We are 2 nights into our 3 night stay at the StR Osaka, where we got only a room category upgrade from our booked Grand Deluxe Room to a Skyline Grand Delxue Room. Of course, the hotel is sold out, so no surprise.
Yet everyone in the hotel knows knows us by name—and face! And we’ve been treated like gold at every turn.
Even in the elevator on our first night, the La Veduta restaurant chef recognized me and introduced himself, indicating he looked forward to our dining with him tonight. Holy cow—that’s some incredibly good service and recognition. Makes us actually look forward to an Italian dinner for our final night in Japan a lot more than we’d anticipated.
At the bar later that first night, both the bar manager and food/beverage director recognized me and introduced themselves. And the chef came over from the adjoining restaurant to say hello again. They all wanted to know more about us, how our day was going, if we needed anything more from the hotel or any suggestions for future days or visits, etc.
in the Rue D’Or breakfast restaurant yesterday morning, the restaurant manager recognized us and introduced himself, too. Made sure we had everything we needed in an otherwise very crowded restaurant space.
Even the valets and bell staff have recognized us every time we’ve arrived and departed from the hotel. Even when we first arrived.
That’s recognition and service you’d expect more from an Aman or a very small and quite impressive boutique luxury hotel. We’ve collected enough business cards here in Japan to staff a mid-sized company, I think!
This level of service may not appeal to everyone, but then not everyone stays often at luxury hotels. For those of us who stay at Aman, St Regis, Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Peninsula, Mandarin Oriental, Oetker, Dorchester, etc types of luxury hotels, we know this is extremely impressive service and recognition. We also know that this VIP level of recognition extends to better service and excellent treatment in every other area of a hotel stay—especially when something goes awry.