Concierge feats

[oliveANDatwist]

I have always rated luxury hotels on the staff as much as on the decor. And more precisely the man with the golden keys. I remember staying at the Normandy in Deauville with my then girlfriend. We had booked a table at the Spinnaker (one my fav) for 9 pm but decided to have a drink in the room and a cuddle beforehand. One bottle of Krug and a few cuddles later we emerged from our bed at 10.45 and called the concierge about our booking, he called back 5 minutes later to tell us that our table was waiting for us. What he did not tell us was that he had the all brigade to reopen the kitchen and the maitre d and waiters to put back their uniform on. we had a wonderful dinner, unhurried and delicious, by ourselves in an otherwise closed restaurant.

I wonder if any of you care to share their own experience of amazing request fulfilled by a concierge.

[andrewp]

Not the concierge, but still a favor I will never forget.

In February my wife and I were staying at Trisara in Phuket for four nights. Afterward we were to travel on to Siem Reap for a stay at Amansara for 2 nights. On our last full day at Trisara we started to get a little bummed that we had to go and honestly weren't looking forward to the amount of "hard work" that would be involved in touring Angkor.

At breakfast that day we decided to stay if at all possible. I looked at our documents and found that we were well past the cancellation deadline and would be charged for the full 2 night stay if we didn't show. I placed a call to the GM at Trisara (thanks to FT I knew that he came from Amanpuri and generally well connected) and explained the situation. He took the ball and ran with it....

Later we were informed that he had spoken to his "good friend" at Amansara and that our reservations were canceled with no penalty whatsoever. We found out that he was not able to immediately reach his friend and in fact spent the better part of the afternoon on the phone with Aman HQ in Singapore. Although he wasn't able to get resolution through that approach we truly appreciated the effort. In the end he was able to get everything worked out for us and truly went above and beyond the call of duty.

[alanw]

Maybe it doesn't count as it was only a Westin, but still...

A few days ago as I was leaving the Westin Grande Sukhumvit in BKK, I realized that the huge picture I bought during a weak moment was not going to fit in, well, anything I had. I asked the concierge if he could come up with a box I could use so I could check it on the flight. A quick check revealed that nothing they had (nor the Mailboxes, Etc. in the basement...who knew?) was big enough. The concierge came to my room and took the picture, saying he would find something and let me know.

A couple hours later I stopped by to let him know I was leaving for the day. As he emerged from the left luggage room I saw two hotel staff on their hands and knees (minds out of the gutter plz) cutting, stapling, taping, and strapping several of the MBE boxes together to build a custom shipping container. When I arrived to my room to pick up the luggage and check out, the package was waiting for me. It even had a nice tag with my name and home address on both sides.

I figured they would bill me something for this, but they did not. I tipped the guy 1000THB and thought he was going to cry.

(Aside from that experience, I was underwhelmed by the WGS, both in terms of service and facilities. Aside from the wooden grate in the shower and all the bowing, it could have been Cleveland.)