some perfect (meeting highest european concierge standards) concierge experiences in the USA (covers trips of my last 10 years, service/concierge qualities may have changed since then): same-day Beach Blanket Babylon tickets
* San Francisco: Stanford Court (Renaissance, on Nob Hill)
* San Francisco: Mandarin (at the entrance to China town): he even arranged pick-up of my towed-away rental-car, when I was not a hotel guest, just sipping a side-car there
* Colorado Springs: the Broadmoor: he arranged instantly a one-hour tennis-session with Dennis Ralston himself (the tennis-staff would not risk a try before).
* the Pierre, New York: I had breakfast with some FlyerTalk friends (Catman, NJDavid) there, was not a hotel guest, he arranged reasonable priced tickets for the same-day, sold-out, Yankee game, and also arranged umbrellas (it was heavily raining when we left)
* Brown Palace, Denver: once he got me 2 tickets for a same night, sold-out, Avalanche.game (I had to see 'our' swiss goal-keeper Aebischer that night) and also, some years ago, he arranged reasonably priced (+20% above imprinted price) tickets for the Broncos at MileHigh stadium (the year they went to the SuperBowl in San Diego). He also gave the great tip for a Jazz night at the El Chapultepec (have been there again and again)
* the Lodge at Pebble Beach: he arranged a men's tennis-double that included the 'father of Charlie Brown' (Schultz) playing as my partner for the next day (after having noticed my tennis-standard the day before from their prof (I have some fun at resorts, taking a tennis-lesson, starting to play with the pro with my left-hand, later asking him if he would mind to play of a drink, then changing my racket-hand (right) ...
* the Lodge at Vail (he arranged a whole day deep powder ski-trip and guide at the back-bowles, when the ski-school people wouldn't serve us in high season)
* Biltmore, Los Angels (arranged 2 same-day football tickets for UCLA-USC game)
* Auberge du Soleil, Napa Valley (arranged for Wolfram and I, a table for, otherwise sold-out for months), Keller's Franch Laundry for the next evening.
* Château Whistler, Canada: taking care of my 'lost' luggage (UA flights)
* Sutton Place, Vancouver, Canada: arranging dinner at the Le Gavroche and making sure, that they had 2 pieces of Lilli's cake left as a desert for us ... (Lilli is a now 80 year old lady, living on top of the tiny Le Gavroche building)
* Halekulani, Honolulu, HI: for our PiP party they arranged 'everything' to perfection.

[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited Dec 23, 2003).]