10 Strangest Concierge Requests by Gold Coast Visitors in 2012
There's more to a hotel concierge's job in a busy tourist destination spot like Australia's Gold Coast than just booking car rentals or serving as a go-between for guests and the accommodation.
What makes their jobs more challenging are strange requests made by hotel guests, ranging from the absurd to very difficult. As the area's tourism sector gears for another busy year in 2013, Gold Coast Tourism released on Thursday the top 10 strange requests made by hotel guests.
1. Buy for a Middle Eastern royal family alpacas, a domesticated species of a South American camelid bred for their fiber. The animal, as seen from this video, resembles a llama.
2. Organise a trip for a foreigner to visit Sydney, Melbourne, Alice Springs and the Great Barrier Reef in just one day. A check with the map would show that the request is almost impossible to fulfill unless the tourist is willing to charter a private jet.
3. Charter a private jet for the Argentinian polo team for a trip from Gold Coast to Malaysia with just six hours of notice only.
4. Book rooms on different floors for the wife and girlfriend of a guest.
5. Two hotel staff for serve as bridesmaid and best men of an elderly couple guests who renewed their wedding vows at the hotel chapel.
6. Organise a dinner for two at the Table Mountain, a Gold Coast hinterland hotspot, wherein the couple who arrived by helicopter had to be attended by a personal chef, waiter and Spanish guitarist.
7. Sell a luxury sports vehicle of a hotel guests because of his unexpected departure from Australia.
8. Have some hotel staff wear T-shirts with the words MARRY ME as a male guests proposes marriage to his girlfriend while a musician plays Somewhere over the Rainbow on the ukulele.
9. Exclusive use of hotel gym by celebrity guests
10. Exclusive use of executive lounge for a wedding proposal
Despite these strange requests, Palazzo Versace General Manager Russell Durnell said if it could be done, the hotel would go out of the way to meet the guest's request.
"In our industry, you get used to these requests, so they no longer appear so strange," Mr Durnell said.
Outside the top 10, other requests include unpacking of suitcases and hanging clothes, running a warm bubble bath, arranging flowers, rose petals and candles, cooking dinner inside the room, arranging high-protein food and buying birthday cakes.
"As long as it's reasonable, within our power and ability, and will keep the guests safe and happy, then we're always willing to give it a go," added Hilton Surfers Paradise Marketing and Communications Manager Chelsea Steber.
Keeping guests happy, even by complying with their strange requests, is one of the reasons why most of hotels in Gold Coast reached 100 per cent occupancy during the yearend holidays with interstate and foreign visitors.