Using Web-based GoConcierge, The Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel & Spa Adds Efficiencies to Concierge Operations, Improves Guest Satisfaction
LOS ANGELES, CA | More than two years after its installation, GoConcierg e continues to add efficiencies to concierge operations at The Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel & Spa. The Web-based solution, which is produced by Los Angeles-based GoConcierge.net, also makes it easier for the hotel’s concierge team to provide superior service to guests.
“Working with the team at the Ritz-Carlton has been terrific, especially knowing that GoConcierge has benefited their daily operation,” says Adam Isrow, executive vice president of Los Angeles-based GoConcierge.net, maker of the system. “GoConcierge has enabled them to be more efficient and ultimately spend more time and attention on their guests.”
“It is definitely a system that is here to stay,” says Marius von Tangen-Jordan, assistant room executive at the Pasadena, Calif.-based hotel.
Before implementing GoConcierge, concierges at the lobby and club concierge desk used log books to track guest reservations.
Instead of a paper-based system, concierges at the property now use GoConcierge’s online Guest Task Calendar to organize guest tasks. The Guest Task Calendar includes a color-coded task list that highlights open, pending and closed tasks. The system does not allow any task to fall through the cracks.
“We also use the Guest Task Calendar to communicate internally,” von Tangen-Jordan says. “When we have a departmental meeting, we post notes from that meeting in GoConcierge. Because it is a Web-based system, I also can log on from home and leave a message for my staff to read.”
Prior to GoConcierge’s implementation, the concierge team shuffled through business cards or phone books when a guest needed information about an area attraction, service or restaurant. GoConcierge’s customized location database eliminated that time-intensive process, however, and now it just takes a few key strokes or the touch of a hot button on the GoConcierge screen to access the information. Locations can be searched by category, subcategory, keyword and address.
“It is very efficient, cost-effective and also allows us to customize short cuts to important websites,” von Tangen-Jordan says. “For, example we have links on our screen to UPS and FEDEX so that guest packages can be tracked easily.”
The concierge team at The Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel & Spa also uses GoConcierge to generate personalized confirmation letters, itineraries, driving directions and maps. Each includes the hotel’s logo and can be printed or e-mailed out of GoConcierge.
“I love the guest itinerary feature,” says Patricia Garcia, a concierge at the property. “Anything and everything related to a guest can be put in chronological order easily. GoConcierge also enables us to customize and print directions for guests who have just one destination or many. Guests are impressed by how quickly those can be generated.”
Reports generated out of GoConcierge help von Tangen-Jordan know what restaurants or other businesses guests are sent to most often. Prior to GoConcierge, that kind of information was difficult to track.
“That kind of information can be used as a negotiating tool with vendors,” von Tangen-Jordan says. “It also helps us focus on sending guests to our own restaurants.”
Because GoConcierge has effectively transformed how work takes place at the hotel’s two concierge stations, administrative, sales and catering, and conference service personnel also have been given access to it.
“It cuts down on the number of internal calls going to the concierge desks because they can access guest history information on their own,” von Tangen-Jordan says. “That is important because our concierges can then spend more time focusing on our guests’ needs.”
In addition to the features included within GoConcierge, von Tangen-Jordan says he also has been impressed by the customer support provided by GoConcierge.net.
“One morning when I was about to open a concierge desk, I had an important question about the system,” von Tangen-Jordan says. “It was 7:10 a.m. I called GoConcierge.net’s customer support number and had a call back within four minutes. That is just one example of the excellent service provided by GoConcierge.net.”
“The GoConcierge team, service wise, is there in a heartbeat if you need them,” Garcia adds.
The Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel & Spa’s von Tangen-Jordan says he highly recommends GoConcierge.net to hotels that are still using paper-based systems.
“We have had the system for more than two years now,” he says. “It has proven to be very effective for us and easy to use.”
“We are very encouraged to know that The Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel & Spa has embraced GoConcierge so strongly,” Isrow says. “We also are proud to be working with such a well-respected hotel that is consistently committed to providing its guests with incredible service.”
GoConcierge has been adopted by hotels and resorts throughout America and Mexico, some of which include The Peninsula Beverly Hills, the Waldorf Astoria (New York), Bacara Resort (Santa Barbara, Calif.), Boca Raton Resort (Boca Raton, Fla.), Hilton Sacramento (Calif.), Hilton San Francisco, Hilton Los Cabos (Mexico), Omni San Francisco, Hyatt Regency Huntington Hotel & Spa (Calif.), the Hotel Monaco (San Francisco), The Ritz-Carlton (Dearborn, Mich.), Le Merigot JW Marriott Beach Hotel (Santa Monica, Calif.), Westin St. Francis (San Francisco), Doubletree Sonoma (Calif.), Hilton Short Hills (N.J.) and W hotels.
For more information about GoConcierge.net, go to or call (310) 966-2371.
Contacts:
Adam Isrow, Executive Vice PresidentGoConcierge.net
(310) 966-2371
E-mail: [email protected]
Marius von Tangen-Jordan
The Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel & Spa
(626) 568-3900
E-mail: [email protected]
Glenn Hasek, President
Hasek Communications
(440) 243-2055; cell: (216) 702-0334
E-mail: [email protected]
