OPINION

So who’s minding the door?

Hotel concierges and doormen are the unsung heroes of travel awards, working behind the scenes beating down taxi rates, saving elephants, comforting pooches and loaning umbrellas.

by Vijay Verghese

JUMP TO Previous columns

Doormen and bellgirls (as at The Peninsula Beijing, far left), provide key first impressions. Jovial Bobby (centre) was a much loved fixture at Hotel Indigo Bangkok, while Chris (centre right, middle of group at Conrad Orchard) has become a pal. And far right, Khun Paweena or just Oui, maintains an elegant presence at Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok/ photos: Vijay Verghese; Paweena (from social media archives)

Late Giovanni Valenti, the Head Concierge at Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong/ photo: social media

WALKING up to the hotel I was assailed by a flutter of outstretched hands. I shook off my knee-jerk response to  clutch my coat tighter, expecting to be worked over by a light-fingered crew. The last time I was in a scrum like this in Milan, the little gypsy girls had made off with my airline ticket. But this was a Singapore VIP welcome.

My arrival had not been announced; nor was I remotely any sort of VIP. We traded handshakes like old buddies. I had known some of them for decades.

Walking past the bounteous curves of a watchful Botero I was in The St Regis Singapore moments later with a smile on my face despite having swum through the humid midday air. Hotel doormen and concierges are an artful lot. And it is this sort of inerasable memory and sense of welcome that brings guests back again and again — to enjoy the people, not the chandeliers. (After an award presentation dash through Hong Kong, Macau, Bangkok and Singapore, sometimes with 15 meetings a day as in Bangkok — BTS, Metro, motorcycles, Grab and tough walking shoes — I looked like something the cat dragged in. It was good to spot familiar faces.)

Send us your Feedback / Letter to the Editor

I got to know some of these doormen well before I ever stayed there and we would chat as I strolled past. Arasu has been there 13 years, others from the very start in 2008. On one visit, caught in the rain, I stopped for a moment at St Regis waiting for a pause in the downpour to make a dash to the old Regent (now the gussied up Conrad Orchard). Chris the then doorman loaned me an umbrella and insisted I take it even though I was at a rival hotel. I returned the umbrella the following day and made a mental note of this courtesy.

{The group wanted to barbeque the elephant for dinner after their jungle excursion (presumably they had other means of transport thereon)...

Affable Arasu at The St Regis Singapore/ photo: Vijay Verghese

Now Chris works at the Conrad Orchard. I asked him about the early days at St Regis, which he recalls with affection, and he mentioned that when the place opened, taxi drivers found it hard to get their heads around the formal name. For a while the hotel was dubbed ‘Streegis’ and that seemed to solve the problem.

At the Hotel Indigo Bangkok, short stocky Bobby with his shining bald pate and massive grin was everywhere all at once, managing suitcases, calling taxis, and arranging refreshing cold welcome drinks for tired guests. He would energetically argued my case with errant taxi drivers trying out fresh airport ‘package’ scams, which was more than doormen at fancy riverside hotels would do. He offered advice, dug up obscure eating spots and always found something to chat about. He was sorely missed when he moved to Hyatt Place.

It's always about the people — Jiorji (far left) the doorman supervisor at The Peninsula Manila is one of the first persons you'll meet; Cathay Pacific opts for vintage uniforms amidst its 80th anniversary cheer; Chris (centre right) in his maroon tunic at Conrad Singapore Orchard; and (far right) Pen Manila bellgirl/ photos: Vijay Verghese

At the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, Florentine Chief Concierge, the late Giovanni Valentino, was a legend. Over the course of a four-decade career he knew everyone by name, spoke several languages (including some Cantonese), and had the most exquisite manners, shepherding lost guests from invitation-only events to other venues in the politest fashion. He attended on the likes of Princess Diana and US President Richard Nixon, as diverse a mix as any.

Guests with dogs are a major preoccupation at Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok/ photo: Vijay Verghese

Elegant, smiling, always concentrating on work, Paweena Tabhae, or Khun Oui, who heads up the concierge desk at the Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok where some of the most pampered guests are furry with four paws, brings all her Les Clefs d'Or experience to bear negotiating transport, last-minute flowers, pet-friendly outings and, presumably, advice on the hotel’s famous liver ice-cream that is clearly something to bark about.

At The Peninsula Manila, towering Jiorji simply cannot stop beaming and shaking hands with arriving giuests as he sets up a warm welcome with a phalanx of white-clad bellgirls. He's been a fixture here for 26 years and as I step out 6am on a Sunday morning to join the weekly Makati fun run, he leaps forward grinning with such obvious pleasure that I can't stop smiling despite the humidity that slaps my face like a wet dog's tongue. Anyone who's stayed there will remember him.

It is this first touch point that creates an enduring impression of any hotel, followed by front office staff at check-in, especially after a tiring flight when guests need to wait to get the room prepared and tempers may run high. It is something worth thinking about. Covid accelerated the trend towards contactless travel but journeys are always about the people you meet. Not the priceless crystal glasses you drink from. Importantly, first impressions stick. As Cathay Pacific celebrates its 80th anniversary (officially 24 September 2026 as I flew to Manila) several cabin crew jauntily walked the aisles in vintage gear. For a second I thought I was on Japan Airlines and looked around, a tad concerned.

Our fun take by Lydia Soh on oddball concierge requests around Asia over two decades ago was headlined, The Concierge can’t say “No”. It listed requests from mundane to monstrous as concierges at fine hotels played, Cupid, postman, florist, beauty consultant and advisor on private jet planes.

Two excerpts: “Try searching for a grave when the lone clue is just a general idea of the final resting place. An elderly Japanese lady approached the concierge at Grand Formosa Regent (now just the Regent Taipei) to help find her father’s tombstone. And the only detail she could provide was that it was somewhere in "ershuei hsiang" (Mandarin for “village") in Changhua county. But that was all the information the staff needed. No satellites, no GPS, no Google map. The concierge not only unearthed (no pun intended) the grave site, but also reunited the guest with her long lost relatives living in Taiwan.

Imperial New Delhi turbans offer a fine welcome/ photo: Vijay Verghese

“A group of Russians visiting at The Nam Hai (now under Four Seasons at Hoi An) wished to go on a safari on the Laos-Vietnam border. One of the conditions was to ride an elephant whilst at it. There was a dark twist however. The group wanted to barbeque the animal for dinner after their jungle excursion (presumably they had other means of transport thereon). So how did The Nam Hai handle this? They said no. Firmly. Quite right. Would you eat your Toyota? Babar the Elephant roams on, free to balloon to exotic locales, free of the encumbrance of that large vat of boiling oil and spices a-la Kiev.”

The bearded Sikhs with blazing turbans at The Imperial New Delhi (a colonial tradition since 1936), the liveried doormen at Raffles Singapore, or Peninsula’s genteel lady bellhops with their white tilted pillbox hats, are the enduring takeaways for any traveller.