Five-star concierge service

What it takes to be the best by Sandra Miller

Hotels like the work hard it takes to be rated with five stars. Being new in town, the Mandarin Oriental will have to wait until next year in order to see if it ramps up to five-star status with Mobil Travel Guide, or AAA’s five-diamond level.
What does it take to become a five-star, or an AAA five-diamond, hotel?
Amenities, for sure. And service, service, service.
Does the staff remember if a guest is allergic to pillows with feathers? Which guest requested the Wall Street Journal with breakfast? If a guest needs a toothbrush, the staff should bring up a tray of toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, and mouthwash.
The Mandarin's brand-new staff is essential in bringing in the stars and diamonds. Around the world, the Mandarin is known for impeccable service, but not all of its hotels have rated the full monty.
Only about 30 U.S. hotels rate five stars, which, according to Mobil, means: “An exceptionally distinctive luxury environment offering expanded amenities and consistently superlative service make these hotels and inns the best in the U.S. and Canada. Attention to detail and the anticipation of guests' every need are evident throughout this exclusive group of hotels.”
In Boston, Mobil has granted five stars to only two hotels, the Four Seasons and the Boston Harbor Hotel. The five diamond rating from AAA has only been granted recently to one hotel, the Four Seasons.
According to Mobile inspectors, what makes the Four Seasons a five-star hotel, includes its location, sophisticated design, posh guest rooms and suites that appeal to both business and leisure travelers, award-winning dining at Mobil Four-Star Aujord’hui, its own conference/meeting plan staff, and an indoor pool with “floor-to-ceiling city stunning views of some of Boston’s treasured landmarks.”
Boston Harbor Hotel features great location, “Classic European elegance in rooms and suites, all with waterfront or skyline views,” “excellent service (that) pampers adults, children, and even pets,” a well-equipped health club and spa, and “romantic dining at the Mobil Four-Star-rated Meritage Restaurant, casual sophistication at Intrigue Café, and a convivial spirit at Rowes Wharf Bar.”
Four-diamond hotels in Boston are: Taj Boston, InterContinental Boston, Liberty Hotel, Royal Sonesta, Hyatt Regency Charles Hotel, Fairmont Copley, Nine Zero, Onyx Hotel,
Hilton Boston, Le Meridien, Westin Copley and Westin Waterfront Westin Boston Waterfront, The Eliot Hotel, Fifteen Beacon Hotel Commonwealth, Langham, Lenox Hotel, Seaport Hotel, Jurys Boston, Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton Boston, and the Park Plaza.
What is often cited as the true difference between five star hotels and, well, everyone else, is the level of service. That level of service is achieved by a topnotch concierge team.
Professional concierges are multilingual, creative types who do the impossible on a daily basis. They are the professional assistants, event planners, ticket buyers, car valets, messenger service, and other duties that used to go to, say, a spouse or a butler or a personal assistant or an event planner. While they aren’t meant to take the place of any of those people, the great concierge is ready to take on anything in a pinch, to help their client. They build relationships with residents, and often invisibly work behind the scenes to do the impossible.

What the Mandarin offers
The concierge staff at the Mandarin Oriental Boston promises to be available 24/7 to secure exclusive dining tables and hard-to-find theater and sporting event tickets, arrange for transportation, city tours, dry cleaning, in-room food service and shoeshines.
Lubna McInnis, the chief concierge at the Mandarin Boston, says that while the Mandarin has only been open a few days, they are prepared to do whatever the customer needs. At this point, the staff has only needed to fulfill the basic requests for transportation, directions, and restaurant recommendations. The Mandarin has a house car to bring guests to local restaurants. They pack and ship packages around the world. Can they get tickets for the Sox playoffs? “We’ll make it happen,” she says. “We’d go through all of our contacts to find them.”
McInnis is originally from Wales, and has been a concierge for nine years in several area hotels, including Boston Harbor Hotel and 9 Zero. “We will search online for the Valentino dress someone saw on a runway in Paris,” McInnis says, referring to some of her previous experiences as a concierge. “We have found hair extensions for celebrities. We have done shopping for spouses and kids. We’ve taken care of pets. We’ve shipped cars, booked private jets and yachts. We are personal assistants, in a way.”
She’s a member of the Greater Boston Concierge Association, and is working on her membership with Les Clefs d'Or USA, part of an international society of highly regarded concierges. Les Clefs d’Or means “service through friendship”.
“It’s been a fantastic experience,she said about joining the Mandarin, the first hotel she’s opened, and she received extensive training to fulfill the Mandarin’s expectations.
“The concierge’s role is service, the follow-ups, going above and beyond, being alert, always being there for the guests. These guests chose to come here for the service,” says McInnis, who adds her staff is genuine, sincere, enthusiastic. “We want them to believe in the product,” says McInnis. It’s a very fabulous job. They make or break a guest’s stay.”
According to their job descriptions, the Mandarin’s service staff members for both hotel guests and residents are expected to “offer a warm, sincere and personalized welcome to all residents, have an in depth knowledge of directions, travel time, cost and various forms of transportation, maintain a constantly updated database with extensive information about city highlights, maintain a daily sheet [via software] of all requests, reservations and confirmations for guests, is aware of all daily events in the hotel, arrange for package delivery and pickup for residents, distribute incoming mail and send outgoing mail, prepare packages for residents that need to be sent, request messenger service as needed, delivers flowers and other amenities as needed,” and anything else that the guest or resident may need.
But what that means often goes beyond the job description. The great concierge can help furnish an apartment, coordinate a business meeting, and arrange a flight.
“It’s not just the everyday request of a teatime or a dinner reservation,” said Adam Isrow, cofounder and executive vice president of the Web site goconcierge.net, which provides database support for the Mandarin and other concierges around the world. “It’s really an extension of their personal family. They tell people, ‘No worries, I’ll take care of it, I’ll make it happen’.”
McInnis is a big fan of goconceierge.net. “Everything we do is logged. I can’t imagine going back to the old system,” she said.
The great concierge used to keep track of guests’ requests by jotting down notes, memorizing reliable resources, and passing knowledge down to others. With online databases like Isrow’s, this knowledge is recorded, and so varying shifts of concierges can track a guest’s needs.
“They look it up on the computer, and say, when a guest arrives, ‘Mr. Rizzo, we took care of your reservation, and by the way, we have your tickets for ‘Wicked’ tonight.’ These are the things guests appreciate. It provides such a personal touch,” said Isrow.
Also, when the concierge team spends time researching the best vendors in Boston, the Mandarin can record it for a later time, for quick reference.
McInnis’ concierge team also is equipped with Blackberries, for immediate responses to guest needs via communication more silent than phone calls or radios. A bellperson sees a request for a bathrobe, accepts the task, and the guest gets one immediately.
That’s what gives the Mandarin its reputation for exceptional service, said Isrow. “A key attribute is to anticipate the needs of your guest. By being proactive, by the time the guest comes, you have the ability to provide him or her what they need.”
“The concierge has to create great service, not for the guests, but the residents,” said Isrow. “They become an extended family to them. They are making sure what newspapers they like, what day they have someone cleaning their unit, find a dealer to furnish antiques to a condo. They are worldly. Not only do they have amazing contacts, they know how to get things done.”
Isrow recalled how one concierge at the Mandarin in New York was asked to help a guest arrange a spot in Central Park, where he could propose to his girlfriend. “The guest didn’t realize what it takes to clear out the park, and arrange a photographer at a certain time,” he said. “It all worked out,” Isrow was told. The client “never knew how many people were involved in that process,” he said. The reward for the concierge? “This was an experience that this couple will never forget…they create memories,” he added.
The “getting it done” part is “not something you teach very well,” said Isrow. “It’s what the top concierges thrive on. When you get something off the cuff, how do you make something happen? It’s the top concierge that makes it happen. I’ve seen firsthand what they do, and some of them are so humble, they love what they do but they don’t talk about all the amazing things they do. The businesswoman who left her shoes, things that don’t seem like a big deal, can become a crisis. Someone needed to get somewhere in a hurry, they got them on a scooter, because they wouldn’t have made it by a cab. It’s like super concierge,” he said.