Caution: Your Concierge May Be an Imposter

September 12, 2006 at 11:40 AM | by Tim L. | Comments (2)

Your airline phone call is probably being answered in India and your hotel reservation call may be answered in the Philippines, but is it too much to ask that your hotel concierge really works for the hotel?

Apparently so, as some U.S. hotels are cutting costs by outsourcing their concierge services. Yesterday we linked to this Wall Street Journal article that ran in the Napa Valley Register over the weekend, but a trend this distressing needs more attention.

Titled "Hotels Begin Outsourcing Concierge Services," it explains how not-exactly-cheap hotels such as the Venetian in Las Vegas and the Hyatt Regency in Maui have outsourced the guest relations work to outsiders.

This is bad enough on its own, but what is really unnerving is that guests have no idea the concierge is actually working for Expedia, Travelocity, or another contracted company and that there is an expected commission kickback from every transaction. Guests are used to seeing tour companies in the lobby at a resort hotel, but it's clear they are not hotel employees.

More on the disturbing trend post-click.

According to the article:

At the Sheraton Safari hotel in Orlando, where Expedia moved in last year, concierge Grace Acuna said guests have no idea "at all" she isn't on the hotel staff. At the Hyatt Regency in Maui, Expedia employees wear "Aloha" shirts and name tags without the Expedia logo.
The division of labor can lead to confusion among guests and the hotels' own staff. When Jared PoVey phoned the concierge at the Hyatt Regency in Maui from his home in Salt Lake City in July to plan a trip, he was initially impressed. The concierge seemed so knowledgeable he signed up for four days of activities, at a total of $4,000....But when [he] called back a few days later and asked for the concierge by first name, he was told no such person worked for the hotel.

So why risk annoying loyal guests with service provided by a profit-making third party? More short-term profit for the hotel itself, apparently. Lobby rental fees can earn a hotel up to an extra $10,000 a month. At the Maui Hyatt, they charge between $1,800 to $3,200 a month.

The silver lining is that this is yet another way that the truly great hotels like the Four Seasons, the Ritz-Carltons, and the Fairmonts, will set themselves apart from the wannabes.

And hey, if the concierge is on salary with Expedia, who is getting a commission, do they really need a fat tip for taking care of your booking?

Image via BrianMcMahon/Flickr

Related Stories:
· Hotels begin outsourcing concierge services [Napa Valley Register via WSJ]

Comments (2)

Return to » Caution: Your Concierge May Be an Imposter

One thing everybody needs to understand:
EVERY SINGLE CONCIERGE GETS FREEBIES. every one of them. Most outsourced concierges are there beacuse the hotel saves hundreds of thousands. Most concierges work for a tour company, and usualy they are not OBLIGED to sell those tours, they should give the most honest and complete recommendation and best service to anybody. I work for a Hotel and I am an outsourced Concierge. I take pride of what I do and I am REALLY good. Never has anybody complained about me either pushig nor selling. My company does not make me sell anything. Since when does it matter WHO pays your salary?
Concierges make commision out of everything they do. How do you think they make a living???!!! that tour bus you booked, they make commission, that helicopter tour, scuba diving tour, limo, you name it they get commission just for recommending it. SO any company they recommend they will get a cut out of it. REGARDLESS of the company.
So, the people at the RITZ, Four Seasons, whatever are ALL making money out of it. Some concierges make up to $65,000 a year. Hourly rate + Commission+ tips.
So for those of you who think poor little concierges, what a poor living, you are wrong. Most of us have a better living than any of you. You get free everything. GC to go to restaurants, free rides to the airport and I can go on and on. We are ambassadors, and do a hell of a good job to deliver great service. So for me it makes no difference wether I recommend my company or the neighbors company, I will still make money out of it. And that just comes with the title.
Hotels are a BUSINESS, just like everything in the world they strive to survive in a world where there are too many options, and some hotels just really do alot better if they save $150,000 a year in employee taxes, overtime fees, hourly rates etc. And it doesnt mean hotels are making a bad decision, sometimes it is the best. Most of the things you are doing or encountering in the world is outsourced and you don't even know about it, and really it doesn't make a difference if you did.
Ou job is not to rip you off, it is to facilitate information, if it pisses you off we all make money out of everything we do beacuse it is how you live, then don't ever travel, guess what? tourism depends on YOUR money, so expect it to be that way everywhere in the world.

The work of a concierge, on a daily basis, is not only to book tables at restaurants, reserve rental cars and secure seats on planes. It actually consists mostly in guest recognition, service based on the preferences and habits of a client.

Working for a hotel and not beeing an outsourced concierge allows a concierge to be a link between hotel departments, may it be housekeeping, F & B, teh front office or the porters in order to provide the guest with a satisfactory stay. Hotel concierges are - in most cases - member of their regional concierge association or national association (worldwidly know as LES CLEFS D'OR - hence the gold keys on their lapels) that offers them an incredible opportunity to contacts all over the world. A CLEFS D'OR concierge will call the concierge at your next hotel to transmit him your preferences so that you receive the same service wherever you are around the world.

Yes, concierges do get invited to restaurants, are offered rental cars at a discount and sometimes get commissions on services provided by third parties. But never would a hotel concierge base a decision concerning a client only on a commission basis. Would the package or the service not be exactly what the client would like, the hotel concierge - beeing unattached to an exterior company - would change provider. A hotel concierge wants the best for his client, not what his company considers best for his client.

Concierges in North America make anywhere from $18 000 per year to a six-figure salary depending on experience, the specific hotel he is employed by or a specific hotel brand contract. A hotel concierge will systematically wear a hotel badge, know what room you are in and will be able to access all of your information on file within the hotel's system. A hotel concierge will not disclose the amount of gratuities he will make in a year. Moreover, a hotel concierge will be proud enough of his job, of his colleagues and his association to defend himself from comments like the ones in the previous posting.

Outsourcing a concierge sometimes is a necessity. It often comes least expensive for a hotel to outsource to an exterior company, but four-and-five star hotels will mostly not do that. Will they do, they should all advertise their outsourced and private concierges as such. The problem is not the fact that there are outsourced concierges, the problem is the image of the concierges the clients get when they do not know that their concierge is, in fact, an imposter.

And a concierge respects his clients.

MtlConcierge
Canada

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