00:00Bringing your own pillows would be a good idea.
00:02Always call the hotel so that they don't walk you to another property.
00:04If it looks too good to be true, probably is.
00:09One big thing that we're seeing in our industry are scams.
00:14You don't want to get scammed.
00:15I would say be careful of who you're booking activities through.
00:17Book through your concierge.
00:18Again, the concierge, no trusted sources.
00:20There's so much information available to people online,
00:24and you just don't really know who to trust and who to believe.
00:27But you can trust the concierge.
00:30We've been seeing a trend where these incredibly low rates are popping up.
00:36We've had people book from them, come to us.
00:39There is no reservation.
00:41If you made a reservation and it's not in our system within five minutes,
00:45then something's going on.
00:46I had a poor customer who I just told,
00:49hey, call your bank because this doesn't exist.
00:52Really research where you're making your reservation.
00:57I wouldn't book through a third party,
00:58especially one that you're not familiar with, even if it sounds alluring.
01:01This was a lovely family from Europe who unfortunately got duped.
01:06None of the tickets they thought they had booked were real.
01:08This was their big trip to see the Big Apple.
01:10As I started leafing through it, I was like, none of this is real.
01:14The places they were going to go to were real.
01:16Statue of Liberty is real, but they didn't actually have the tickets.
01:18For peace of mind, book directly at the hotel.
01:21Go to their offers page if you're really looking for a deal.
01:24We can try to see what can best fit your needs.
01:29My travel hack is do your research.
01:31If you're thinking of booking a package,
01:33look at what everything costs separately
01:35to see if that actually makes sense with the math.
01:37It's not always an economical thing.
01:40Sometimes it is just cheaper to book things separately.
01:42Just ask yourself, what are you actually going to be using?
01:44Be part of the loyalty program, as well as engaging with the staff and the team.
01:50Communicate with the hotel before you arrive.
01:53Even if that's just simply saying,
01:54I can't wait to come and enjoy my birthday celebration,
01:57that one sentence could possibly get you some really great welcome amenities,
02:01maybe a room upgrade, and at least just a little bit of special attention.
02:05So always communicate, fill out those pre-arrival surveys,
02:08and answer those pre-arrival emails as well.
02:10I think people forget to ask about the hotel restaurants.
02:14Many hotels have lovely in-house restaurants.
02:17Ask what the specialty cocktails are.
02:20We are usually excited to offer one to you, complimentary, just so you can try it.
02:25Bringing your own pillows would be a good idea.
02:27I wouldn't recommend it for everyone because who wants to lug a pillow around,
02:30but a lot of hotels do have sad pillows.
02:32That's what we call them in the industry,
02:33when they're like lumpy and they're falling in and they give no support for your neck.
02:36The one thing that I do bring myself is my face wash.
02:39Other than that, I think part of the fun of traveling
02:41is getting to experience a signature scents and a signature line of products
02:45that some of these luxury hotels have because they are quite nice.
02:47I travel with my own body soap.
02:49The hotel stuff typically breaks me out.
02:51I have sensitive skin.
02:52It has a nice label on the outside,
02:53but nine times out of ten, what you're seeing is not really what you're getting.
02:57I would prefer people to book boutique.
02:59You have a better experience.
03:01There's more character to the buildings.
03:03Although we don't have all the top amenities for the chains,
03:07you're going to have more connections to make a more personal experience at a boutique.
03:14Just tip and be nice.
03:15A little bit of kindness literally goes a long way.
03:18If there's any type of thing that you can think of that you will need prior to your arrival,
03:23please call us.
03:24Do not wait until you get to the desk to check in because now you're frustrated.
03:27Just talk to us.
03:28We don't bite.
03:31Trying to get a hotel booking when the hotel is sold out.
03:34Here's the thing.
03:35Generally, if you call and they really can't take your reservation,
03:38they're probably sold out.
03:40But I always say, ask to see if maybe you could be put on a cancellation list,
03:44like a wait list, because people do cancel,
03:47especially if you know that there's maybe a three-day cancellation period.
03:50You can play into that to hopefully end up getting a hotel booking.
03:53People don't always believe me if I say we're fully booked.
03:56They tend to think that we do have just a handful of secret rooms that we can
04:00give to you if you yell at us or are really nice to us.
04:05It all comes down to occupancy, right?
04:06Rooms are basically inventory.
04:08So what they'll do is they'll probably overbook by 3% to 5%.
04:13And now every property is a little bit different as far as their cancellation or change rates.
04:18So that's obviously determined ahead of time.
04:20So they'll kind of play within this window.
04:23Most of the time people end up canceling and so it ends up being a wash and you're totally perfect
04:27at 100%.
04:28But on the rare circumstances that everybody ends up showing up and you've got more people
04:33than you have heads in beds, so to speak, what they'll do is they will end up walking people
04:38to a similar type of property not too far away.
04:41So the trick that you don't get walked is you want to make sure that if you are going to
04:45have
04:45a late check-in, call the hotel and let them know that you are absolutely coming.
04:49And when I talk about late check-in, pretty much a late check-in is anything maybe after
04:536 p.m.
04:54Reservations that are more likely to get walked are those that are maybe one night or two nights.
04:59So if you're staying for a week, they're not as likely to walk you because obviously
05:02that completely changes your stay.
05:05So always call the hotel to let them know so that they don't walk you to another property.
05:11I think a front desk associate is going to be really your first and last impression to
05:17the hotel.
05:17They are more, I would say, logistic-minded.
05:21They are the ones that get you your amenities in the room.
05:24If you want an iron or if you need a steamer, they'll send that to your room.
05:28They're the ones you speak to about room upgrades or any opportunities that you might have had
05:32during your stay that weren't up to your standard.
05:34The concierge team is the one that a guest contacts is recommended to, and they're the
05:39ones who actually make the calls and make this dream a reality.
05:42And they curate these highly tailored experiences that you as a guest can take back with you and
05:48also think about us in the future.
05:49Their key role is to create lifelong memories.
05:52It is a certain personality.
05:53It is in our DNA to want, to please.
05:56To get anything done, it really takes two of one of these three things.
06:00So it either takes having budget, so money, or is time, so how far in advance you're asking
06:07for it, and then also connections.
06:09So you have to have two to get a really challenging request done.
06:12So let's say you call six months in advance and you're trying to get behind the scenes
06:16to some sort of event.
06:18Well, if the concierge has the right contacts and you've given them enough time, they might
06:22even be able to get that access for you for free or very nominal.
06:25Now, if it's something that's last minute and it's really hard to get, hopefully, again,
06:29they have the right contacts and it might end up costing a little bit more.
06:32But so long as you understand that it takes two of these three things to get something
06:36done, I think that puts all big requests into a different perspective.
06:39We have a procedure.
06:40After the guest leaves, we send our team to do a sweep to make sure that the guest has not
06:45left any belongings so that it can go to a lost and found and we can communicate with
06:49the guest.
06:49We had a guest who was staying with us for perhaps the first time, who'd gone through
06:53a lot in their family.
06:54We didn't know this, but we knew it later, who in their safe deposit lockers forgot some
06:59very key valuables.
07:01And valuables is not jewelry, but it's about some photographs of their kids and so on and
07:05so forth.
07:05Them growing up, there was an album.
07:07And they checked out and they were flying overseas.
07:10This guest was taking an international flight and they'd left four hours prior to departure.
07:14We knew that this had a very sentimental value.
07:17So we called this guest and we asked them where they're going to be at the airport.
07:21We had one of a doorman, went to JFK.
07:23By the time the guest was at the airport, he went up to the lounge and he gave that album
07:28to this guest.
07:29And this guest was not just shocked, but he shed a few tears and he's become a loyalist
07:34to us.
07:35The only reason he comes back is because we treated him with integrity and very importantly,
07:40we knew what is so important to him.
07:42I once had to get an elf for a family.
07:44It was the Saturday just before Christmas.
07:47We had arranged a very special dinner for a guest in a very VIP igloo on a rooftop of
07:54a famous landmark.
07:55They had the full Dom Perignon champagne with snowflakes in the igloo.
08:01And at four o'clock in the afternoon, he came to me and said, what I really would like to
08:07do is to create a surprise for my family in the igloo this evening.
08:11I would like to have an elf simply arrive.
08:14I started to make a lot of phone calls.
08:17And of course, every higher Santa, Mrs. Santa elf said, oh, we have 20 elves, but everybody's
08:23occupied.
08:24It's not possible.
08:25And then finally, I connected with Elf Joey, who was in Long Island.
08:29And he said, yes, I'm free and I'll do it.
08:33And I hired Elf Joey, who then was stuck in traffic due to an accident on the Long Island
08:39expressway.
08:40But eventually, he arrived at the igloo and surprised the family.
08:44And the next day, they came to me and said, oh, my goodness, we never thought that it would
08:49be possible.
08:49But it was absolutely magical.
08:51I tell people that New York is not a city, but a world.
08:56It is a world of a destination that is pieces of the globe that are put together as a puzzle.
09:04So one can come here and experience the whole entire world in one place.
09:09And that is the beauty of New York City.
09:12And that is my favorite thing about New York City.
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