Why hello does not work, and what to send instead
Because there is nothing in it to respond to. The person on the other side sees dozens of identical messages and has to ask the same three questions herself every time: when, where, how long. Usually she simply does not.
A message that gets a reply saves that step. It contains the answers already, and what sets it apart from the rest is not politeness but the fact that something can be done with it.
There are four things to include, all short. This is two or three lines, not a letter.
- When: the day and roughly the time. Friday evening, not sometime.
- How long: an hour, an evening, overnight. The price follows from this, so you have effectively asked about it already.
- Where: your place, hers, a rented apartment. If you have not decided, say that, which is also an answer.
- What caught your attention in the listing, in one sentence and to the point.
What it looks like
“Good evening. I would like to meet on Friday around nine, for an hour. I am staying in Kentron and can host, or I can rent an apartment, whichever suits you better. Is that time free?”
Three lines, and they contain everything: the day, the time, the duration, the place and a question that can be answered in a word. What separates that from asking whether she is free is not its length but the fact that the conversation has already started.
Writing in English
English is widely understood in central Yerevan, but it is nobody's first language here, and some women in the catalogue read Russian or Armenian more comfortably. That changes nothing about whether to write in English; it changes how.
Short sentences, plain words, no slang and no jokes that rest on wordplay. If she replies through a translation tool, simple English survives that intact and idiomatic English does not. Confirming the details back once, in the same plain form, is worth the extra line.
What ends the conversation immediately
- Negotiating in the first message. The price is in the listing, and offering less before the conversation has begun is the fastest way to end it.
- Asking for more photographs to check. The photographs in the listing are the listing.
- Asking for a detailed list of services. What she does is written in her listing; the rest is discussed rather than interrogated.
- Asking whether she is free right now, at three in the morning, with nothing else in the message.
- Persistence: a second, third and fourth message with no reply in between. One reminder after a day is the limit.
How long to wait
An hour or two is normal, longer in the evening. People in the catalogue are not sitting in the chat all day, and silence during working hours almost never means no.
If there is no reply after a day, the listing most likely is not active today. The catalogue shows when someone was last on the site, so it is sensible to start with those who have been on recently, and with the verified listings if you would rather not spend the evening second-guessing.
One thing about tone
The messages are already part of the meeting rather than a formality before it. How you write is how the evening will be read, and the person on the other side forms a view of you from three lines because there is nothing else to go on.
So ordinary courtesy does more here than anything else. What is expected once you actually meet is in etiquette.