The Concierge--Veritable Miracle Worker

Ever wonder what a hotel concierge really does?

The answer is, just about everything. If you want dinner reservations, transportation, sightseeing, advice, a concierge (pronounced kahn-see-airjzh ) should be able to do it.

But that’s just the beginning.

A concierge, once a fixture exclusive to Old World European hotels, is now very much a part of many U.S. hotels. The genuine concierge is a veritable miracle worker, a man or woman with all the best connections. More often than not, a good concierge has a Rolodex that should be insured.

As a result, few requests are too outrageous for good hotel concierges. Consider:

A guest at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia wanted a better look at some property he was considering buying. The concierge had him picked up by helicopter within an hour.

One morning a wealthy guest at the Inn on the Park in Houston wanted to have a big party that evening. He wanted a mansion with a swimming pool and tennis courts. The concierge had it set up in less than four hours.

The concierge at the Beverly Hills Hotel arranged an audience with the Pope for a guest traveling to Rome.

A growing number of hotels have hired concierges. Other hotels promote special “concierge floors” supposedly dedicated to European-style VIP service.

The Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu just hired the first concierge in its 60-year history. The newly opened Grand Bay Hotel at Equitable Center in New York advertises concierges on every floor.

But just because a hotel advertises it has a concierge doesn’t mean that you’ll receive true concierge service.

In some cases the concierge at your hotel may not truly be a concierge but a nattily attired bell captain wearing a set of gold-plated keys.

Last May the Doubletree Inn in Dallas promoted something called “let us astound you” and announced that as part of its new campaign to please guests, it had begun concierge service.

The hotel pronounced its new concierge capable of great wizardry and proudly placed the concierge desk in the center of the lobby.

Astounding, All Right

The concierge wasted no time astounding guests. The concierge desk, it turned out, was nothing more than an information desk staffed by an inexperienced employee.

In September the concierge job was eliminated and the lobby desk removed. It was replaced by a large plant.

“We’ve seen it happen all too often,” says Rudolf Greiner, general manager of the Regent Hotel in Hong Kong. “Hotels try to change the name of the information desk to the concierge desk. Or they promote something called a ‘concierge floor.’

“But that’s the last place to look for a real concierge. There’s a big difference between the two, and regular guests know it right away. And when a first-time guest finds out that the concierge can’t help him, he doesn’t come back a second time.”

Concierge service is also being heavily promoted by Westin hotels. At the Hotel Camino Real in Mexico City (a Westin) a new concierge--the hotel’s first--was hired a few weeks ago.

But how good is the service? When a guest asked Gabriel Garcia, the new concierge, for help in reconfirming airline tickets, Garcia told him to “go see a travel agent.” Terrific advice.

“These things happen,” said Jacques Hamburger, general manager of the Drake Hotel in New York, “because of the linking of service to the monetary reward in the attitude of some concierges. In a reconfirmation of an airplane reservation, there’s nothing but aggravation for the concierge and there’s no money in doing that. But reconfirming airline tickets is something we do here with great regularity. In fact, we make it part of the concierge job definition.”

And, because a good hotel concierge places virtually no limits on the job definition, don’t be afraid to ask one for help no matter what you need, even if it seems impossible.

It’s probably more important to cultivate a relationship with the concierge than with any other hotel employee.

“Many hotels see new general managers every few years,” says Holly Stiel, chief concierge for the last 10 years at the Hyatt on Union Square in San Francisco, “but good concierges stay. Often a guest will return to the hotel simply because he knows he can count on the concierge.”

At the Regent in Hong Kong, concierge Herbert Croft helps a lot of repeat guests. One of the most knowledgeable concierges in the world, he’s also a local. Croft, 48, was born and raised in Hong Kong.

Staff of 52

His staff numbers an impressive 52 people. And there isn’t an airline representative, shoe repairman, luggage expert, tour operator or Chinese junk captain who doesn’t owe him at least one large favor.

Need an express visa to get into China? Ask Herbert. Did you buy too much to fit into your suitcase for the return trip home? Croft will pack it for you. (The concierge staff constructs an average of 35 heavily reinforced packages a day for guests.)

“I try very hard,” Croft says, “to make sure that the word ‘no’ isn’t in my vocabulary. At the very worst, I come up with a very good plan B.”

In recent years some guests have been surprised to find that many of the best hotel concierges are women.

The Royal Monceau Hotel in Paris boasts the first female concierge in a French four-star hotel. Karron Hinson is the concierge at the Westwood Marquis in Los Angeles. At Harrah’s Hotel and Casino in South Lake Tahoe, Nev., the senior concierge is Patti Hogan, who can magically make things happen whether you’re a heavy gambler or not (although, Hogan admits, it does help to be a high roller).

And in New York, the Drake Hotel prides itself on an all-female concierge staff.

“Handling airline tickets is the easy part,” head concierge Barbara Vandervloed says. “And we’re accustomed to desperate last-minute requests for ‘Les Miserables’ tickets.”

Apparently, Vandervloed can handle the nearly impossible--from manicures at midnight to after-hours trips to Bloomingdale’s. On one recent Sunday morning an Italian racing-boat captain staying at the Drake ran over to Vandervloed’s desk in a near-panic. He needed a hard-to-find but essential engine part for a race he was just about to start.

Vandervloed started working the phones. In less than an hour she found the owner of a marine supply store on City Island that not only had the part, but agreed to keep the store open long enough so the captain could get the crucial part in time.

“He didn’t win the race,” Vandervloed says, “but at least he was able to start on time.”

“Any concierge can ultimately find someone theater tickets,” says Jurg Tuscher, general manager of the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong, just across the harbor from the Regent.

‘Must Know Manners’

“But more important, a good concierge must be a good student of human values and resources. He must know manners and he must know languages. If he can’t speak to the guests, how can he do anything for them?”

At the Mandarin, concierge Giovanni Valentini speaks four languages and supervises a multilingual staff of 30.

Valentini is part of a select group of hotel concierges who belong to Les Cles d’Or, the prestigious international organization of concierges. (In the United States there are only 110 members of Les Cles d’Or.)

“For a concierge to be successful,” says Herman Weiner, general manager of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, “you have to have excellent contacts inside and outside the city. You must cultivate these contacts and have home phone numbers of the owners who can provide just about every kind of service imaginable.

“For example, we know there’s a high likelihood for shoe repair at about 6:30 on a Saturday night. That’s when high heels break right before an important dinner or function. Since we can anticipate these problems, we’re then ready to handle them.”

The Hapless Guest

Even if your high heel breaks in Mexico City, don’t despair. There’s still hope. Look for Tim Broughton, chief concierge at the Hotel Galleria Plaza, another Westin Hotel. Broughton has been chief concierge at the hotel since it opened in 1980 and he can achieve the nearly impossible.

A guest recently lost his phone book with all of his business contacts in Mexico City. He had tried for three days to find an American businessman in Mexico City who was waiting to see him. But the guest couldn’t speak Spanish. On the fourth day, the guest appealed to Broughton for help.

“My whole trip is ruined,” he said. “I now have no one to see here and no way of reaching anyone.”

Within 15 minutes, Broughton had procured a cross-directory of Americans living in Mexico City, and had located the contact at his vacation home.

“The man ultimately made his connections,” Broughton says, “but I was a little worried about how successful his business dealings were.”

Upon leaving the hotel armed with the correct phone numbers, the guest dropped his wallet. A few minutes later, Broughton found it and had to chase him down to return it.