How Your Hotel’s Concierge Service Can Help You
While many travel insurance plans include complimentary concierge services, travelers should also remember to utilize the localized expertise found in their hotel’s concierge department, in order to get the most out of their trip destination. Many travelers don’t use their hotel’s concierge service because they do not know what it is. Those who don’t hesitate to make a request for exactly what they need are likely to get it. Taking advantage of a hotel concierge service can help you have a smoother trip and find the best local experiences faster than stumbling upon them on your own.
What a person can expect from a hotel concierge is an employee who is more familiar with the local area than a tourist might be personally. Asking about what neighborhoods are safest or which taxi services are the best can result in a plethora of helpful answers. Travelers interested in a particular location may discover that if they ask, they might receive directions to their place of interest that are likely be more accurate than what they may receive from a GPS device or website. A hotel concierge can help a person who has lost their luggage, tell a person what to do if they have lost their passport, or recommend a decent local coffee shop or help with reservations for a special dinner.
Contacting a hotel’s concierge service prior to checking into it is a good idea. An individual can talk to a hotel concierge and make any request they want, but not every request is easy to fulfill. If a person thinks what they want to ask for might be a tall order (like getting into that exclusive Michelin rated restaurant), making the request anywhere from a few days to a few weeks in advance is a good idea. Providing the concierge with requests related to their stay at an upscale hotel can help a traveler to secure reservations at an exclusive restaurant or tickets to a popular show. Also, whenever a concierge provides assistance, it is customary to tip.
For the vacationer or business traveler who frequents the same hotel or uses the same concierge repeatedly, a reputation for being a healthy tipper can go a long way to ensure an uncomplicated trip. Providing a hotel concierge with the kind of tips they expect may help to secure reservations to an upscale restaurant or sought-after tickets for entertainment when they would otherwise be unavailable. Choosing not to leave a tip might lead the concierge to believe a guest’s request is not a priority. It is also a good idea to check with the front desk if you are being charged a “service fee” that includes the use of the concierge service. In those cases, you might still want to tip the concierge, but a little less than in a situation without a “service fee” that includes concierge services.
