Hotel concierges get some strange requests

HOTEL concierges face some pretty outlandish requests from the rich and famous. Here’s their all time favourites.

Hotel concierges do attempt to fulfil most requests. Although some go too far.

IF YOU think money can’t buy you happiness, the rich and famous might convince you otherwise.

When it comes to VIPs, the hotel concierge is there to make wishes and dreams come true … no matter how outrageous.

Here are our favourite outlandish requests from the rich and famous.

Pity the concierge who had to deal with a request to buy a baby.

Joyce Louise of Montage Beverly Hills meets A-list celebrities and Middle Eastern Royal Families without flinching on the outrageous demands and requests. Her favourites include, buying figs and shipping them to Abu Dhabi, installing a stripper pole in the Master Suite, as well as organising lesbian sex toys for another guest.

For the past two and a half years, she’s heard it all, “Where can we go shoot machine guns and blow up cars?”, “I need to buy a white teacup Pomeranian for my son because he keeps crying” and hotel favourite, “Can you organise a concierge suit for my son’s pet parrot?”

Of course, Hollywood would not be La-La-Land if absurd requests didn’t come with some vanity attached. The Chief Concierge of the 5-star luxury hotel remembers requests like, “Where should I go for vaginal rejuvenation?” And “I would like to buy a baby, blonde with blue eyes. Call my cell when you find her.”

Adam Schon, Chief Concierge of Sixty Beverly Hills caters specifically to high-flying executives from Europe and Australia. “There was a guest who had never been to LA before and the woman was a big time fan of Leo DiCaprio, so the husband asked if we could put something in their room when they arrived to welcome them to Hollywood. We got a poster and pictures of Leo and set them up in the room and had Titanic playing on the TV when they arrived. We arranged for them to have dinner at Chateau Marmont since that is a favourite place for Hollywood stars to hang out, and with a great stroke of luck, Leo was there for a private party and they got a glimpse of him as he was leaving the Chateau.”

The Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica, California created a viral sensation when a hotel guest requested pictures of Jurassic Park’s actor Jeff Goldblum in every room to please his soon-to-be-wife. A handsome Goldblum by the phone, a shirtless picture by the nightstand and even one in the loo. They even received a vintage box to take all the images home.

The Huntley Hotel certainly delivered when a guest asked for pictures of Jeff Goldblum in every room. Picture: Seth Freeland / Facebook

Michael McCain of AKA Beverly Hills loves pampering his guests and has been doing it for more than 10 years now. His favourite request which kept him on his feet involved yet another Hollywood Starlet and her dieting dilemmas, “A very wealthy and eccentric daughter and heir to her late oil tycoon father’s fortune had a request I have never had before or since. The request from this very body conscious socialite had for me was to install permanent locks on ALL the cabinets and refrigerator! She was adamant that no matter what, that I personally see to it that she only gets the key at the same scheduled time of every day. Nothing more. Nothing less. And so, this would go on for over 8 months!”

In Germany, special requests come quite easily for concierge André Höftmann, who has been working at the hotel for over 20 years pleasing guests. “Last year we received a request that seemed pretty normal at first glance: the guest wanted a glass of fresh milk in his room every morning during his stay. As we found out, by fresh he meant “fresh from the farm”. First we had to find a farmer to co-operate on such a rather unusual request, one of our colleagues drove to a farm nearby in Brandenburg and collected milk that was milked the very same morning. Back at the hotel we filled it up and brought it to the guest, who was happy to get his daily fresh glass of milk.”

When a guest requests fresh milk, you’d better get down to the farm!

Hugo Legrand, a Montreal-based president of a Concierge Organisation filled a celebrity’s bathtub with jelly beans “I had to contact practically every bulk candy store in the city to have enough jelly beans to fill the tub, and send one of our bell staff all over town to pick them up,” he recalls.

James Little, concierge at the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel recalls one time filling a limousine for a guest with white rabbits (live and stuffed) and five cases of Red Bull. Another time, he found 26 society finches, with accompanying cages, in less than an hour and placed them in a guest’s room that was emptied of everything but a couch.

The Mandarin Oriental in San Francisco claims to have changed shower heads and pipes making sure only distilled and freshly filtered water flowed out of the faucet for their VIP guest to bath in. The same guest also requested berries of the same size and diameter to be served at breakfast, but only if a specific New Jersey farm’s yoghurt made it to her table. It happened.