advice to a guest at the Newport
Marriott.
Businesspeople aspiring to learn the art of networking ought to stop by an upscale hotel and spend a few minutes with the concierge.
From arranging last-minute dinner reservations to finding spots on a booked-solid tour, concierges serve as a hotel guest’s conduit into the local scene by relying on a bevy of contacts. The goal: to make guests feel as though they’re the ones with the inside connections.
"You want to make them feel special, and the more contacts I have, the better it is for the guests," said Meredith Reid, the head concierge at the Newport Marriott since the hotel’s opening 15 years ago.
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Reid’s work might not be as fast-paced as her colleagues in big cities like Boston or New York, where concierges might track down impossible-to-find tickets to sold out shows or sporting events. Still, she has the inside track on arranging harbor tours, babysitting services and – of course – dinner reservations. And Reid said she prides herself on directing guests toward attractions that are off Newport’s well-trodden tourist path.
So how does she know which suggestions are best for which guests?
"It’s all psychology," Reid said, pausing to answer a guest’s question about St. Mary’s Church. ("Yes, that’s where the Kennedy’s were married," she answers without skipping a beat.)
"You basically have five seconds to size them up and figure out what they’ll want to do," Reid said. "The questions are all the same, but the answers are different depending on who’s asking. You make a game out of it, and that’s why I want to come to work every day."
Friede Emery, concierge at Newport Harbor Hotel, said she can often – though not always – get hotel guests into busy restaurants where they otherwise wouldn’t get as much as a glimpse of the lounge.
"I’ve built up enough contacts over the years," said Emery, who moved to Newport from Germany nearly 25 years ago and has been the hotel’s concierge for the last eight years. "Let’s just say I’ve got some inside pull."
Hotel concierges have to forge those connections by doing what networkers do best: getting out, talking to people and staying on top of the local scene.
"I’m always out pounding the pavement, canvassing the area," Reid said. "I go out to restaurants six nights a week, which is why I don’t have any money."
But the legwork pays off. When Reid pulls a few strings, a guest is bound to return to the hotel – and is likely to pass along recommendations to others.
The restaurants make out too. Reid, who keeps a log of the restaurants she refers guests to, said it’s common for her to send 300 people to one establishment during a busy month. "As long as they’re taking care of my guests, I’m going to keep giving them business," Reid said.
Sometimes, however, the system can break down.
Emery said she gets plenty of gripes from guests who were unhappy with a recommendation – even after working some magic to get them in.
"It’s such a subjective thing, you can’t get it right all the time," Emery said.
To avoid those uncomfortable exchanges, Emery keeps tabs on Newport’s restaurant scene: Whose menu has changed? Which place is booking the best entertainment? Whose staff had the most turnover from last season?
But Emery says she can "do dinner reservations in my sleep by now." She draws her energy from answering the tougher requests, such as finding a tailor for a guest who forgot her dress for an elegant Newport wedding.
"The more difficult the request people throw at me, the more I like it," Emery said.
Occasionally a guest at Newport Harbor Hotel – which draws a disproportionate share of guests from the international sailing crowd – will ask Emery for help with a customs snafu before sailing to his next destination. Emery has found herself on the phone with customs agents or faxing forms to foreign countries.
While filling such a tall order is likely to garner a generous tip, both Reid and Emery say tips generally aren’t what they used to be.
"Anybody getting into this line of work, if you’re looking for tips, forget it," Emery said. Without tips, concierges make between $20,000 to $50,000 annually, depending on the region, according to Les Clefs d’Or USA, a national trade group for hotel concierges.
Reid and Emery are among a small handful of hotel concierges in Rhode Island – only a few hotels have them, according to the Rhode Island Hospitality and Tourism Association. Moreover, dozens of concierges throughout the country were deemed expendable when hotel bookings nose-dived in the months following Sept. 11, according to the National Concierge Association.
Hotels that operate without concierge must rely on other staff – typically the front desk – to make dining recommendations and handle random requests. But Reid said it’s a mistake to think that the front desk can serve as a suitable substitute.
"I hate to say it, but the front desk does not have the time or the contacts to do that," Reid said. "If they suggest something that ends up being a lousy experience, why would that guest want to come back?"
