Hotel Concierge Service: Above And Beyond
Posted on December 27, 2007 by Him and tagged customer_service, fun, personal_care, vacation
About 10 times a year I travel for my job. Sometimes the work that I do is quite easy, and I have more time to relax and do some sightseeing, or even make a vacation out of it. Other times the job can be quite stressful as we have to cater to our clients and make sure things go smoothly. When I need things to go especially well, I often enlist the services of the hotel concierge. Their advice is often invaluable in finding out the perfect restaurant in an unfamiliar city, for getting access to rooms at their hotel or another venue for impromptu meetings, or even getting umbrellas when an unexpected rain occurs. Of course, their work is rewarded with a generous tip.
However, the requests that my coworkers and I ask from the concierge pale in comparison to others. A Chicago Sun-Times article reports the unusual requests that Jon Winke, a concierge at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago since 1975, has had to fufill for guests. Some of them include:
- A guest wanted to see the premier of the movie "Disclosure" but he didn't want anyone sitting within three rows of him. Winke rallied staff members to go to the theater and buy enough tickets to block off several rows.
- A mother of the bride left her contact lenses in a taxi and was upset about having to wear glasses to her daughter's wedding. Concierge staff tracked down her California optician, got her prescription and had new contacts delivered to the hotel within two hours.
Have you ever used the hotel concierge to make your life easier? What was the strangest request that you have asked from one?
(via Chicagoist)
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MVP | Dec 29, 2007
I'm shocked by the two examples you gave of hotel concierges being extremely helpful. Frankly, I've always had trouble getting genuinely helpful advice from a hotel concierge. Seems they're always paid by the nearby touristy restaurants to recommend their places to guests. Maybe this is the problem: I've never heard of tipping a concierge. I usually just call from my room or visit their lobby desk and ask if they know of a great restaurant or whatever. How do you go about getting them to to above and beyond?
Dawn | Dec 30, 2007
I set up travel arrangements for people my boss (who happens to also be my brother) is sending various places, and I have found hotel concierges to be extremely helpful. Some higher end hotels even have pre-trip planning staff available. I've used them to set up dining, special events, payment arrangements (so the guests never see the bills), to send special treats to room, etc. etc. etc. Tipping is always the way to get things done - when I'm sending people to dinner, I always arrange for a 25% tip, because I want to make sure the guests have a wonderful experience. The other thing I do is that I always let someone higher up know when I've gotten exceptional service. At Disney, for example, reports on good service really do help the employees.
Shevvi | Dec 31, 2007
I was traveling for work when the TSA enacted the liquid carry-on rules. I was still breat feeding so I was pumping and freezing since I was away from the baby. The Marriot concierge in Chicago got the milk for that day flash frozen (no idea how but he got it soild within 1 hr after receiving it) then got it shipped to my home the same day.
I have had great luck using concierge during the week at hotels frequented by business travelers. I've had hit or miss expierence using them on weekend non-business travel.
E.C. | Dec 29, 2007
On a couple of trips to conferences I've stayed at hotels nice enough to have such a thing, but I've never used a concierge service. Vacations in my family have never involved staying anywhere that expensive. The last real vacation I was on, I got to sleep on a camping mat on the kitchen floor.
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