Digital Sekta’s Post

Transcript

Hi, my name is Simon Thomas. I'm the head concierge here at the Lanesborough Hotel, prestigious spot on Hyde Park Corner. Our neighbours are Buckingham Palace. To your right and to our left we have the Duke of Wellington's house. This hotel has been around since 1832 when it was vacant language house. Following that it became Saint George's Hospital and hosted the troops coming back from the Crimea War. Who served as a hospital to the late 80s and then in 1992 it opened as the Lanesborough Hotel. So who hasn't stayed at the language? Probably be an easier question. I'm very lucky to have with us the guestbook which it's opening pages has Princess Diana signature followed by people like Michael Jackson, George Harrison later on. Then the the Queen's signature is on there. We have it. It's endless. You know, everyone to up to the modern terms where you've got Beyonc�� saying there, Jay-Z, Madonna. Empathy, empathy, empathy, empathy. I can't stress it enough. You know, this is the, the, the actual building blocks of concierge. You have to put yourself in the position of those people and understand your people, understand your guests, what their needs are. You know, not one-size-fits-all. That's why we're good at what we do is we tailor make each suggestion, each recommendation to the individual. I started my journey very early on. Originally I was born in North Wales. In those days you left school at 15. It wasn't, it wasn't like now when you have to stay until you're 18. So I left school at 15. I started training as an engineer and listened to the politicians at the time which said get on your bike and go and look for work. And I ended up coming down to London and then I took a job at the Grovenor House as a pageboy. So when when I say a pageboy, you've got to think more Hotel Budapest, you know that. Met with the pillbox hat on his head and the buttons down down his tunic and and I did that for quite some time at the Grovenor House, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was my first foray into into hotels and one that I look back with with great affection. I then found my Forte in the in the world of concierge in the world of hotels and loved it and wanted to progress. So I ended up leaving there as a junior concierge. And I went off to the Sheraton Park Tower as night concierge, then getting promoted to day concierge where I served under the famous Dennis Purcell. Then I was headhunted to open the Royal Garden Hotel. From there I went off to the Chancery Court where I was the head concierge, the Chancery Court and assisted in the number of openings for Marriott when I was there. Then from there I moved back towards Mayfair and Lightbridge and reopen Branch Hotel, an absolutely wonderful hotel steeped in history. Had such notable people there as Agatha Christie stayed there for eight years, Rajat Kipling wrote Jungle Book there. So a fabulous, fabulous hotel with such a deeper, deep wealth of history. And then I moved on to the Lanesborough where we are now. For me, the keys, falling in love with hotels was one thing. The next thing that I fell in love with was the role of concierge. And to be the epitome of a great concierge, you need your keys. So to get my keys was absolute blessing. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. I was very young, 22 years old I think still that's one of the youngest members to actually get their golden keys. And I've been now a member of the Golden Keys for 30 years. I've cherished every moment. What's the craziest request? Well, I've got one that takes me back to Browns Hotel that are guests wanted to do something rather special for his wife, so he came up to me and he asked me to arrange to have 21 deer taken from his estate in Beaconsfield and delivered to his country of origin. We had less than a week to do it. I remember that I've taken my daughter not so long ago down to a Country Park called Noel Park near 7 Oaks and lots of deer, so I rang. Knoll Park and talked to them about the, their deer and what, what goes on. And they told me about the Royal Deer Society. I spoke to them. They put me in touch with her, an expert in that field of looking after deer and put the guy on retainer. And lo and behold, when, when the when the Prince came back that evening, I said, right, I've got this gentleman for you. He, we put him on retainer. He could do this. He's he's worked out the transportation method. Then he turned around to me. And said I just wanted to see how good you are. It's, it's very simple. I'm, I'm, I have got a very good memory and I remember getting up and going to work in, in an engineering environment, you know, in my overalls, dirty hands, working really hard. And now look at it. I, I've come to work in a palace. I, I wear beautiful clothes. I walk around in a beautiful environment. I talked to some fabulous people. What, what more can you have to drive you? I'm gonna give you another little anecdote if I might. So I'm quite particular about my writing instruments. In fact, I'll show you have one here, my fountain pen, my trusty phantom pen. So there I was doing one thing that you should never do, and I had my back to the guests, talking to my own concierge, the concierge desk. And there I am with my pen writing away. And it got taken out of my hand over my shoulder. Pen got taken out my hand. I was just about to maybe not be quite as pleasant as I usually AM. And it was. It was being taken off me by Nelson Mandela, and Nelson Mandela was signing his book Long Way to Freedom in front of Mikhalkov Michev. So I think I I let them off that time. Care the St. John's Stones Museum, which is is a personal favorite as well, which is the the marvelous collection of Hogarth paintings that there's got there the you know, you could see. Sir John Soane literally travelling the world, buying art, antiques and artifacts wherever he went and and just bringing them back home. In fact, I know the story that his wife got so fed up with him, she bought the house next door and she moved into there. He then filled that house with antiquities as well. So so yeah, it's a true sort of jumble of amazing and mass of, you know, antique antiquities from around the world. It's just incredible. So Belgravia is where we are now is, is obviously full of these huge houses. You know, we, we're one of them, but they have these huge houses. But they then you forget that they had all their footmen and their staff and everything else serving these houses. So you have what, what then behind these big houses on the main roads you have these muse houses or which were the stables and garages for carriages and everything else at the back. And in amongst these was the odd pub, because that's where they were, they were where they go, maybe not so much the landed Gentry, but definitely the, the staff from the, from those houses. And you've got some great pubs. I mean, you, you wandering around the backstreets round Belgravia, you, you've got the Grenadier, you know, London's most haunted pub. Then you've got the the star tab in which is down by the the carbon tax. That's a fabulous pub with in the winter with a roaring. Fire going, Come on, a pub crawl with me. Carry on. I, I think we are in the golden age of concierge. I think we're doing a fantastic job. I think the the world of concierge is opening up. The best way I can put it is in Britain we don't call a vacuum cleaner vacuum cleaner, we call it a Hoover. That's because it's become the epitome of what it does. Concierge is what we are. We've become the epitome of great service and every company that uses now concierge service is just replicating what we do. We were the originals and I'm very proud to say.