The modern concierge has to be mostly magician, regularly make he impossible come true, and treat every guest as a demigod.
From private wig rooms (Cher) to in-suite golf carts (the late Pavarotti) and the now-infamous “handpicked M&Ms” (only green ones for Beyoncé, no brown ones for Van Halen), diva-esque rider requests have long been the purview of entertainment’s elite.
Yet these days it seems it’s not just A-listers who are demanding grade-A performance from travel service providers. In recent years, as traditional travel agents have lost ground, a raft of concierge companies has emerged, sights set on the individualised experience. Market leader Quintessentially, which launched in 2000, now runs 45 offices worldwide and a host of global subsidiaries in wine buying, property and travel. Yearn for someone to second-guess your dietary stipulations or tailor a hotel snack pack of locally-sourced produce? How about an on-hand hotel clair-voyant, or a dog-walker? In today’s world, everyone from parents with young families to frequent travellers can demand more bang for their travel buck; a power that has only redoubled in our economically straitened times.
“The new customer sees ‘above and beyond’ services as a standard option rather than a value-added bonus,” says Martin Raymond of trend forecaster The Future Laboratory. “In this market, providers need to keep up or risk losing trade to those who make the traveller feel like an individual.”
Nowhere is burgeoning concierge culture seen more than in the hotel sector. High-end Indian brand Taj leads the charge with door-to-departure services that include bath butlers (for those who like their froth just-so) and a genealogy concierge and “detective service” to seek out long-lost friends and relatives on the subcontinent.
“We even once organised an elephant show,” says Kirti Dhingra of The Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi.
Animal lovers are especially well catered for in US hotels, where concierges will supply everything from in-room gourmet dog dining to “pawdicures”, pet personal trainers (
Loews Hotels) and pet blow-drying and massage (
The Peaks Resort in Colorado).
Human dependants are the focus of several hotel groups’ attempts to go the extra mile. Themed for the nearby American Girl mall,
Holiday Inn Chicago has in-room dolls’ beds and children’s room-service menu; while
Alva Park Resort & Spa on the Spanish Costa Brava has two children’s suites with especially commissioned dolls’ houses and a panoply of pint-sized extras, including monogrammed children’s bathrobes and an afternoon of personalised play.
Big kids garner the attention at
Andaz Liverpool Street, London, where you can book a bedtime story from their “reader-in-residence”. For lower-key learning experiences, why not check out the calligraphy demonstrations at
Aman At Summer Palace in Beijing, or try the one-on-one knitting lessons at
Classical 2 Fashion House Hotel in Athens.
Have the rigours of the globetrotting lifestyle left you battling existential angst? If so, the concierge at Spring Creek Ranch in Wyoming can arrange a room visit from the in-house soul reader, Carol Mann, who promises to deliver “a clairvoyant glimpse into the blueprint of your soul”.
The romantically challenged can lean on a great concierge to up their Casanova quotient: Cambridge Beaches Resort & Spa in Bermuda has a trained “proposal concierge” on hand;
Roosevelt Hotel, New York, has a concierge to suggest the best places to romance in the Big Apple; NY’s
70 Park Avenue Hotel will arrange mood music, scatter rose petals and even pen love poems on your behalf. And, for the last word in luxury loving,
Taj Chandigarh will float real pearls in your celebratory fizz.
Even if your requests are more modest – say, for extra-plumped pillows, great theatre tickets or dinner reservations – just ask: “Great concierges are part Merlin, part Houdini,” says Maurice Dancer, president of hotel concierge association Les Clefs d’Or. “Our axiom is that the guest is God.”
After all, you’d be hard-pushed to beat the most bizarre requests logged by one user of American Express’ Black Card concierge team: “He asked for an English-speaking parrot to accompany him on a trip to Russia,” says a Black Card rep, “and a diver to drag a treasure chest containing an engagement ring onto a Mexican beach while he strolled past with his intended.”
Source:
Qantas The Australian Way October 2009