Concierges - Achieving The Impossible

Manoj Sharma - Melbourne

Concierges must expect the unexpected. Any given day the concierge's desk at a five-star hotel will fill all manner of guest requests. If you want advice on a restaurant, a limousine booked or a meeting room to take a conference call from London arranged in 15 minutes, the concierge is the man/woman for you. But what they really pride themselves on is achieving the impossible.

Cliff Grose, chief concierge at the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast, met the challenge of his professional life in 2003, when the organiser of a conference being held at his hotel by an international company asked him if he knew where to find some elephants.

"They were holding a gala African-themed dinner outdoors around the pool as the finale of the conference, and two days before the dinner, they decided they wanted some elephants," Grose says. "As luck would have it there was a circus visiting the Gold Coast and they agreed to lend us a pair of elephants."

Grose says he has been a concierge for 10 years, but "every day I'm asked to do something I've never done before. That's why it's such a wonderful job."

Simon Burgess, chief concierge at the Parmelia Hilton in Perth, tells of a recent guest who was going to be guest of honour at a black-tie function. "He found out two days before the function that he was going to have to dance at the function. He couldn't dance and was terrified of making a fool of himself. So in those two days we organised private dance lessons so at least he would not trip over," he said. Ben Davies, chief concierge at the Sofitel in Melbourne, had a couple of guests request a CD system to be supplied to their room with music they could strip to. "That is exactly how it was put to me. Now that is definitely not a run-of-the-mill request, but you learn very quickly as a concierge to expect the unexpected - and be able to do it," said Davies.

Victor Barraya, chief concierge at the Radisson Plaza in Sydney - known as the ‘Godfather' of Sydney's concierges - says the unexpected is par for the course.

He said, "I had a guest who rang at 7.30 pm, wanting a mobile phone as soon as possible. I knew that all of the city branches were closed but I also knew that the one at the airport would be open. I sent a porter to the airport and we supplied that gentleman with a mobile phone within the hour. Another guest was bringing his fiancée and he wanted to propose to her that night. He asked me to book the best restaurant I could for 7.30 pm and told me that the ring was coming by courier to the hotel. But, by 7 pm the ring had not arrived, and his fiancée's family were on their way to the restaurant. I rang a jeweller contact and had him send around four of his most exquisite rings, for the guest to choose from. He told me I saved his life."

Barraya says the secret is extensive contacts, and experience. "We learn what regular guests need and we remember it. We're prepared to anticipate the tight schedule the business traveller is on and we have the contacts to meet any request," he said.

Burgess says the familiarity regular guests have with the concierge's abilities can breed, if not contempt, then complacency. "Definitely the bigger the hole you get them out of, the bigger their expectations become, and they tend to leave their impossible requests even later. In London I had guests who expected me to get them into the top restaurants at the drop of a hat, because I had done it before. But they may not have realised that I'd had to call in a favour. Being a good concierge is definitely about who you know, and working those contacts," he adds.

According to Burgess, business travellers should get to know concierges at the hotels at which they regularly stay. "We can be your friend, personal assistant, social organiser - you only have to ask. It's getting people to ask the first time that's difficult. A lot of people are well organised and might not think they'll ever need a concierge. But we're there as backup, to take the pressure off, if there's something you urgently need."

Grose says the internet has made the job easier, but the classic concierge qualities of patience, discretion and ingenuity will always be needed.

He says, "Our only rules are that we won't do something that's illegal or immoral. The great thing about the job is the challenge - and the elephants were certainly that. I don't like to think about what we'd have done if we hadn't had the circus in town."

(The author is hospitality faculty with a university in Melbourne and can be contacted at manoj.sharma@vu.edu.au)