- How many years have you been working
in this hotel as a concierge? What pushed
you to choose this profession? Tell us how
everything began.
y experience with the hotel business
began in 2012. I flew to the Czech Republic
for a month to practice. There is a specialized
school that is located in the city of Mariánské
Lázně (Marianbad), and is called “Khostelova
Shcola”. After 2 years, in 2014, I returned and
began to practice at the Hotel Goethe. It was a
4-star hotel, which was positioned as a resort-
sanatorium hotel. There I worked as a waiter, a
sommelier, in short, I did my internship.
Then, in 2015, when I was a 4th-year student, I
had to apply somewhere for an internship. Then
I decided to walk around the center of Moscow
and to take a closer look at the hotels.
Walking along the Arbat, I saw the Marriott New
Arbat Hotel on my right, which at that time was
just opening. I decided to try my luck, and got a
job in the reception, worked there for a month,
then I was offered to become a bell-man. From
that very moment I began to dive deep into this
field since I had concierge-supervisors who told
a lot about his profession. I was very interested
in that, and after a while, I became the “guest
relations” manager. After this, a new vacancy was
opened, and I was invited to work as a concierge.
I worked in this hotel for a year, then moved here
and for already 2 years I have been working as a
chef concierge. When I was appointed as a chief
concierge, at that period, and now too, I am the
youngest chief concierge in Moscow, and also
the youngest chief concierge with the Golden
Keys in Moscow.
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- What qualities are required for this position,
and is needed to have the golden keys?
ell, first of all, you should understand
what the “International Association of
Professional Concierges” is. It was founded in
1952 by the chief concierge Ferdinand Gillet
from the hotel Intercontinental in Cannes. By
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the way, this year the regular meeting of the
concierges from around the world was held
there.
First, you need to prove yourself as a good
concierge. The concierges in the city must
know you, you must constantly go to meetings
(they are often held in here) and be the best
version of yourself.
Secondly, you must work as a concierge in a
5-star hotel for 3 years, and a total of 4 years
in the hotel business. You must pass an exam,
an essay, and an interview, write a project,
defend this project at the annual meeting,
and after that, you can get the golden key.
Getting the golden key is very difficult. You
need to bring out the best in yourself and be a
very good concierge. But the most important
thing is to be a good person. Because if you
are a good person, you are better at helping
guests, and you will be flawless in this service.
-
Tell us about the Armenian Concierge
Society you founded. What are the goals of
the Society?
et’s start with why I decided to open an
association of concierges in Armenia. I was
surprised that during our meetings I had met
concierges from Belarus, Ukraine, Russia,
Kazakhstan, Georgia for several years, but I
had never seen concierges from Armenia. I
had a question - are there any concierges in
Armenia? I flew to Armenia, went to all 5-star
hotels, even visited many 4-star hotels, and
decided that I need to make this my project
to develop the country, do something good
for it, and secondly, to find concierges, bring
them together, so that Armenia could also
be presented at international concierge
meetings, at the international level to help
the country be recognized in the concierge
sphere.
I gave several lectures with concierges at
the Alexander Hotel, then at Best Western.
We exchanged contacts. We reached an
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