Staying at the Savoy - Planning and booking

In a short time, my wife and I will be staying a few nights at the Savoy hotel in London. The Savoy is, as I described in a previous post, one of the oldest and grandest of the London hotels. And I am, as I also has posted earlier, a hotel nerd. So staying at the Savoy has been on my list of things to do for a long time. Earlier we have stayed at several of the other grand hotels in London including the Ritz, the Dorchester and Browns. In my mind I have given them all human characteristics.

• The Ritz: Slightly stiff and faded royalty (this was a number of years ago and may have changed)
• The Dorchester: A grand, but kind old lady
• Browns: The traditional British, tweeded gentleman (this was before they re-decorated, it may be different now)

What will the Savoy be like?  

Only for the rich?

If you read this, you may think I am an overly rich bloke who only stay in expensive hotels. I would have liked that to be true, but I am afraid it is not. I am afraid I do not possess the rather expanded economy needed in order to stay at world class luxury hotels every time I travel. But I always spend a lot of time finding the right hotel. I feel that a bad hotel can easily ruin a holiday for me. Just ask my wife. She knows. And you can find good hotels in most price ranges. But every now and then I find great pleasure in staying at great hotels when I find occasion for it. And I am rather good at finding occasions.

Some of the people I know will not even think of staying in a hotel like the Savoy because they feel that they do not fit in. The are afraid they will be frowned upon and classified as second rate. My findings are that if you look relatively decent and behave in the vicinity of civilised, you will be well taken care of. And if not, it just is not a good hotel. 

I once heard an interview with a manager at the Crillon hotel in Paris where he said that many of his guests were either business people who did not pay for the stay themselves, or they had so much money that staying in luxury hotels was an everyday experience and nothing special, and the cost of it did not really matter.  

But then there were also the people who can only afford to stay in top hotels a few times, perhaps to celebrate special occasions. And the amount of money they spend may be equivalent to one, perhaps two months earnings. They have had to save up for this. These, he said, are the most important guests.  They have really invested in order to take part of the magic and he saw it as his task to pay them back in experiences and memories.

So if you always wanted, but never dared, do it! They are there for you. And if you have had bad experiences of not being "good enough" while staying at a hotel, I want to know about it. Please let me know by commenting on this post!

Booking

There are several ways of booking a hotel. There are a number of web sites that let you search for hotels at given dates and give you a list of hotels with vacancies so you can compare features and prices. Many of these also boast lower prices than you can get from the hotel directly. But more and more I find that you can actually get the same or even lower prices when dealing with the hotels directly. 

Most hotels have online booking systems built into their website. Some of these also give you more control over your booking when it comes to room categories etc., and the better ones also take you through an optional menu of pillow types and other options.

You can also initiate your booking by sending an email to the hotel informing them of your needs and requesting an offer. This is often my preferred method. In the email you can at an early stage explain any special needs or occasions, and if you send of the email to a number of hotels, you can choose where to stay based on the content of the replies. I would suggest being a bit personal in your inquiring email to see if the person at the other end just emailed back a standard reply or if he or she took the time to assert your situation and find the best solution based on that.

Many years ago I was planning a trip to London with my wife and, at that time, only daughter who was around four years old. This was before the widespread use of email, so I wrote proper letters to a number of hotels asking for offers and also asking for suggestions of what to do in London with a four year old. There was a broad range of replies. Some did not reply at all. Some just sent me a brochure and price list.  Some sent a fairly standard letter with an actual offer. But a small hotel named 22 Jermyn Street sent me a thick envelope. In it was a long letter answering all my questions and giving me an offer for a room. They had also supplied a copy of their newsletter describing restaurants etc. near the hotel, and a separate newsletter where they described what was good for kids in London at that time. I felt that there was a person in Jermyn Street that actually cared about us even before we had booked, and I felt sure that that person would also take good care of us once we arrived. Needless to say, I booked at 22 Jermyn Street, and that is one of my best hotel memories ever. Sadly, the hotel is no more. The building was taken down a few years ago to give way to a modern office block. It is sadly missed by many. See http://www.22jermyn.com.

There are several reasons why I often start the booking with an email besides being able to compare the responses from multiple hotels. First of all, I want to build as much of a relationship with the hotel as possible as early as possible by actually introducing myself. I want to stand out and not just be booking number 4588372 or whatever, if possible. This is probably more efficient at a small hotel than a large one. The thought behind this is that it just may lead to better service once we get there. Another reason, if I am booking for a special occasion, is to inform about that and to drive that home as early as possible.

The hotel is of course not required to do anything extra for you even if you are celebrating something, but more often than not I find that good hotels tend to take the opportunity to do a little extra something on these occasions. I mean, I love to do things for other people, and if someone came to stay at my house without informing me that it was their birthday or whatever, I would feel like I was being robbed of an opportunity for doing something nice. So all I am doing with the hotel is giving them the opportunity to show me how good they are. This often takes the form of an upgrade, bottle of champagne a cake or something similar. When we stayed at the Crillon in Paris to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, I booked their smallest double and ended up with a duplex suite with a clear view of L'Hotel des Invalides, Grand Palais and the Eiffel Tower. And a cake. And champagne.

In the case of the Savoy, I booked through the online system on their website. Booking worked well. I did not choose the cheapest room as that was a queen bedded room more suitable for one person, but I booked the smallest double, a Deluxe King.  The Savoy offers Superior Queen, Deluxe King/Twin, Luxury King and Luxury King with river view before we start talking about suites. Since the Savoy is situated right next to the Thames river, many room categories may be had with either inner courtyard/city view or river view. River view is of course preferable, but it comes with a cost attached. While the view may be staggering, the extra cost may be from around a hundred pounds to several hundreds depending on room category.

Following up - the concierge

Since I booked through the online system and not by email, I needed to get in contact both to inform them that we were coming there to celebrate that both my wife and I had recently turned 50 and to request a few specific services. Often, when I have booked a good hotel, the confirmation email will state the email address to the concierge in case I need them to do anything for me in preparation for my arrival. The email from the Savoy, however, held no such information, so I sent an email to the generic address listed on the web site. In the email I told about the occasion and asked for suggestions on how they could help me make this stay extra special. I also wanted them to book me some restaurant tables. The response consisted of a suggestion for a champagne cruise on the river and a list of items I could order for our room. These included fruit, chocolate, champagne, wine, flowers etc. I did choose a few items from the list, but I cannot say what I chose as it is a secret for my wife and this is out before we leave... 

They had also sent my table booking requests on to the concierge team and they would be in contact shortly. The response from the concierge never came, so there had clearly been a small glitch there. But since the concierge email address was in the last email I had received, I was able to contact them myself. 

The concierge team at good hotels may be a hidden secret to many. Many of the people I know have no idea what it is, and that is a shame because a good concierge is a gem. The concierge is your local expert on anything and your expert helper on any subject. Need to book restaurant tables? Theatre tickets? Need tips on where you can buy specific items? The concierge can help you. When staying in a top hotel, the concierge is a very valuable asset. Use him!

For our stay I wanted the concierge to book me a table at the Savoy Grill and a table for Afternoon Tea, also at the Savoy. Why would I want a concierge to book me a table? These days I can of course do this myself using an online booking systems or an email directly to the restaurant. There are however a couple of advantages. First of all the concierge can recommend restaurants for you. Part of his job is to know what is good. Also, many good restaurant can be difficult to book because they are very popular and sell out quickly. The concierge from a top hotel will have much more leverage and a better chance of getting that table than a normal bloke will have. Also, for restaurants requiering a re-confirmation of the booking later on, the concierge will see to that as well.

We wanted to go and see a musical, so I asked the concierge what was good. The only response to that was a brochure from a ticket agency, so that was a bit lame. I had expected perhaps a few words on which shows had had good reviews or something. I ended up asking the concierge to book me two tickets for Billy Elliot. I specified that I wanted mid-range tickets and was a bit surprised when the response was with a suggestion for the most expensive tickets in the house. I ended up going to the shows web page, finding out where I wanted to sit and especially ask for those tickets. They were purchased and are now being kept for me by the concierge at the hotel.

I partly booked the tickets through the concierge to test that service. These days it is easy to book tickets on-line. My experience now is that when it comes to theatre tickets, unless it is tickets that are hard to get, you should book those yourself. The reasons for that are

• Better control of seating
• The concierge used an agency and that made the tickets a bit more expensive than booking directly

The up-side is that the tickets are waiting for me at the hotel, but from previous experiences I know that picking the tickets up at the theatre 30 minutes before the show is no big inconvenience. 

But all in all I am very satisfied with the concierge service at the Savoy so far. There have been quite a number of emails back and forth. All emails (except for the initiating one) were answered promptly. Also, the emails were friendly and not overly formal. Thank you so far Jack, Veronica and Dean.

After communicating with the concierge team at the Savoy, I had an idea. During my planning I have been in contact with three different members of the concierge team and you keep being passed around from person to person according to who is on duty. This way you end up writing an email to one person only to get a response from another person.

At the Savoy, they have personal butlers. At least in the suites. One thought behind this is, I believe, to provide a single, personal point of service. To provide "my man" (or, indeed "my woman") at the Savoy. What if this could also be carried over to the concierge team? What if a guest, if he takes contact prior to arrival to organise everything beforehand, is assigned a personal concierge? I have not seen it in any hotel yet, but why not be the first.

This would produce an even more personal feel even before checking in. I would feel that I have a person working for me, someone that knows the history of my wishes for that stay.  (Note that this was not a problem in my case). It will also change the experience of continuing an email thread by starting an email with "Dear Veronica" only to have an answer ending in "Kind regards, Dean Maddison". This may mean that your request needs to wait until "your" concierge is again on duty, but often that will do quite nicely, and perhaps it could be an option for those who want it.

So I have my room booked, the hotel knows about our birthdays, I have tables and theatre tickets booked. I have also booked an hour of massage for my wife at the Savoy Spa. Everything should be ready. We will be entering the Savoy in a few days. How will it be? Will it meet my high expectations? Will this rather large investment in future memories pay off? I will keep you updated, so stay tuned!