The U.S. economy was going gangbusters. I was booking
lavish dinners at steakhouses for groups most every night of the week, and organizing outrageous requests for clients seemingly on a daily
basis...the cost be damned.
call Uber or grab a meal via Open Table then to let someone else do it for them.
My advice to these hotel concierge counterparts?
Use Open Table to book guest reserva- tions only when a restaurant has not yet opened that day. Otherwise, there’s nothing better than having direct person- to-person contact with a restaurant’s management team. The transaction becomes personalized for the guest. [Also, when disgruntled guests learn their own concierges simply used Open Table for their bookings, it kind of leaves a bad taste in the guest’s mouth, and “Well, I could have done that myself!” in their minds.]
Make your guests want to use you by ensuring the very best for that guest – the top tables/the greatest service/the quickest solutions. Why would a guest want to DIY with a phone app when a concierge can ensure points of comfort and convenience the guest could never arrange on their own?
But be careful with those ticket mark- ups! [Many hotel concierges will procure already-substantially marked-up tickets and then resell them at an even higher cost]. This extra bump is helpful to your wallet, but not so much with your own integrity!
These truths hurt my hotel brethren, I know. Yet they’re definitely a major rea- son why guests are jumping off the concierge train and onto the DIY band wagon.
70 July z August 2017
The above assertions are easy for me to make, since I’m mandated by my own employer to never take any sort of kick- back or commission, and I’m forbidden to accept cash tips from my clients.
By having these restrictions in place, I am forced into a position of recom- mending tried, true and authentic servic- es instead of simply suggesting compa- nies just because I know they will cut me a nice check at the end of the month.
Again, if I maintain my integrity, the money is bound to come at me in other, more legitimate ways.
“Where is the concierge profession going,” I
constantly ask myself?
Well, as stated prior, I don’t see too many of the best-of-the-best hotels doing away with their concierge staffs (nor their coveted ratings) any time soon. But that middle tier continues to shed their service conduits. After all, there’s no profit in having a concierge, right?
Or is there? (Think about it: The best hotels are the best for a reason.)
I also see the concept of the Shared Community continuing to expand. If it started with Uber and Airbnb – solid companies employing subcontractors that do their bidding – then it’s going to flow into other realms of the service industry: Press an app to arrange for your own personal concierge, or tour guide.
The bottom line: If we, who are in the concierge profession, want to see our line of work continue to grow and flour- ish, then we must work to band together as a whole – strength in numbers – bringing the hotel representatives in line with the other non-hotel concierges out there to impress upon both our employ- ers and the general public how vital and fulfilling our line of work still is in today’s world - and in tomorrow’s, too.
Because the more apps that are out there doing our jobs for us, the less rele- vant we appear.
But trust me when I state – no
app in the world is going to get you a table at the hardest
restaurant to land a reservation in this country.
But I can. How? Because I’ve honed a
strong and respectful relationship over the years with the owner of that restaurant.
Sorry – there’s just no app for
that. The world of the concierge continues to change.
Meanwhile, Flo’s going on her second decade, and still playing the role of a concierge. (An insurance company concierge. Yeah, right!)
Ken Alan is a corporate concierge with CBRE. He is the founding member of the Philadelphia Area Concierge Association, and the lead restaurant reviewer for Main Line Today.
ken.alan@
cbre.com
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