You Want WHAT??? Concierge Tales from the Men and Women who Make Las Vegas Dreams Come True
When people ask me what I do for a living and I tell them I'm a concierge, they are immediately intrigued. "Oh, I bet you have some fun stuff going on?!" they exclaim. They become even more intrigued when I tell them the place where I ply my trade - Las Vegas.Thanks to everything from the 'What happens in Vegas' advertising campaign to movies like The Hangover, people have an unending fascination with life on The Strip. They want to know the weirdest question I have ever heard as a Las Vegas concierge, the funniest guest request, the most memorable one, and so on.Over the years, as I have shared stories about my career as a concierge, people would always want to hear more. This gave me the idea to go out and ask my fellow concierges about their stories, and to compile everything into a book to share it with the world.I interviewed more than three dozen colleagues from both big and small hotels. Since a cornerstone of our profession is privacy, all guest names have been changed. A few stories have also been modified, at the concierge's request, to further protect the confidentiality of the original parties. But I have taken great care in these instances to make sure the changes did not interfere with the basic narrative.Interviewing my fellow Las Vegas concierges turned out to be an extremely rewarding experience. Even though most of them would start out the conversation with something along the lines of 'I am sure you've heard it all' or 'No request is too weird,' I soon learned that I definitely had not heard it all and that some requests really should be deemed too strange.There is truly no limit to the variety of things that happen to a concierge on the Strip. In one conversation, you are talking about where to get the best foie gras, and in the next you are assisting a guest whose quickie marriage has turned out to be the biggest mistake of their young life. Sometimes, we use our network of connections to get things done, while at other moments we are just there to provide a compassionate ear. For the most part though, it's all about helping guests fulfill their personal and vacation dreams.Finally, I hope that you, the reader, will have as much fun reading through these Las Vegas snippets as I did compiling them. If you happen to have a Las Vegas concierge story of your own that you would like to share, please feel free to email me at the address listed below.At your service,Mariann MohosJuly, 2010lveditors@gmail.com