The raspberry Jell-O takes the cake. Of all the special requests that guests can make (and have made) in hotels across the country, the couple who asked for a bathtub filled with warm raspberry Jell-O may be among the strangest.
Executive chef Kevin Garvin of the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas says at the express request of the weekend guests he recently whipped up a tub of the red stuff by carrying scalding water in coffee urns from the kitchen to the guests` room six hours before their arrival. He mixed in several packages of Jell-O, then later dumped crushed ice on the top of his concoction to make sure it was ”extra thick.” To top it off, Garvin says, ”I garnished it with fresh raspberries.”
That raspberry Jell-O request should not be confused with one recently made by Dionne Warwick. When the singer checked into the Loews Anatole Hotel in Dallas, she asked for her favorite gelatin with late-night room service. Not offering it on the menu, the chef whipped up a special batch of his own recipe, using crushed, fresh raspberries. She hated it and demanded a brand name instead. A kitchen staffer rushed to a convenience store and bought her requested brand.
Stump the staff
Hotel guests, from tourist and conventioneer to state dignitary and celebrity, consistently challenge, stump and-in this case-amuse hotel staffs. Whether it is the businessman who discovered at 7:30 a.m. that he needed a belt (waist size 52) before a 9 a.m. meeting in Chicago; the King and Queen of Sweden who needed a separate suite for their luggage; Michael Jackson, who wanted a dance floor built in his room; Ingmar Bergman, who wanted Chinese food in the middle of the night; the guru from India who wanted all the paintings, rugs and drapes stripped from his suite; or Sammy Davis Jr., who wanted a case of Strawberry Crush for his one-night stay, hotel spokesmen across the country agree there is very little they won`t do for a guest.
”So long as it doesn`t destroy the overall image and elegance of the hotel, we do anything,” says JoAnn Bongiorno, director of public relations for the Drake Hotel in Chicago, where guests are charged from $165 to $1,500 a night for such an accommodating attitude.
Whether it`s putting an engagement ring in the sorbet for a proposal, preparing kosher meals, ensuring the room is on a no-smoking floor, adding a bed board, filling the room with white orchids, supplying a high chair or bidet or just making sure there are no feather pillows (or wire hangers) in the room, in a competitive market, hotels find it is good business to be able to boast about satisfying any and all requests-within reason.
Any number can play
And they also boast about satisfying requests for everybody who checks in, not just celebrities.
”We move heaven and Earth if someone wants something done,” says David Davis, assistant director of public relations for the Adolphus, a luxury spot where rooms for the night run from $160 for a single to $1,450 for the penthouse suite.
”About the only thing we won`t do is something illegal. We also have to follow building codes,” says Davis, who remembers when the hotel added an awning and a special stove on the terrace-free of charge-for Carol Channing when she holed up there. ”If it`s something somebody wants, we do everything we can to make it happen.”
Requests have ranged from the mundane to the absurd, and because a hotel usually gets only a 24-hour shot at impressing a guest, concierges, chefs and service people will always try to come through. Hotel guests have asked for baby cribs, bow ties, theater tickets, restaurant reservations, contact lenses, jewelry for a special occasion, video games, old movies, massages, hairdressers, razors, pantyhose and cough drops.
The coat off his back
At Morgans in New York, a spot favored by Bianca Jagger, general manager Peter Koehler says that on a recent rainy day he gave his own raincoat to a guest staying there from Paris. ”Anything anyone wants, we go out and supply,” Koehler says.
Anni Hauth, chief concierge at Hotel 21 East in Chicago, says she recently filled a romantic order for a bed strewn with rose petals, and a pre- ordered, in-room dinner complete with musical accompaniment by a cellist. In addition, Hauth says, ”People have a lot of normal requests at strange hours.” That can include dry cleaning or laundering requests at midnight.
On the job at Hotel 21 East for only one year, Hauth says her eight years before that were spent as a concierge at Chicago`s Ambassador East Hotel, where she saw a lot of strange requests from celebrities, dignitaries and non- famous guests alike. Hauth says there was the time Dustin Hoffman ordered 20 dozen yellow roses to be delivered to his friends backstage for the opening night of ”Death of A Salesman.” She adds, ”That`s a lot of yellow roses.” There was also the Kuwaiti prince who wanted a handmade banner for his newborn child reading, ”The World`s Greatest Baby.” There was the gentleman who needed a jet to fly him to the Rainbow Room in New York for dinner, then back to the Ambassador East, and the couple who desperately wanted pastries with pictures of bears on them. No, they were`t Chicago Bears fans, Hauth explains: ”They called each other `Bear.` ” And she adds, ”Frank Sinatra always needed flowers.”
Correcting an oversight
Similarly accustomed to filling all kinds of requirements, Mark Mehlenbacher, chief concierge at the Drake, says he is more pleased by the unusual demands than the run-of-the-mill. There was the couple, for instance, who recently arranged a very small wedding in one of the hotel suites. In all the pre-wedding rush, he says, they forgot to book a minister.
Mehlenbacher says he made dozens of phone calls, and no one would marry the couple on short notice. But he finally found a minister at the Fourth Presbyterian Church willing to interview the couple to see if he would consent to marry them. He did, and Mehlenbacher says the wedding went off with the necessary hitch.
”He came by afterwards with his business card and said, `If you ever need me, call me,` ” Mehlenbacher says. ”Now he`s in my Rolodex under
`Weddings.` ”
When Bill Cosby is in town, Mehlenbacher says he rushes out to get him cappuccino and sushi from his two favorite spots in Chicago. He says he was also asked by jazz pianist Dorothy Donegan to pick an outfit from her room closet for her to wear at a recent concert. Mehlenbacher says she had been in rehearsal all day and wouldn`t be able to come back to the hotel before her performance that evening. Mehlenbacher says she called him and asked him to go to her room and ”Pick me out something pretty.”
Many of the hotel staffers agree that most often it is celebrities who require more than the average amenities and services. ”Celebrities get accustomed to certain things, and they expect certain standards,” says Randy Leonard, assistant manager for the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, a favored spot for stars such as Diane Keaton and Anjelica Huston. It`s high atop Sunset Boulevard and a stone`s throw from the Hollywood culinary hangout Spago. (In a darker moment of its history, Chateau Marmont was also known as the place John Belushi died.)
”We will try to do just about anything,” says Leonard, who remembers recently that a man from the ”Wild Kingdom” TV show checked in with a kangaroo. Leonard says that while the stars do have the strangest requests-whether for specific foods, rooms or services-the hotel is happy to furnish its extras to anybody, regardless of fame or status. ”We furnish baby-sitters, secretaries and translators. We even are careful about what room some people get. They may say they hate blue or green.”
Beverage wars
While strange requests may be more frequent among stars, it isn`t only famous people who have special needs. The Drake`s Bongiorno says when a Coca- Cola Co. sales meeting is in the hotel, for instance, the hotel is careful to remove all Pepsi and other soft drink brands from the guests` in-room mini- bars. The same holds true for liquor companies. ”We remove all the other brands of liquor from the room,” she says.
Guests visiting from other countries also may ask for the newspapers of their country each day, Bongiorno says. ”I don`t know how easy it would be to get a newspaper from Saudi Arabia,” she says, ”but we`d try.”
Perhaps because celebrities may travel more often than the average tourist, a front person often arranges all the star`s requests. Such requests are often in written form, sent several days or weeks before the actual stay. And in all those cases-as it would be with any guests-to have the demands in writing is preferable, some say. Davis at the Adolphus remembers a typed memo of several pages listing comedian Steve Allen`s preferences and requirements, from the type of orange juice he would drink to the paper he would read.
”When it`s written, it may come across as condescending, but it`s helpful,” Davis says.
Advance work
For such special requests, Davis suggests making the request in advance, whether in writing or over the phone. A guest should tell the reservationist of his or her special needs, whether it is for a no-smoking room or special foods, he says. Davis also says a guest may want to call the concierge, general manger or public relations or sales manager in advance if the requirements are more complicated and specific.
Bongiorno also suggests that guests ask for these special amenities in advance. For instance, she says, recently a guest needed his medication cooled in the hotel`s refrigerator but didn`t want it in the mini-bar in his room. She says that because there are so many refrigerators and possible spots for it to be stored in the hotel, logistically it is good to have fair warning. That way, everyone on duty at all times can know where the medication is, not just the one staff member who is given the medication from the guest at the time. But Hauth at Hotel 21 East says she does not always need advance warning. ”They can just tell us when they check in and we`ll take care of it,” she says.
And when the staff of any hotel takes care of a guest, it is generally understood (though not mandatory) that the guest is expected to take care of the staff. While some provisions are ”goodwill gestures,” such as Channing`s no-charge awning, Davis says, sometimes if the requests-like the raspberry Jell-O in the tub-call for extra hours and labor, a charge will be added to the bill. But most times the guest is not charged, but a special gratuity is generally understood.
Mission impossible
But sometimes regardless of effort, the task is just impossible. At the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, a Rosewood Hotel property, spokeswoman Julia Sweeney says there are times even they have to say no. Like when Yul Brynner checked in and asked the hotel to furnish a mirror over his bed. They did not and he promptly checked out.
Such permanent alteration of a room`s decor is where most hotels draw the line. ”We wouldn`t alter a room for a favorite color or if a guest wanted contemporary furniture,” says the Adolphus` Davis.
Many hotels also enforce the no-pet rule, says Davis, even if a kangaroo is welcome at the Chateau Marmont. Hotels suggest kennels where the pet can be boarded.
Other requests are purely beyond the hotel`s power.
Davis says Anthony Quinn and his wife recently checked in complaining that the hotel they had been staying at was beneath a flight path for the local airport and was too noisy to sleep. Quinn came to the Adolphus to make a ”sound check” before even checking in: He wanted to be sure his room was soundproof and absolutely quiet. The staff was asked to black out the windows, set up a complete kitchen and not disturb Quinn for any reason.
”Unfortunately,” Davis says, ”we couldn`t stop a military parade down Main Street the next morning at 10 a.m.” –
