Saturday's Passage of the Week

In my upcoming book, Service IS The Business (working title) I share a behind-the-desk perspective of what it is like to work at a real San Francisco hotel concierge desk.

Enjoy this brief segment from the second chapter.

When the engineer was not there, I would field maintenance calls as well. Bear in mind I am the least technically adept man on the planet. I once asked my neighbor to take a look at my cassette tape player because the tapes weren't going in correctly. He came over and pointed out that I was putting them in upside down. I think that established my reputation for being the most non-technical person around, but the guests didn’t know that.

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One day I was asked to go to a room and help the guest with their luggage. When I got there, I found an exasperated young couple who had locked the key to their luggage in the safest place they could find – their luggage. They politely asked if there was anything I could do.

Wanting to put them at ease, and in a faux attempt to look like I was helping, I went down to the shop where the engineers kept their tools and grabbed a couple of screwdrivers. My plan was to make a lackluster attempt to open their suitcase, fail, and then pass it off to the engineers.

After assuring them that I was the man for the job, and asking them to stand back a little (thus giving the air of authority), I started picking the lock. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I pulled it off as if I did. In a Mr. Magoo/Ace Ventura-like fashion I blundered into success. I tried one screwdriver, then the other, and lo and behold, the lock opened.

“You did it!,” they said. “That was amazing!”

I said under my breath, “Did I did do that? I mean, of course I did that! It’s just part of the job.” I gave a little salute indicating that I do this all the time, and excused myself. To this day, I don’t know how I was able to pick the lock. I was never able to recreate that situation again.

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