Unit IVConcierge Paper1

8/12/2019 Unit IVConcierge Paper1

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Unit IV

Concierge

Submitted by :

Panna Mongkulpermpoon 5307610294

Sujaree Sophon 5307611581To

Asst. Prof. Ponglek Sirithavee


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This five-star luxury Riverside hotel features 802 well-appointed and equipped

rooms, each adorned in a Thai-inspired theme, featuring soft furnishings from silk and

awe-inspiring views of the Chao Phraya River. Adjacent to the hotel is Saphan Taksin

BTS Skytrain and Sathorn Pier, where you take a river taxi and explore the riverside as

well as Bangkoks historical attractions up the river.

The hotels well-equipped business centre is popular with executives, and for those

needing a base while holidaying in Bangkok, the hotel has an abundance of recreational

choices like a fitness centre, Tibetan spa, and gorgeous outdoor pool area set in a

tropical garden. Numerous dining options excel in providing mouth-watering cuisine

from around the globe, popular with guests and visitors alike.


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Personal Information

Khun Adisorn Shongcharoen

Assistant Chief Concierge

Educational background : Vocational Certificate in Civil and Building

Construction, Utaintawai Institute

Work Experience : Starting his career in hotel business as a Bell Man

at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Bangkok. After

working as a bell man for a few years he

applied for a concierge position at the Shangri-La

hotel. He has been working as a concierge at the

Shangri-La hotel for 26 years.


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What qualities do you need to be a

concierge?

Bachelors degree Good communication skills Good English language skills Professional appearance Pleasant Voice Being clear and friendly on

telephone calls

Being courteous and helpful Being discrete and honest Being responsible

Being multitasking Being proactive and working in

teams

Relating to diverse people from

various backgrounds

Reporting maintenance Resolving problems quickly and

efficiently

Supervision and communication

Speaking several languages

Khun Adisorn added that nowadays, people who can speak several

languages such as Japanese, Chinese, French and Italian are very much

needed in hotel industry.


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Screening Procedures

Screening procedure for the concierge position has three stages

involving interviewing exam, Written Exam and TOEIC test.

First stage, the applicant needs to have two interviews, one with front

office manager and another one with chief concierge or assistant chief

concierge. The front office manager will ask the questions to see that the

personalities, attitudes, knowledge and skills of the applicant fits to work as a

hotel clerk or not. Then the front office manager will send the qualified

applicant to have an interview with chief concierge or assistant chief concierge,

the chief concierge will mostly ask the questions to see that the personalities

and attitudes of the applicant fits to work as a concierge or not. After that, the

qualified applicant needs to have a written exam provided by the hotel. And the

last stage, the applicant needs to pass a TOEIC test with a score of 650

minimum.


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Income and fringe benefits

A starting salary for the concierge position is approximately 16,000

baht per month. Hotels are usually open 24 hours a day, seven days a

week. Work shifts in hotels are usually from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. (morning shift)

3 p.m. to midnight (afternoon shift) and 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. (night shift) At the

Shangri-La hotel normally there are 6 concierges working per shift. The

concierges may be asked to work any of these three shifts or to work on a

rotating shift plan. Sunday and holiday work may also be rotated. A 40-hour

work week is common. Overtime is sometimes required during busy periods.

Fringe benefits include paid vacations and holidays, social insurance,

given free meals per shift and free laundry service for uniform.


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Can woman be a concierge?

In the past the Shangri-La hotel do not accept women to work as the

concierge because they believed that the concierge job is a tough job. The

concierge is required to supervise bell captain, bell man, door man and lift boy.

But nowadays women have more opportunities in every business; so, Khun

Courtney (a woman in the picture above) who graduated with a bachelors

degree from England is the first woman who got accepted by the Shangri-La

hotel to work as a concierge.


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Concierges Tasks

Meeting guests in the reception area Helping guests with their baggage Showing guest to their rooms Handling customers queries Taking and delivering message for guests Making travel and restaurant reservation for guests


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What are concierges responsibilities?

Giving General Information and Services Purchasing and Changing a Plane Ticket Recommending Restaurants, Shopping Places and Tourist

Sights

Responding to Special Requests Handling Problems and Complaints


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Giving General Information and Services

At the Shangri-La hotel there are three storages for keeping the

guests luggage. The assistant chief concierge needs to check each storage

every day and supervise bell man to keep the storages clean and rats free, so

the rats couldnt cause any damages to the luggage of the guests.


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Its the concierge duty to make sure that the airport representative

and the limousine will be waiting for the guests at the airport.

There is a concierge desk in the storage number 1 at the Shangri-La

hotel where Khun Adison has to check the e-mails from the front desk twice a

day in the evening after work and in the morning before work to see that is there


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any requests for airport pickup from the guests, so, he could inform the airport

representative the name of the coming guests and arrange the limousine to

pick up the guests at the airport.

When the guests come or calling to the concierge corner to ask for

any informations; first, the concierge has to greet the guests with a smile. For

example, Good morning sir, How may I assist you? After that, when the

concierge knows what the information that the guests want to know, the

concierge need to inform the guests right away or in the case that the

concierge dont have any informations and couldnt inform the guests right


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Purchasing and Changing a Plane Ticket

Generally, there are 4 steps when guests ask concierge to buy them

plane tickets or change tickets.

Step 1: Asking guests for flight information

Concierges would greet guests first every time Good morning, Sir. How

may I assist you? Then, guests would ask for what they want. In this case, they

would ask for plane tickets. Concierges would ask this following question in

order to get flight information.

1.What are guests destinations?2.What class would they prefer?3.Ask if its 1 way trip or round trip?4.When is guests departure date?5.Preferable flight schedule

Step 2: Searching for plane ticket and Informing guests

After asking all of those questions, concierge would search for plane

tickets and answer whether there are tickets or not and inform guests right

away. Normally, concierge would call to hotels agents first. If there are not

exact tickets as guests request, concierge should provide alternative choices to


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help guests make a decision easily but anyway, concierges dont push guests

to make decision. Then, concierge repeats all the information again.

Step 3: Purchasing tickets

When guests reach their decisions on tickets, concierge would ask for

passengers name and how guests would like to pay.

Step 4: Collecting E-ticket and giving to guests

After guests paid for their tickets, concierge would print out E-ticket and

give to guests.


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Recommending Restaurants,

Shopping Places and Tourist Sight

You might have this question in your mind that Do the concierges have

to go to every shopping places and have to taste every menus of every

restaurants that they recommended to the guests?

The answer is Yes, they do. The chief concierge or the assistant chief

concierge like khun Adisorn who has been working as a concierge for 26 years

will spend their holiday bringing their family to those tourist attractions,

restaurants and shopping places both inside and outside Bangkok and they will

taking photos, collecting brochures and collecting all of the information about

those places that they experience by themselves. Then they will come back to

the hotel to make a book which contains all of the useful information for

recommending restaurants, shopping places and tourist sights for the guests

that they call The Concierge Bible

The chief concierge and the assistance chief concierge will tell the

stories of those places to the other concierges in the hotel and in The Golden

Keys Association of Thailand, so, the other concierges will have the information

to inform the guests and they also can show the photos in the concierge bible

to the guests.


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Responding to Special Requests

There are many special requests that concierges might be asked for.

Khun Adisorn mentioned few impressive cases as a concierge helping guests

achieve their request.

One day, when Khun Adisorn is on duty, there was a guest coming to ask

him for a help to find her lost mother. She gave him her fathers name and other

information. She told that her mother was likely to be somewhere in Phuket,

Thailand. Khun Adisorn listened to her attentively and was willing to help. He

started by searching the name on yellow pages which contains thousands ofnames. He kept looking till there were only 20 possible names. He started

calling one by one. The following day, there were only 5 names left. Fortunately,

one of them was the one he had been looking for. Khun Adisorn almost gave up


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on helping this guest and was about to tell her that he did his best but it didnt

work. He called to that number and asked if she knew the name (Guests

Fathers name), if she had a daughter, what her name was, where she was

then. After talking to the lady, he was very sure that shes the mother of the

guest then he asked if she would like to see her daughter. She replied that she

would love to but she had health problems. He asked for her address in order

to direct the guest to see her mother. Eventually, he informed the guest and

arranged plane tickets as she requested then using his connection who is a

concierge at the hotel in Phuket to take care of his guest. The guest finally met

her lost mother. After she had checked out, she wrote 4 pages of thank you

letter to Khun Adisorn stating that she was very impressed and really

appreciated everything he had done to help her. That is one of the best

impressive case of Khun Adisorn as a concierge.

Another special request is that guests ask for illegal stuffs such as drugs,

cocaine, heroin. Concierge is prohibited to provide illegal things. The way to

deal with this problem is informing guests straightforwardly that it could not be

provided due to the law.

Khun Adisorn added on special request case. He was requested to

provide a prostitute. Similar to illegal stuffs, he had to say no to the guest due to

hotel policy and law but he could provide a number of someone who technically

can lead the guest to what he wanted. Thats all concierge could do.


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Handling Problems and Complaints

They are many chances for concierge to meet with guests who are not

happy with the hotel services. Concierges have to handle all problems and

complaints that they might have face when theyre working. There are not exact

steps for each problems and complaints. It depends on situation at that time so

concierges should make formal steps to apply for any situations.

Step 1 : Making a sincere apology

No matter concierges are right or wrong, they have to make a sincere

apology to guests first.

Step 2 : Trying to calm guests down


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After making apology, concierges would calm guests down and try to

listen to guests and try to understand situations and what just had happened.

Step 3 : Taking responsible for the mistakes that happen

Generally, if mistakes were made by hotel officers, concierges would take

responsible by compensating for guests depending on different cases, could

be a spa voucher, free dinner at hotels restaurant. Concierges have to

consider on what to compensate or what to give guests as a complimentary. It

must be something equal to the lost of guests. Concierges should try to please

guests as much as possible and go beyond their expectations. In case that

concierges are in low position that couldnt make a decision on compensation,

they have to report directly to the chief concierge or assistant chief concierges.

Step 4 : Sending the apology note to guests room

Concierges should show how sorry for what happened again by sending

the apology note to guests room.

Step 5 : Making a record

Lastly, concierges would make a record in order to make sure that this

problem is not going to happen again when guests stay in the hotel next time.Moreover, hotel officers might give something special for guests such as a

bouquet of flower to make guests happy and to reassure guests that they wont

be disappointed staying in this hotel.

Unit IVConcierge Paper1

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