“Social media has really changed the way hotel networks operate,” says Philipp Voigt, running concierge at The Ritz-Carlton in Vienna, Austria.
“Even on my free day I am walking and checking out new things. Vienna is like a village and I know the drivers of the horse-drawn carriages, and the restaurateurs,” he said. Yes, a lot of his time is spent eating — he says that is why he started running, working up to marathons. At least once a week he is out running with hotel guests: A circuit of Vienna’s famous Ring is three miles, but he has some clients who want to go farther.
“Sometimes I run with guests who do not want to talk, but others are curious about this city’s characteristic architecture, and an increasing number are interested in the Viennese way of life, how we live and our coffee shops. Many later share photos on Instagram, and I maintain an ongoing conversation with at least 30 of my new running friends,” he revealed. Marriott President and CEO Arne Sorenson is among those who have taken a Voigt run.
As @con.phil, he also keeps up to date with other concierges, especially colleagues at The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia, and in Europe, Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany, and The Regent Berlin, where he is from and where he actually first started work.
Now 27, Voigt aspired as a young teenager to be a banker. He arrived at The Ritz-Carlton Vienna for its 2012 opening, as a front desk agent. After offering to take a guest on a walking tour of the city, the head concierge invited him to be part of his team. “I think it is an advantage not to have been born here as I am more curious – my two colleagues, both Viennese, tend to take the beauty of the city for granted.”
New ideas come from the concierge team rather than travel advisers or individual guests. Regular talks with his colleagues, plus his GM, Christian Zandonella, have inspired wine tours, not only of Austria’s Burgenland wineries but of those producing the hotel’s house wines.
As well as tickets to Vienna’s Opera House – 99.3% booked, every performance – and its Spanish Riding School, Voigt accesses behind-the-scenes looks at important venues. Gaining Clefs d’Or in 2013 means more open doors, but he still has to ferret out information: “I follow TripAdvisor but I have to be there first, say knowing a restaurant before someone writes about it”, he said.
In the past concierges wrote everything by hand, in big books, but no more. Voigt and his colleagues rely on GoConcierge, used by Marriott International and nearly every other major hotel brand. “This saves so much time. It gives us what we need, and when someone sends requests ahead of a visit we can quickly answer with ideas.”
He gets about 40 emails a day, before guest arrivals. Recently a travel adviser commented that his client had the Louvre opened out of hours when in Paris. What could Vienna offer? Voigt got Schönbrunn Palace opened privately. The guest also wanted dinner in a cabin on Vienna’s “Riesenrad” Ferris wheel afterward. “All cabins were booked that night but a key person put on an extra cabin, specially,” Voigt said with a smile. His clients know how to thank him – he admits that the hotel looks after him well, and additional gratuities are still given in the old-fashioned way, with cash. What would make his life easier? “I just want more people to realize the importance of the concierge world.”