European Hotel Service Goes Above and Beyond

by Suzanne Carmel

The picture of loveliness -- the view from a junior suite balcony of the Hotel Cipriani in Italy.

Many travelers from the United States seek out the familiar overseas, Americanized aspects of a place - a normal reaction to being somewhere unfamiliar no matter how well traveled you are. This is true even in Europe, where visitors can find most everything they need to feel at ease. Travelers are perhaps most in need of this familiarity when it comes to accommodations - a safe refuge to return to after a day of exploration. Therefore, many American chains have set up shop in European cities, yet the top European hotels offer something distinctive that should not be skipped in favor of an Americanized version. The service in luxury hotels in Europe feels different than their American counterparts though it's difficult to identify why that is. While traveling through Europe this spring, I asked two staff members at top hotels in Paris and Venice to weigh in on the differences.

The Hotel Lancaster

John W. Petch is the director of sales and marketing for GLA International, which manages The Hotel Lancaster and three other French hotels, along with one in the Caribbean. The five-star Hotel Lancaster is centrally located off the Champs-Elysées in the heart of the 8th arrondissement. It combines 19th century opulence with a contemporary feel thanks to a renovation by its newest owner, Grace Leo-Andrieu. The hotel is known for its discreet, efficient service and the warm staff that handles every guest's request. Services include the basics one would expect at a top hotel, plus extras such as a concierge, who will arrange any service or activity imaginable, babysitting, a dog bed (for one guest with a dog per night), tracking down lost items for guests, private underground parking and more.

Guests such as Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Noel Coward and Elizabeth Taylor have stayed in the hotel along with more current celebrities, including Jeremy Irons, Debra Winger and John Malkovich. Originally built in 1889 as a private home, the Hotel Lancaster welcomes guests as though to a private house, albeit one with 60 elegantly furnished rooms and suites.

A luxurious bedroom in one of Hotel Lancaster's suites.

The tradition of gracious service is passed down from one staff member to another as the staff changes and grows. The hotel has a very extensive guest history. Staff knows which repeat guests prefer rooms facing a certain direction, or on a certain floor; that some refuse to be in certain rooms or require specific artwork in the room they are staying in. This treatment doesn't just hold true for the repeat guests. All visitors receive personal attention.

The picture of loveliness -- the view from a junior suite balcony of the Hotel Cipriani in Italy.

The idea that Paris looks down its nose at Americans is dispelled here, where staff treats everyone the same way regardless of status or dress. The dot-com era put a spin on the typical guest at the hotel and taught staff to make no assumptions when it comes to guests.

Petch identifies another attraction as the level of discretion in service at European hotels, which seems much more forward to him in the United States.

"In the U.S. it's much more out in front, whereas here it's much more discreet and sort of reserved, probably coming from the fact that the traditional five-star hotels' deluxe service here comes from years and years of service and the class difference," says Petch, using restaurant service as an example. "Those who were seated at table were upper class; those who were serving them were lower class. You can't say the same today, but it was the class system of those who served speaking only when they were spoken to. This is the case in England and the whole of Europe. France is a wee bit different, because the class system sort of died with the revolution. However the idea is still there."

Petch explains why 45 percent of his hotel's clientele is repeat business, mentioning character, atmosphere, the ratio of staff to guests (70 staff for 57 rooms) and the time staff spend with guests.

"Here it is run like a home and each person is receiving someone into their home," says Petch. "Each person who works here feels at home, and so it's part of our training to say, 'Imagine you are welcoming someone into your home. How would you receive them? How would you want to be received? Put yourself on the other side of the desk.'"

Petch feels that a smaller property permits a relationship to build between guest and staff member.

"You don't feel like being a cog in a machine - you don't just clock in and out and do your work," says Petch. "Some staff who arrive here want to do that, but they tend not to stay. There is a lot of longtime staff here who stay because of the passion of the contact."

That passion is perhaps most evident in the actions of the concierge, who is asked to handle special requests ranging from shipping home furniture bought at a Parisian flea market to organizing a wedding via email contact with the guest to be married, planning surprise functions, and finding a missing sweetheart from World War II.

"The concierge was once asked by a European to find a real estate agent for him in the small town he grew up in and also houses that were on the market," recalls Petch. "Not only did the concierge find an agent, he found the house the guest's family grew up in and it was on the market."

That is yet another example why service at the Hotel Lancaster keeps guests coming back to this European home away from home.

For more information on Hotel Lancaster call 33-01-40-76-40-76 or visit the website at www.hotel-lancaster.fr.

Cipriani

Managing Director Natale Rusconi has been overseeing service at the Cipriani since 1977. The hotel is situated on the Giudecca Island off the coast of the heart of Venice, away from tourist and commercial commotion. The Cipriani was opened in 1958 by Giuseppe Cipriani, an acclaimed restaurateur and founder of the well-known Harry's Bar in Venice. Since its opening, the hotel has received celebrities, dignitaries and high society from all over the world. All 103 suites and rooms have views as superb as the service given their guests. It is the only hotel in Venice with a swimming pool and boasts the many superlative facilities that make a resort stay complete. Service extras include a hairdresser, boutique, butlers (in some accommodations), complimentary 24-hour transfers to and from St. Mark's Square, arrangement of activities and tickets, deluxe motor boat available for outings and meeting guests at the airport or railway station.

According to Rusconi people visit this legendary hotel for three main reasons - the service, the location and for Venice, in the background. The attitude and personalization the staff is carrying forward are the top reasons most visit.

"Remember," says Rusconi, "that it's the staff that makes the hotel."

Many staff members have been with the hotel for 40 years, even before Rusconi came on board.

"We don't have a training office or a human relations department, which is very American," says Rusconi. "We don't have training courses. It's simply good staff who are teaching the newcomers."

A sitting room of a Cipriani suite.

Among the traits handed down through the staff are the abilities to memorize guests' names and to adopt the characteristics of the old-fashioned butler, adding to the country house atmosphere. The ratio of staff to guests - 225 staff for 103 rooms - makes for very attentive service.

"Everyone speaks about butler service nowadays," says Rusconi. "We have it here and our type of butler service is certainly very interesting to follow."

In the top suites, the butlers do everything for the guests, from receiving the client and serving them in-suite meals to washing the dishes in the suite dishwasher, cooking breakfast for the guest, acting as concierge and fulfilling any other role needed to keep the guest happy.

"It's a wonderful service and is highly personalized - it motivates both the staff and the client," says Rusconi. "This service is only available in the Palazzo and Palazetto and in the new Palladio suite.

The Cipriani is the only hotel in Italy at this time that offers a suite with a private boat and driver. It's another service extra at this top hotel. These extras are why celebrities such as Sharon Stone and Catherine Zeta Jones stay here.

"We have our own service philosophy which is stemming from the old European Ciga Hotel School in Italy," says Rusconi. "The old Ciga Hotel School was high personalization of management, which made managers not puppets receiving orders from a center, but rather like owners of their own hotel. It makes them capable to decide, to do anything they need to do to make the client happy without asking permission (from a superior). This is the secret, as far as I'm concerned."

This service philosophy has remained the same at the Cipriani, though Rusconi says service has had to change in some respects due to current limitations.

"When I used to be at the Gritti, we had a pageboy attached to every column and to every door of the hotel," says Rusconi. "Whenever a client entered every door was opened by a pageboy in white gloves. We are no longer able to do it, but we try to substitute this kind of service with a very attentive service."

The hotel is continually trying to improve its service, and Rusconi makes the staff aware that there are always other hotels in competition to be the best.

"The problem is that now everyone names themselves deluxe or super deluxe," says Rusconi. "They all have a lot of stars, but the more stars they have the less staff they have per person."

Still, Rusconi has favorite hotels all over the world with service he feels comparable to that of the Cipriani, such as the Ritz in London; the Four Seasons, Crillon and the Maurice in Paris; the Hotel du Paris in Monte Carlo; and American hotels such as Charleston Place in Charleston and the Plaza Athenee in New York.

Perhaps the best endorsement other than the guests (30 percent of them are repeat business) is that Rusconi has chosen to remain at the helm. He was born into the hotel business, training first at the Savoy in London before moving on to other, equally grand properties. Every year he tells the owners of the Cipriani that he will stay another year, as dedicated to the Cipriani as the staff he oversees.

"A hotel is a living creature," says Rusconi. "It blooms during the day, it opens up in the morning and it closes down in the evening. Every day there is renovation of this great flower which is blooming. It is a beautiful thing to follow the day of a hotel."

For more information on the Cipriani call 800-237-6800 or 800-223-6800 or visit the website at www.orientexpresshotels.com.