Originally Posted by
schwarm
As per my experience at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo ...
If you're recommended a restaurant, and you find that all 5 parties there were sent by your hotel, is it safe to assume that the concierge is getting a kickback? (The restaurant was enjoyable, so maybe it was just a good, safe recommendation.)
In Japan, I would guess no. If it were a very good restaurant, then I would say it's probably a place the hotel just has a good experience with (no kidding if they essentially book out the entire restaurant every night!). If it were mediocre, I would guess yes, they got kickback. But I think a place like the PHT wants something that will be safe and that almost everyone would enjoy, so they probably send lot's of people to the same places.
Edited to add: while I don't know exactly how concierges work, I would assume they have a list of a couple of places the send people first. If those places are small, lot's of people from the hotel might end up eating there at the same time.