The hotel concierge profession has its moments of exciting and rewarding glamour. But don’t become a concierge just because of them! There are many and varied challenges, and to overcome them, aspiring concierges must have certain qualities. Here are a few.
1. To be a hotel concierge, you must demonstrate resourcefulness
In the concierge’s business, being resourceful is essential. “We mostly do repetitive tasks. On the other hand, it’s always a different person making the request. So it’s necessary to demonstrate resourcefulness to best respond to the needs of each guest,” says Virginia Casale, professor at the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ), chief concierge and honorary member of the Clefs d’Or Canada.
2. Show your good mood
Like any work involving relations with the public, a good mood is an essential quality for a concierge. “The concierge must wear his smile as well as his uniform. When a guest comes to see us, it’s because something is lacking. Demonstrating a sense of humour can therefore be very useful,” Mrs. Casale suggests.
3. Demonstrating vigilance
The hotel concierge is not content with meeting the demands of hotel guests, he is also responsible to look after his workplace. Without playing the role of a maintenance employee, he must keep an eye open to keep his environment impeccable, for example by picking up an object lying around or not in its place. “It’s necessary to take ownership of our environment and walk not only with our feet but also with our eyes,” explains the professor.
4. Be outgoing
Since the hotel concierge is called on to advise guests, he must be communicative and outgoing. In the same spirit, mastery of a second language is often a prerequisite. And if the aspiring concierge speaks more than two, it’s even better!
5. Having a sense of service
Finally, a concierge must, of course, have the sense of service and the desire to help his guests. As Mrs. Casale explains, even if we have all the information at our fingertips thanks to our smartphone, “humans still need humans to help validate their choices.”
So it’s not a coincidence if more and more fields, such as insurance or health, are seeing concierges appear. While the labour market tends to give a greater place to technology and automation, it seems that quality service rendered by a human always ranks highly!