The concierge
One person, and every detail.
A concierge is not a booking service. The difference lies in who holds the whole: the order of things, the people involved, and the moment at which each of them must be told. That is the work described here.
The role
Why one person, rather than a department.
Travel of any complexity is a chain of small dependencies. The car must know the flight, the hotel must know the car, the guide must know that the morning has moved. When those links are held by different people, each may be handled correctly and the whole still fail. When one person holds them, it is the whole that is managed.
Each request is therefore given to one concierge, who stays with it from the first message to the last. You will not be passed between departments or asked to repeat yourself, and you will always know whom you are dealing with. Should a colleague need to stand in, you are told beforehand, and the request passes to them complete, with its history, rather than retold from memory.
Before you travel
The part of the work you see least.
- The brief
- What you tell us, and what we then ask. A few sentences in your own words are worth more to us than a completed form. The rest — the ages of children, a view on early flights, the name that should appear on a booking — is asked for only when it is needed.
- The proposal
- A written document setting out each part of the journey and the company that will provide it. It is specific: the hotel and the category of room, the times of the flights, the type of car and where it will meet you.
- The suppliers
- Every hotel, operator, guide and charter company is licensed where it works, and is named to you before anything is confirmed. We do not own hotels, aircraft, yachts or cars; we choose among those who do, for the journey in front of us.
- Documents and entry
- Entry requirements are checked against each passport in the party and set out with the dates by which anything must be done. Where a visa is needed, we explain what the application involves and when it should be made.
- Every arrival, prepared
- Before each stage begins, the people at the other end are told what they need to know: the hotel your arrival time and how the rooms should be arranged, the chauffeur your flight and the name to look for, the guide the pace of the party. Preferences are sent ahead and confirmed back to us, not left to be mentioned at the desk.
While you travel
One point of contact, from departure to return.
- Reaching us
- By writing to the concierge who holds your request, quoting its reference. A request made at any hour is answered, and a change asked for during a journey takes precedence over anything that can wait.
- Changes
- A change is agreed with you before it is made. Once made, it is confirmed in writing and the itinerary is updated, so the document in your hands is always the current one.
- When plans go awry
- Flights are delayed and roads are closed. When something does not go as planned, you are told promptly, with what has already been done about it and what remains for you to decide. The aim is that you hear of a difficulty from us, with its remedy in hand, rather than from the person at the desk.
- Those travelling with you
- Staff, guests who join for part of the journey, and children with a programme of their own are arranged with the same care, and each may have a copy of the parts of the itinerary that concern them.
After you return
Closing the file properly.
When a journey ends, anything left open is closed — a deposit to be returned, a receipt to be sent, a supplier to be settled — and you are told when that has been done.
What you would like remembered for next time, such as a preferred room, a dislike of early departures or a guide who suited the party, is kept with your agreement. What you would rather we did not keep is not kept. How long anything is held, and how to ask for it to be removed, is set out on the page on discretion and in the privacy policy.
Dining and private access
Tables, rooms and doors that are not simply booked.
Much of what a journey is remembered for cannot be reserved online: a table on an evening the restaurant is full, a private room for a family dinner, a guide who knows a city’s collections as a curator knows them, a house or a gallery seen after the public has gone.
Where these can be arranged properly — with the restaurant, through the institution, or with a licensed guide — we arrange them, and tell you in advance exactly what has been agreed. Where they cannot, we say so. We do not promise access we are unable to confirm, and we do not use means an institution would not sanction.
What we will not do
Four things, kept without exception.
- Book without approval
- Nothing is booked or charged until you have accepted a proposal in writing, and nothing confirmed is changed without your agreement.
- Promise what cannot be delivered
- If we cannot confirm a table, a seat or a room, we do not suggest that we can.
- Share more than is needed
- A supplier receives only the details it needs to provide its part of the journey, and nothing else.
- Speak about you
- We do not name clients, show them, or describe their journeys, to anyone.
Write to the concierge.
Tell us as much or as little as you wish. Every request is read by a person, and the reply comes from a person, not a system.