April cracks a good-natured smile on the website of her Manhattan escort agency – Austen's Janes. The six-foot-tall woman peers from behind hand-drawn roses above a lavender scroll that describes her as an “easy going girl who loves to laugh,” a “passionate world traveller, from fine dining in Paris or riding a camel in the Sahara.”

For $60 an hour, clients can book April, bearing in mind that she doesn't do cars, private places or have sex.

The 26-year-old New Yorker is a chaste call girl. She started Austen's Janes in January after trolling Craigslist for work with two unemployed girlfriends.

“We were checking out the et cetera section and seeing all these bizarre postings for different things that men were willing to pay for, like women in their nylons, or to tickle you,” said April, who did not want her real name used.

All voracious daters already, the girls decided to get in on the action.

Stressing their college education, the three now make themselves available for corporate functions, gallery hopping or “a picnic in the park.” They're also up for family weddings, but no one's asked them yet.

Astoundingly, men are ponying up for platonic female company, despite the recession. In L.A., a service called Wagaami – a French Japanese compound word meaning “my friend” – is offering up gorgeous locals, many of them struggling models and actors, as “platonic companions.”

When Ricky Brava launched Wagaami last year, the plan was to pair tourists off with good looking locals for daytrips, but the company quickly evolved.

The Wagaami (as the escorts are called) charge between $50 and $100 per hour. Clients must book them for four hours minimum, but can't take them home. Among the roster of women are a few studs, who list their interests and horoscope signs below polished head shots. There is Angelo, a Belgian salsa teacher with a doctorate in psychology, and Dhruva, a musician who “dabbles” in screenwriting, zips around L.A. on a motorcycle and enjoys martial arts on the beach.

Paying for platonic company draws incredulity: Why would anyone spend hundreds of dollars on a sex-free date, and why would the escorts charge so little for their time, given that some company can be “intolerable,” as one critic put it.

Still, some experts say the platonic escort speaks to a very modern need, namely the growing propensity of men to defer commitment, even if it costs them $60 an hour.

“It's less complicated to get 120 bucks than to get a date. It's hassle-free and they're not committed to anything,” said Elizabeth Abbott, Toronto-based social historian and author of A History of Mistresses .

The services speak to a “global problem with intimacy,” said Anna David, author of the new book Bought , which delves into the world of pricey L.A. prostitutes. Ms. David said it's no coincidence that most of the platonic companion services have sprouted in major urban centres in America.

“It's particularly well suited to a city like L.A., where you see so many men who are in perpetual adolescence. It's a city that encourages a Peter Pan syndrome. You see lots and lots of men in their late 40s and 50s who are still single.”

Ms. David said whether it's platonic or sexual, men are paying the women “to leave.”

“It's an ephemeral financial arrangement they can use to get the ‘benefits' of a beautiful woman in their company, without any of what they might see as the drawbacks.”

The platonic escort has its closest roots in Tokyo, where educated, well-travelled and attractive hostesses flirt with businessmen and their foreign clients at specialty nightclubs where cover typically runs well over $150.

Here, sex is implied but not performed – the goal is to de-stress businessmen. Hostesses do so by flirting, listening attentively to their work stories, complimenting their English, ceremoniously lighting their cigarettes and pouring their drinks.

“My purpose was to be charming and make the guests feel very welcome, [with] never an awkward silence,” said Marie, a Toronto-based landscaper who hostessed in Tokyo in 1993, when she was 19.

Marie, who did not want her full name used, worked at One Eyed Jack's, an upscale club that drew Japanese businessmen and Western traders-turned-expats. She said the girls were instructed to playfully scold clients if they tried to touch them. Those who chose to have sex with the men could be fired.

“Available but unobtainable,” is how One Eyed Jack's website describes the ritualistic experience.

At Austen's Janes, the women vet potential clients via e-mail, turning many men away. A recent red flag was a guy who demanded to know what colour underwear his date would be wearing.

Approved clients are mostly out of town businessmen looking for a date to dinner or a work function, said April.

“You have to come up with some story because everyone's going to be asking how they met.”

She adds: “I've met a lot of men too who are separated or divorced. I feel like a lot of times they want somebody to talk to. They're just lonely. They need to get a female perspective on an issue, that sort of thing.”

Nationally syndicated sex columnist Sasha said Austen's Janes markets the “girlfriend experience,” something prostitutes have been peddling for years. Sasha, who sits on the board of directors at Maggie's, a Toronto-based sex-workers' rights organization, criticized the Manhattan women for not owning up to the parallels.

“They are sex workers. The minute you're hired for that kind of companionship, there is a sexual element to it,” said Sasha, pointing out that the website's look and language reminds her of escort sites attempting to “denote classiness.”

Ms. David said that like prostitution, platonic companionship is ultimately an “acting job.”

“Whether you're being paid for sex or you're being paid to go to a ballgame, you're being paid to be nice.”