Hi I’m Silvia, I’m 26 years old and I started working as a Dinner Hostess about four years ago.

As it often happens, I started by chance in a well-known disco in Milan where I was an image girl on weekends. As an image girl my job was to attend gigs, attract attention with special looks, be smiling and know how to move on the dance floor. It was fun, undemanding, but I was making just enough to pay for a few extras.

I never thought that in a few months my ‘image’ would become my gold mine! An unexpected up grade to dinner escort, also known as dinner hostess, has turned my bank account around.

At first glance, it might seem that between ‘image girl’ and ‘hostess for dinners’ there is not so much difference, but it is not so: the roles are different and also the earnings are .

The girl image in the local must only appear and dance if necessary, rarely happens to have to entertain customers. In short, apart from a sexy look and a certain loveliness, no special skills are required to perform this profession.

I have to be honest, even on the busiest evenings, where I would go wild on the dance floor, time would never pass. I was bored, I felt like a beautiful statuette admired by men and sometimes criticized by women. Not to mention the cachet, a whole night smiling and dancing on high heels for 80/100€ per service.

Escort for dinners yes, escort no

The turning point came when the owner of a nightclub where I worked from time to time, made me an offer.

He said, “Silvia, I need escort services for a dinner with five managers of a multinational company here in Milan. One of the girls I had contacted stood me up, could you fill in for her tomorrow night?”

At the time I thought the worst things. The definition of ‘escort’ rang 100 alarm bells for me. Okay, cubist or poster girl I’m in. But escort no! So without too much hair on my tongue I expressed my thoughts to him.

“But what do you understand?” – I remember him answering in amazement – ” You obviously don’t know how these things work.”

She described to me in detail what the role of a dinner date girl is and it was a revelation! I was basically being asked to just be myself.

I have found that I am perfect as a Hostess for business dinners

Let me explain.

Whoever does this job must have a flair for PR and have a fair amount of general culture (I graduated from high school and took 6 exams at the Faculty of Political Science), must be friendly, must be able to converse, must also know how to dress appropriately for the various events that arise.

But the bottom line is: no sex. In fact, dinner companion has nothing to do with an escort. Having sex is not included in the service. Clients know this, so they may try, (often) but I always draw the line.

Now, if you’re wondering how much a dinner hostess makes, here’s the answer: a lot!

To attend the dinner, the owner offered me an amount equal to what I earned for an evening as an image girl, but I would have worked only 2-3 hours and by work we mean eating, drinking, talking and smiling. Of course I accepted the proposal.

The night of my first hostess dinner I was so nervous. There were three other hostesses with me, but I didn’t know them or how I would be received.

Everything went smoothly, the managers were funny men who just wanted to relax with beautiful girls at the table, even my colleagues (two of them later became my dearest friends) were wonderful with me, female solidarity does exist!

I spent a pleasant evening, thanks also to the quality of the customers, I still keep the pleasant memory. At the table we joked, but we also talked about more serious topics; I had the chance to show off a bit of my culture and irony. I finally felt valued as a person, not just an ‘image’ woman. In short, it all seemed far too easy to be true. But that’s just the way it was. I had been well paid to dine in the company of pleasant and polite people. Even one of the managers invited me to go on a pleasure trip with him to Paris. I was flattered, but declined.

By the end of that first night, it was clear to me that I wasn’t going to go back to clubbing, so I looked for new gigs as a dinner companion. Here’s in a nutshell how my career as a hostess/escort for dinners, various events, and travel began.

Not all chaperone outings are fun

It’s true that not all customers are super nice. Many men like to have a harem around when they’re sitting down to dinner, if only to take a selfie or to look more interesting in the eyes of other women. Not always the company is fun and exciting alas, but it’s always best earning an average of 40€ per hour, to eat, drink and talk to uninteresting people, rather than making photocopies at 6€ per hour from 8 am in a sad office or being an ‘image girl’ hours and hours on her heels in a fair or in a club. That, at least, is my experience.

Being a freelance Hostess, I decide when to work and with whom

I have created quite a circle of acquaintances in Milan, I have my regular customers, other customers come to me by word of mouth, plus many contacts that come to me from the web. I’m a freelancer, I don’t use agencies, I promote myself online on sites dedicated to these services and I don’t have to acknowledge a percentage of my work to anyone. If I wanted I could work even six nights a week just on Milan, what a wonderful city! I have colleagues who work great as dinner hostesses in Rome, but I love Milan and will be hard pressed to move from here.

Milan is certainly not cheap and my job as a hostess requires an up-to-date wardrobe, which, thanks to my earnings, is no longer a problem. Let’s say that by now I go to Zara only for pleasure, not for necessity as I did a few years ago. Yes, with this job I support myself well and I also have time to prepare for the exams that are missing from my degree… but here it is the desire that is lacking!

Do I recommend this work to other girls? Of course it does. I solved my financial problems simply by using my person, not only my body, but also my culture, my smile, my innate sensuality and my sense of humor.

Certainly not a job for every girl. Not only because mother nature has not equipped us all with the same equipment, although this can be remedied with charm, sympathy and surgery?

But let’s face it: sustaining an intelligent conversation, being funny, elegantly refusing unwelcome advances, knowing how to stay in your place or listen to uninteresting speeches of the customer on duty with an involved air, is not for everyone!

That’s why I took the liberty of drawing up a small vademecum for those who are thinking of doing the ‘hostess for dinners, are now several years that I maintain with this work, I have some experience!

Basic rules for being a perfect dinner party hostess:

• you must show interest in the dialogue and always smile, while maintaining the right detachment
• you should never look at your watch (at the most you can sneak a glance at your phone to see the time) it’s bad to see that you are bored
• Never use your cell phone for phone calls or chatting or social networking, unless you are specifically required to do so.
• the look must be right for the occasion: no slut, but no saint either and heels are obviously a must
• Use a second cell phone during these services, because it’s inevitable that everyone will ask you for your number and it’s bad to say no
• it is inevitable to friend on Facebook or other social to many strangers at the table. I created a double profile and on my work phone I use only that one
• You must have an aptitude for dialogue, be a fun-loving, non-musky person and have all-round interests to participate in any type of conversation
• Another important thing to be able to work well with foreigners (which in Milan are many) is to know English, but obviously the more languages you speak, the better.
• say that you are engaged even if it is not true, in this way you can better defend yourself from unwanted advances
• last thing is to keep an eye on the number of drinks you drink, a strict rule is never to lose control of the situation!

Good work