No figure in the hospitality industry mystifies me more than the hotel concierge. They have to know everything and anything, do anything and everything, and keep perfectly pleasant and positive even when requests are totally absurd.
I connected with Wonder Woman concierge Isabelle Hogan, head concierge at The Mark Hotel, a five-star dig on Manhattan's Upper East Side, to learn a little bit more about what she and other concierges do exactly and how they do it.
Her background: She's been making helicopters and perfect amenities appear for guests since she started as a concierge in 1998, first working at New York City's The Plaza, The Carlyle, and the former Mandarin Oriental (now The Mark Hotel). I'll let her tell it how it is, though unfortunately, what doesn't come across below is that she has the best French accent ever.
In a nutshell?
It's a balancing act: reservations, tickets, keeping baths warm and bubbly.
There's really no limit to their scope of work, which can include 8-hour shopping sprees with Saudi princesses.
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You want an unlocked iPhone 6 in a few hours? Isabelle did just that for a guest the other week.
The job does have some jealousy-inducing perks.
But they take their recommendations seriously.
A complimentary invite doesn't equal an automatic recommendation.
They trump TripAdvisor and Yelp.
Because when they give recommendations, they're also reading and considering the guests.
They do talk about guests and store information on them.
They're going to commit things to memory but they're also going to back it up with some software.
They can get royally screwed.
Concierges need to protect themselves (and their businesses) from the flights and fancies of guests with some sort of collateral. They'll get those front-row Lion King on Broadway tickets but there's going to be a credit card put down or form signed.
It's not all outlandish guests asking for the moon to be handed to them five minutes without any niceties or thanks.
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