“IN THE LAST 24 hours, 5,845 new cases of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been recorded, bringing the total number of active cases in Croatia today to 28,889, the Civil Protection Headquarters has announced.” You have had enough of news like this and simply switch off the radio.
Distracted, you arrive at the hotel barrier and open your window. A concierge, impeccably dressed and groomed down to the last detail, greets you kindly by name, welcomes you and directs you towards the hotel. On the way to the entrance, you think how long it has been since anyone welcomed you so warmly and pleasantly. You arrive at the entrance and, as you prepare to get out of the car, an equally courteous and elegant concierge opens the door. He welcomes you, asks how your journey was and whether he may help take your suitcases into the hotel.
You step out of the car like a prince and watch the concierge carefully remove your suitcases as you hand him your car key. He opens the entrance door and lets you go in ahead of him. As he labels your suitcases, he tells you that he will take them to your room as soon as possible and that, when parking your car, he will disinfect it and then connect it to an electric charger. As he leads you towards reception, he tells you about the hotel’s illustrious history and how you will be sleeping in the very part where a famous warrior once slept. On arrival at reception, he introduces himself once more and says that he is at your disposal for anything you might need. Suddenly, you remember that you have forgotten your mobile phone charger, and he tells you that one will be waiting in your room.
Concierge — comte des cierges — translated as “keeper of the candles”. In the Middle Ages, concierges are said to have looked after the lighting in noblemen’s castles. As they escorted the castles’ guests to their rooms, they also became known as keepers of the keys.
There is only one school for concierges and only one association. Unobtrusive, yet always at hand. Discreet, yet clear enough for you to know they are there. Neat and elegant, but never garish.
Once you have checked in, your concierge suddenly appears discreetly beside you and offers to take you to your room. As he escorts you there, he mentions that the hotel restaurant is very busy and offers to reserve a table for dinner or arrange room service. Although you had not planned to eat anything, of course you agree to go to the restaurant: if the concierge is this good, just imagine the food.
Who is still thinking about the Headquarters? Who is still thinking about COVID?
If you ask me, this was an example of an ideal approach by a concierge team. Working in coordination with reception, they welcomed a somewhat distracted guest into the hotel in a gracious, polished and discreet manner, giving him their fullest attention, taking his suitcases and parking, disinfecting and charging his car. In this way, the guest moved from a distracted state to a carefree one and, on the way from reception to his room, decided to have dinner as well, achieving the much-desired cross-selling.
A guest in such a carefree state will certainly be willing to treat himself and spend more money in the restaurant than he had planned, an ideal opportunity for upselling. The result is both maximum guest satisfaction and additional revenue.
Toothpaste or a sleeping tablet might be further requests from such a guest, but with good coordination with reception, these issues can be resolved without difficulty, to everyone’s satisfaction. Finally, a guest who has forgotten his everyday worries will gladly reward the concierge team on departure and settle happily and without a care into a disinfected, electrically charged car.