Learning what's good

[Jonathan Day]

First, many thanks for participating in this Q&A.

In many hotels I have stayed in, the concierges have not appeared to have much direct or personal experience of the restaurants or shops they recommend. I am curious about how a skilled concierge learns what to recommend.

Could you describe how you and your colleagues have gone about learning the characteristics of different Paris restaurants? How much is personal "research", how much is word of mouth from other concierges, how much feedback from guests? Do you dine out often? Does your hotel cover the costs of your dining out when this is done to learn more about new restaurants or reach a point of view on what to recommend? If you do dine out for this purpose, how do you go about selecting which restaurants to examine?

[fresh_a]

Jonathan, thanks for the post.

First of all, Concierges have varying levels of expertise in concerns to dining establishments. I have met some capable of writing a guidebook, and others not so capable. This may be the root of many problems in regards to guests, as a restaurant is such a personal choice, and disasterous situations may arise if the wrong establishment is chosen for a difficult client!

Speaking for myself, not only do I read every guidebook,magazine,website, and newspaper I can get my hands on, firstly out of genuine interest in the gastronomic world, but no less importantly to be well-informed for our guests, but I spend a good part of my income dining out. I always ask guests for their feedback on their eating experiences, and get lots of feedback from my teammates as well..

As a Concierge Desk, we try to plan outings as often as possible to try new places, but this can be a rare occurence given our workload.

The hotel, as a general rule does not pay for our outside meals.