I
came to the hotel industry
in distant 1997 and got a job
in the Baltschug Kempinski
Hotel in Moscow. At that time
there were only 2 or 3 five-
star hotels in Moscow. I got
settled for lowest position,
as a doorman, so, I began
to explore the entire hotel
business from the bottom. I
found out where, what and
how it works. Later I worked
as a messenger, a luggage
carrier, and as a result, they
noticed some good qualities
in me and transferred to the
position of a night concierge,
where I received a very valu-
able experience.
After that, I went to work
as a concierge at the
Sheraton Hotel. I created
from scratch concierge ser-
vices in Barvikha Hotel & Spa
hotels, in the Radisson Royal,
now called the Radisson
Collection Hotel Ukraine,
opened the Intercontinental,
after which I promised myself
to no longer participate in
the openings of hotels. Even
though it is a very interesting
experience, I am already very
tired of that.
Finally, I was invited to the
wonderful Metropol hotel as
a chief concierge, which I am
very, very grateful for.
And in conclusion, I can say
that many of my friends look
surprised when they ask why,
having such experience, I still
work as a concierge. I can
already work as a general
20 • HOTELIER • wwww.hoteliermagazine.net •
manager of small hotels and
then move to big hotels.
To these types of questions,
I always reply that everyone
should do his own work,
what he likes, and this is our
problem, that there is a lack
of professionals in their field.
That is, people, and most-
ly young people, that have
worked in several depart-
ments for a short period of
time, want to become man-
agers, which, in my opinion,
is not quite right. That’s just
like how I do my job, and do
it, most likely well, because
people appreciate me and
my job.
What
conclusion
have you come to through-
out the time of your career?
What are the pros and cons
of working as a concierge?
What qualities should a
person have in order to
become a truly good con-
cierge?
here are a lot of advan-
tages in the work of the
concierge: first of all, when
you go to work, you don’t
know what kind of requests
the quests will approach you.
Of course, there is a certain
routine in our work as well,
but it is not so monotonous
as, for example, in the office.
Here, there are often situa-
tions when you enter into a
kind of “competition” with
yourself, whether you man-
age to do everything right for
T
the guest or not. And when,
in the end, it works out, you
feel incomparable satisfac-
tion. And probably one of the
perks is the uniqueness and
difference of the same situa-
tions to each other. And as a
bonus, every day you learn a
lot of new things.
The cons are the flip side of
the coin. This is the irreg-
ular working day, it is the
multifunctionality, the lack
of time management capa-
bilities. It may happen that
in a short time you may
have to do 10 urgent, pre-
viously unplanned things,
and you will have to answer
the phone calls, write letters,
and at the same time deal
with various requests of the
guests. It is a very hard job,
but when, in the end, you
finish everything, exhale and
think that you managed to
do everything.
Despite the fact that guests
are very different, we love
them all, they are all good
for us. But sometimes it
may happen that a guest
is upset about something,
and all that bad mood trans-
lates onto the concierge. But
what can you do, you have to
handle it as well. We perceive
such situations normally and
try to make the guest happy
and satisfied.
What would you
advise a beginner if he
wants to follow in your foot-