The Most Bizarre Concierge Requests!
Ever asked a hotel concierge for anything before? If you’re a ‘normal’ person, maybe just for extra towels, or something simple. Concierges cost a lot right, and surely you can just get what you need on your own?
If you’re rich and famous however (like say, an online casino jackpot winner), the hotel concierge is your new best friend. And the more rich and more famous you are, the more outlandish your requests become – sometimes bordering on the insane, and always, always hilarious. Take a look at some of the more bizarre requests some poor concierges have to deal with from their oblivious clients, and start making your own list of crazy demands to torture hotel staff. Just one of the perks of being a millionaire, right?
Picture this
Ok so Leonardo DiCaprio might not be available for personal appearances, but that doesn’t mean a concierge can’t make a plan when they need to. And that’s exactly what Adam Schon, Chief Concierge of Sixty Beverly Hills had to do when a massive Leo fan came to stay. “There was a guest who had never been to LA before,” he explains, “and the woman was a big-time fan of Leo DiCaprio, so the husband asked if we could put something in their room when they arrived to welcome them to Hollywood. We got a poster and pictures of Leo and set them up in the room and had Titanic playing on the TV when they arrived. We arranged for them to have dinner at Chateau Marmont since that is a favourite place for Hollywood stars to hang out, and with a great stroke of luck, Leo was there for a private party and they got a glimpse of him as he was leaving the Chateau.”
It’s not just Leo who has crazed fans after him though – Jeff Goldblum has to deal with his fair share too. At least he did (sort of) when a guest at the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica, California asked for pictures of the actor to be placed in every room in order to surprise his bride-to-be. The concierge went above and beyond with the request, leaving pictures of Goldblum by the phone, the nightstand, and even in the bathroom too – shirtless, of course. And when their stay was over, the guests were able to take the pictures home with them in a special vintage box as well. Talk about a job well done!
On the sauce
Concierges often specialise in food – recommending restaurants, making reservations, organising private dinners and the like. This request, however, was a little different.
When New York concierge Burak Ipecki was asked to find a certain brand of barbecue sauce for a guest, he must have thought it was his lucky day. Barbecue sauce – that’s it? But because life has a very special sense of humour, no, that was not it. Rather than being the simple request it appeared to be, in fact finding that particular brand of barbecue sauce turned out to be a gigantic mission – as not only was it not made in New York, but in small batches in Louisiana, the guest also wanted it shipped to his home all the way in the Caribbean. And not the next week or the next month, but the very next day, for a special garden party they were throwing. Like any concierge worth his salt, Ipecki didn’t even flinch. Instead, he contacted his concierge network and organised to have the special sauce flown more than 3 000 kilometres overnight, arriving just in time for the party. We don’t know what’s in the sauce, but now we definitely want a taste of it…
Happy feet
What’s weirder than international barbecue sauce flights? How about penguins! No, not stuffed penguins – real, actual penguins. Although in this case the concierge wasn’t asked to find the penguins, but more find something for them. “The most memorable request for us is the guest who asked for 20 pounds of ice for his penguins,” remembers Lauri Howe, Director of Communications for Seaport Boston. “The penguins visited a year or two ago as part of one of the exhibits at the Boston Globe Travel Show. They stayed in the bathtub when they weren’t on display at the show, which was held on site in the Seaport World Trade Center. Twenty pounds of ice actually isn’t too much, and we have multiple ice machines at Seaport, so we filled up four bags for them. We hope the ice helped to keep them comfortable during their stay!”
Got milk?
How delicious is a fresh glass of milk first thing in the morning? Very delicious, and very simple too – unless you’re a guest in a German hotel with 20-year veteran André Höftmann for a concierge. Höftmann elaborates: “Last year we received a request that seemed pretty normal at first glance: the guest wanted a glass of fresh milk in his room every morning during his stay. As we found out, by ‘fresh’ he meant ‘fresh from the farm’. First we had to find a farmer to co-operate on such a rather unusual request, one of our colleagues drove to a farm nearby in Brandenburg and collected milk that was milked the very same morning. Back at the hotel we filled it up and brought it to the guest, who was happy to get his daily fresh glass of milk.”
Eighty days (or so) around the world
Not all requests are completely batty though – some of them more than make up for the inanities of others. Take the elderly lady who wanted to go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world. Not only did she ask her concierge to arrange everything, she asked them to join her as well. How would you feel being a plus one on an all-expenses-paid trip round the world, first-class travel, five-star accommodation and weekly wages included?! We’d feel pretty fabulous – sign us up!
Remember, if you want to make equally bizarre (and sometimes disturbing) requests of your concierges, there’s only one way to back up your demands – with a huge casino jackpot and a pretty big tip. So log on, get playing, and you could soon have a hotel room filled with pink orchids, red M&Ms, and perhaps even Jeff Goldblum himself!
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