• I shadowed a concierge in control of high-paying company on the 4 Seasons in downtown New York.

• I noticed the other ways resort workers cater to VIPs paying as much as $25,000 an evening.

• Take a behind-the-scenes take a look at what goes on inside one of many world’s most luxurious lodges.

Beneath the 4 Seasons in downtown New York is a maze of hallways, hidden entrances, and secret elevators.

The underground community appears like an ant colony as safety guards, doormen, and housekeepers labor away out of public view. The queen ant on this metaphor is 27-year-old visitor relations supervisor Jessica Waddy, whose job revolves across the resort’s high-profile company and their numerous wants.

“It is like an unscripted actuality present,” Waddy mentioned. “Behind the scenes, there’s a complete village of individuals operating round doing issues you do not see.”

Sporting a polka-dot costume and three-inch black heels, Waddy one way or the other manages to stroll extremely quick with out wanting rushed or frazzled. Her three cell telephones continuously buzzed all through the day — it is Trend Week in New York and the resort is booked to just about 100% capability.

She led me all the way down to the cellar stage and right into a room the place the resort shops the belongings of standard company, a few of whom spend a number of months on the resort annually. There is a tempur-pedic mattress topper, online game console, youngsters’s toys, and a consulting government’s whole wardrobe.

“He is very particular about how his closet is organized,” Waddy defined.

Down the corridor, there is a loading dock for celebrities and their drivers to dodge paparazzi and make a discreet entrance into the resort. On Sunday, when the road was closed for a 9/11 memorial service, resort safety “finesed” police to let a celeb visitor drive via, Waddy mentioned.

From there, VIPs enter one in every of 4 non-public elevators within the basement that lock as soon as in movement, barring any frequent people from hopping in on the journey as much as their suite. Most celebrities are virtually nocturnal throughout their stays, Waddy mentioned, including that close by eating places will keep open to allow them to eat dinner unbothered and alone at 1 am

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As we emerged from the basement, Waddy was known as over to greet a high-profile visitor checking in underneath an alias. The receptionist had by no means met him earlier than, so Waddy is tasked with matching his face to the code title.

“We won’t simply be dealing with out room keys willy nilly,” she mentioned.

From procuring particular rest room seats to washing mattress sheets with a particular model of detergent, the satan is within the particulars on this business. Inside two hours, I solely hear one visitor criticism: She was given a double room as a substitute of a full. Her disappointment was fairly clear.

“They pay extra for one night time than my hire,” Waddy mentioned. “So that they deserve all the eye we can provide them.”

The wants of high-profile company are listed on a “rider,” a doc that is sometimes a number of pages lengthy and connected to their hospitality contract. Nevertheless it’s not the size of the record that creates an issue, Waddy mentioned, it is the little discover with which employees receives them.

A VIP visitor as soon as requested all of the furnishings be faraway from an additional room at 10 pm the night time earlier than check-in so they may convert the house into a large wardrobe, Waddy mentioned.

One other visitor staying on the resort’s Empire Suite, which prices $25,000 an evening, mentioned he would solely play Xbox on an 85-inch tv — 10 inches smaller than the resort’s flat screens. The consequence was a wild goose chase via Staten Island and Queens to buy two brand-new screens earlier than his arrival.

“Our director needed to get his automobile and go to 2 completely different shops so this visitor might play his Xbox on the TV that he needed,” Waddy recalled. “We needed to squish them into his automobile with one in every of our gross sales interns within the again.”

With Monday formally kicking off Trend Week, the resort was swarmed with influencers and fashions. Upstairs, I watched a tall brunette wearing head-to-toe neon pink feathers exit a celebratory brunch hosted by Vogue.

The resort flew in three completely different bakers from throughout the nation to help with the brunch, one worker informed me. Dozens of pastel muffins, gold-dusted cookies, and metallic blue cream puffs sat untouched after the brunch concluded. Waddy reassured me the leftovers could be transferred to the employees cafeteria.

“I informed them we should not give trend individuals sweets,” one other employees member joked.

Certainly one of Waddy’s three telephones begins buzzing once more, sending us again to the foyer downstairs. It is now round midday, so company are beginning to take a look at.

The resort was short-staffed — a mixture of jury responsibility, illness, and labor market woes — so interns and safety guards are handed lists of room numbers to knock on doorways and politely persuade any lingerers to depart. With the resort occupancy this excessive, there’s very restricted wiggle room for late check-out, Jessica defined, evaluating check-in and check-out to a sport of Tetris.

Every thing goes easily till a wild card request threatens to set all of it off-balance. A high-profile visitor has known as to request an statement of the room her recently-deceased mom final stayed in, however one other VIP visitor is scheduled to check-in quickly. These are the varieties of conundrums that finally make their manner over to Waddy, who one way or the other is ready to resolve all of them.

“A concierge is not simply your primary making a reservation at Carbone, entering into Polo Bar, or scheduling hair and make-up appointments,” she mentioned. “We deal with every little thing and something. It is so unpredictable — I find it irresistible.”

Do you’re employed at a luxurious resort? Share your story by emailing this reporter at [email protected]

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