts it without asking you to go away and think.

Most people assume one of these is the proper one and the others are compromises. None of them is. They are three different evenings with three different textures, and which suits you depends on things that have nothing to do with money: whether you want to arrive somewhere or be arrived at, whether being in your own rooms afterwards is a comfort or the opposite, and how far you want to travel at the end of it.

A guest checking into a city hotel and later receiving a visitor is one of the least remarkable things that happens in a hotel on any given evening. No explanation is required at reception, and offering one is the only thing that would make the arrangement conspicuous.

What makes a room suitable is practical rather than luxurious: a room rather than a suite shared with anyone, a bathroom you are happy to use, somewhere to set things down, and a door you can leave on do-not-disturb. Room grade beyond that changes the evening very little. A quiet standard room in a good hotel is a better setting than an expensive one on a floor with a busy lift lobby.

Book it in your own name, as you would any night away. Nothing about the evening requires the hotel to know anything, and the arrangement is between you and Moonlight rather than between Moonlight and the building.

If you would rather not choose, say which area suits you — a station, a ward, a city — and a suitable room is proposed before anything is booked. You see the name and the cost before it is confirmed, and you can say no to it without giving a reason.

What is looked for is unglamorous: a quiet floor, a lift lobby that is not a thoroughfare, a reception that is used to guests arriving at all hours, and a location that makes your own journey home short rather than one that makes the address impressive. The room is part of the quotation and is charged at what it costs, with nothing added to it.

People who choose their own home usually do so for one of two reasons: they do not want to travel afterwards, or they are more themselves in their own rooms than in a hired one. Both are good reasons and neither needs defending.

Nothing needs tidying, buying or arranging first. The single practical question is whether you will be undisturbed for the hours booked, and that is a question about your week rather than about your flat.

Moonlight works across the Kanto region, and the two areas it knows best are Saitama and Tokyo. Saitama is home ground: Omiya is where the distance is measured from, and everything within ten road kilometres of it carries no travel charge at all. Tokyo is the specialism — the wards are close enough that an evening there is ordinary rather than an expedition, and late-night transport in central Tokyo behaves differently from transport in Saitama, which matters more than it sounds.

Beyond those two, the rest of Kanto is served on the published distance bands, which run out to seventy road kilometres from Omiya. Further than that, or anywhere that needs accommodation or a long journey, is quoted individually against real transport, real round-trip time and real lodging rather than a made-up surcharge.

Distance is measured by road, from Omiya to your venue. Not rail, and not a straight line on a map. A station name or a city is enough for an inquiry — you do not need to give an address to be told which band you fall in.

Whatever you choose, only two figures move: what the room costs, if there is a room, and which distance band the journey falls in. The travel figure covers both directions, because the journey home is real time and real cost and hiding it inside the outbound leg would only make the number look smaller than it is.

One thing worth knowing before you pick a time. Public transport around Omiya stops shortly after midnight, so an evening that ends in the small hours changes the shape of the return rather than adding a flat fee to it. It is not a penalty and it is not ignored; it is looked at during the consultation, together, and the most sensible arrangement for your hours and your own journey home is found before anything is agreed.