Michael Romei, chef concierge at the Waldorf Towers in New York City, has many a tale to tell of perseverance in the face of ludicrous guest demands. Like the time a woman had a massive rattling box carted to the concierge desk, then demurely asked Romei to send it up to her husband's room as a birthday surprise. The tricky part was that he had to assemble the contents first -- it was a golf cart.
Over the past few years guest requests have become more esoteric and demanding, concierges say, owing to their own widening sphere of professional responsibilities, and their 24/7 availability via cell phone and e-mail. "Services in hotels have become much more extensive; we're offering more and more," Romei said. "And the awareness of the concierge has increased tremendously. Guests at all levels now know that they can approach the concierge and ask for just about anything."
Francesco Santini, chef concierge at the Hotel Gritti Palace in Venice, Italy, says that email has definitely quickened the pace of guest requests. While Santini has several war stories, his favorite remains the man who in the early 1970s requested the hotel mark his birthday by placing 12 small cannons on his balcony suite, and shooting them off at midnight. "It was a very romantic and strange experience," Santini said.
See our list of outrageous guest requests.
Private jet arrangements are fairly routine. Carol Hooper, the head concierge at the Little Nell in Aspen, once arranged a day trip to the East Coast for a couple who wanted to see their daughter's dance recital. But just as common, it seems, is the vacationer who conscripts a concierge to buy that special gift for a loved one: a diamond necklace, say, or an automobile.
Tracy Alexander, concierge at the Hotel Burnham in Chicago, recalls how a guest gave her a budget of about $30,000 to purchase a Honda Accord for his daughter's 16th birthday. When the local dealership didn't have one, the guest decided to bump it up to a BMW 325i. Alexander's efforts paid off. "My God, the tears would not stop flowing from that girl," she said.
Then, of course, there are the unusual items vacationers ask to send through the mail: cars, creatures, cadavers. Lanfranco Gualandi, now chef concierge at the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel in Toronto, once shipped a month's supply of yogurt to a guest from Saudi Arabia, who had tasted it during his stay at the Sutton Place Hotel, and found it very pleasurable. His colleagues at the Sutton Place once chauffeured a guest's dog across the Canada-New York border in a luxury sedan.
For the most part, concierges say they enjoy fulfilling their guests' wildest wishes. They also appreciate acknowledgement of a job well done. When Gualandi worked at the Sutton Place, Saudi Arabian guests often expressed their thanks by handing the staff Rolex watches.