We have some lovely news to share. Stephanie has been promoted to Head of Concierge.
Stephanie will have been with us for five years next March and, during that time, not only has her role grown enormously, but this whole side of our service has grown with her.
When Stephanie first joined us, her role was much more about administration and looking after the practicalities of a booking. Over the years, she has helped us develop that into something far more comprehensive: a genuine concierge service that looks after our clients from the moment their holiday is booked until they return home.
And that is exactly why Head of Concierge feels like the right title.
Booking your holiday is only the beginning
There are really two sides to what we do.
Gilly, and now Millie, use their travel experience and knowledge to help you find the right holiday for you, based on what you want, what matters to you and what you want to spend.
Then you book.
For many holiday companies, that’s where the service largely ends. You receive your confirmation, perhaps an app or an online login, and everything that needs to happen between booking and actually going on holiday is largely down to you.
Booking with us couldn’t be more different.
That’s where Stephanie comes in.
There can be an extraordinary number of things to think about once a holiday is booked. Not every holiday needs all of them, of course, but the chances are that Stephanie is checking, arranging or helping you with most of the ones that apply to yours.
Making sure you can actually travel
Firstly, there are the practicalities.
Is your passport valid for where you’re going? Do you need a visa, ESTA, ETA or other entry authorisation? Are there different requirements for somewhere you’re transiting through?
Travel documentation is always ultimately the client’s responsibility, but we don’t expect you to simply go online and work it all out for yourself.
Stephanie will tell you specifically what you need for your particular journey and help you through the process wherever she can. We’ve had clients sitting in the office with us while we help them work through their ESTA applications because sometimes having someone beside you who understands what you’re trying to do makes all the difference.
She’ll also help make sure you have appropriate travel insurance in place and point you towards the things you need to consider for your particular trip.
Taking care of the journey around the holiday
Then there are all those things that can make getting away easier.
Stephanie can arrange airport parking, airport hotels, airport lounge passes and Airport Security Express passes. She can help with airline seats, additional luggage and special meals, and arrange airport assistance or notify the airline about mobility requirements.
And whenever the airline allows us to, we’ll check you in and send your boarding passes directly to you.
They’re all relatively small things individually, but put them together and they can make the difference between spending the days before your holiday worrying about what you’ve forgotten and simply being excited about going away.
Making your holiday work for you
Stephanie’s role isn’t just about getting you there. It’s also about making sure the people looking after you when you arrive know what’s important to you.
Perhaps you want a quiet room, somewhere away from the lifts or evening entertainment, a particular floor or rooms close together. Maybe walking long distances is difficult and you need to be close to the hotel’s main facilities, or you require an accessible room or a walk-in shower.
Stephanie will liaise with hotels and suppliers to explain your preferences and requirements and do everything possible to have the right arrangements in place before you arrive.
If you have dietary requirements or allergies, she’ll make sure these are communicated. If you need mobility assistance, she’ll help organise it.
And sometimes it isn’t about what you need. It’s about making the holiday a little more special.
If you’re celebrating an anniversary, birthday or honeymoon, Stephanie can liaise with the hotel about champagne, flowers, cakes or other treats in your room. She can help with restaurant reservations, special dinners, spa appointments, excursions, private transfers, tours and experiences you’d like organised before you travel.
Not every request can be guaranteed, but we’ll always ask.
Putting more complicated holidays in your pocket
One area of our service that has become increasingly important is our personalised travel app.
Not every holiday needs one. If you’ve got one flight and you’re staying in one hotel for a week, you’re probably absolutely fine without it.
But if you’re taking a tour, a cruise or a multi-stop holiday, it’s a game changer.
Stephanie prepares the app for you, bringing your itinerary and important paperwork together in one place. Flights, hotels, transfers, tours, cruise arrangements, vouchers and confirmations can all be organised in the order you’ll need them.
Rather than searching through old emails trying to remember which attachment contains your transfer voucher or what time you’re being collected tomorrow morning, you have your trip on your phone and can see what happens next.
And then there’s cruising…
Cruises can come with a whole extra list of things to organise after you’ve booked.
Stephanie helps our cruise clients navigate cruise personalisers, online check-in, dining reservations, excursions, drinks packages, Wi-Fi, gratuities, special requests and assistance, as well as making sure they understand the embarkation arrangements and what needs doing before they sail.
Again, the point isn’t that every client needs every one of these things.
It’s that Stephanie knows what applies to your holiday and makes sure you know about it, helps you with it or takes care of it where she can.
Why Head of Concierge?
Because this part of our business has changed enormously over the last few years, and Stephanie has been instrumental in making that happen.
What began as looking after the administration around our bookings has developed into a much broader service focused on making the whole experience of travelling easier.
It’s remembering that you asked for a quiet room. Making sure the hotel knows it’s your anniversary. Helping you with your ESTA because you’re not confident doing it alone. Arranging your airport lounge. Checking you in when we can. Making sure your dietary requirements have been communicated. Putting a complicated itinerary into an app so everything is at your fingertips. And being at the end of the phone if something goes wrong.
It’s all the things that happen after you’ve booked that you may not even think about when you’re initially choosing your holiday.
And much of that service has developed under Stephanie.
So, as our team grows, with Millie joining Gilly on the travel planning side of the business, it felt like exactly the right time to recognise the role Stephanie has grown into too.
Her promotion to Head of Concierge isn’t the beginning of a new role. It’s recognition of the role she is already doing, the service she has helped us develop and the contribution she makes every day to the way we look after our clients.
And, as we prepare to become Your Holiday Concierge, there really couldn’t be a more appropriate time to make it official.
Congratulations, Stephanie. A very well-deserved promotion.
