Inside The London Hotel For The Super Rich | Inside Claridges | Our Stories

foreign ERS in the heart of London's Mayfair is a five-star luxury hotel favored by royalty and celebrities here things are done a little differently [Music] million pound chandelier has the individually overnight it was not going to take much for it to go and to get one of these replaced is probably going to be nine impossible in an age of austerity some guests are prepared to pay the price of a small family car to spend one night savoring its enduring glamor it's 6 900 pounds per night for the first time in its long history claridges has allowed cameras behind its doors we've spent a year filming upstairs and downstairs following the staff as they provide luxury to a discreet and exclusive clientele this is as good as it's gonna get so I mean the next stop is Buckingham Palace how does clarities make you feel what that they're expecting me it's not a blind date those who stay can demand impeccable attention to detail and staff who go to enormous lengths to please no request is too outrageous we might think they're outrageous but we will deliver [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] good morning claridges how may I help you so you're taking the Eurostar yes yes that's going to be from Saint Pancras Station sir for the taxi let me connect you with the concierge they do have an accurate estimate for you thanks so much notice I didn't say I don't know do you live in oh yes yeah but that's you know that's the uh I I guess that's the trick is you can't ever let the caller hear you sweat never let them hear you sweat uh one moment please is great let me find out for you and one of the most wonderful tools that we have here in claridges that not everyone really knows is called Google and Google will answer everything so we seem like Geniuses up here but we're a lot of times just typing into Google good morning claridges how may I help you doors have been open to guests Claridge established a hotel on the site in 1854. her portrait still watches over the comings and goings in the lobby famed for its Art Deco interior the hotel has two miles of corridors 400 staff and serves over a thousand lobsters and sixty thousand bottles of champagne a year let's go I actually got one hour to get these down where do I feel happiest I'll I love our lobby because the lobby Embraces everything that clarites us about there is yeah you know there's the glamor there's the beauty of the building you can feel it when you walk through the revolving doors that you're entering a very very special place [Music] at the helm of this thoroughly British institution is 41 year old Thomas Cox he's the youngest general manager in the hotel's history for Mr Bussell and Mr comminutol they're very very regular visitors from New York and have been coming to the hotel for many years and are really really very dear guests of all so they spent a week in Paris so I'm sure they have lots of interesting stories to tell [Music] you how are you good to see you welcome back to Atlanta gorgeous weather I know we have the sun on order for you of course Dennis basso is an American designer after you and then you it's the second floor piano Suite today oh with my favorite your favorite good if I only know how to play the piano the piano Suite costs 5 100 pounds a night and comes with its own private Butler on-call 24 hours a day to Panda to every wish okay you have a wonderful day enjoy and see you later okay take care what strikes you about this room when you come in you feel like you've stepped back a little bit like you're in some fine English mansion in the middle of London it's beautifully matched and beautifully done but it's not forced you have all your modern conveniences so you're able to press a button and have the butler come reach the concierge this is a perfect example this is clearly the most modern element to have that instant cup of espresso here but yet you're in this traditional environment and I think that's what's really has made this something quite unique this is pretty special I mean I think the best of the people come the best when I say that I mean the people who who've traveled far and wide this is an exceptionally large Salon do you ever feel um that luxury is something difficult thing to celebrate in these times you know there's always going to be luxury [Music] John Alves comes from the island of Madeira and is Keeper of the last man operated lift in London transporting treasured guests [Music] from the time I received the guests very important guests the inside this is the best lift in the world they never see one left like this I'm very very happy to have this cloak this is very nice cloak it's 115 years old he is beautiful the queen of Spain he been here last week the imperator of China even a couple months ago even the Tom Cruise we've been in this spot because he like to be here in the front of this mirror Madonna you like to see top in this place over here and the other the other people says I really enjoyed this lift it's a delicate business addressing VIP guests every morning Thomas sits down to compose the welcome cards [Music] signing sessions with Christy are always a bit different how about let's start with this weekend no this weekend Tom Hanks Tom Hanks small card big card big card okay who gets a big card and who gets a little car oh okay then our lovely band members and members for which band you two okay good so they're here to attend the Q Awards I'm not exactly sure what that is to be perfectly honest with so I say what a wonderful today enjoy the cube Awards okay this is Edge you know then we never know we always have the same predicament do you write Dear Edge it's um tea known as The Edge yeah real idea Mr The Edge you know [Music] someone needs to be the guardian of all of this you know someone needs to have a little bit of a helicopter view you can like a conductor and an orchestra I believe you need to really wholeheartedly want to do this hello do you find it um amusing that everyone says it's so British and you're german yes I do find it amusing at times um but but it's you know it's it's good to see things um sometimes a little humorous as well that's why I don't find it challenging to to represent a British brand um but yeah you know Clarity is the quintessentially English hotel in London and I'm German and I can't change that and um [Music] just remind everybody the lamps if you're if you have a broken lamp please remove the shade label the shade and leave the shade in the office I found two shades downstairs in Technical Services which were just on a shelf Deputy head of housekeeping and Barnes is one of the few English members of staff she executes her job with obsessive attention to detail you can smell the dust yeah what do you notice in here the flowers the flowers are dead 118 bathroom there is a golf ball light bulb missing why this is missing I do not know Simon the other day I reported that the TVs were showing one hour ahead what's happening Alvin when you're just watched when you clean the chairs with your damp cloth can you make sure you do the legs look can you can I show you look here can you see the dust there's a very bad stain on the carpet right by the valley storage okay can you please make sure you highlight that please don't put that up in here [Music] are just around [Music] that's keeper that's noisy housekeeper I'm actually always checking inside the bag now because we had a we had the case that once gets checked out and he left a lot of money in the back which was just folded this way flat and then the next guest who checked into the room he found the money how much was it it was a lot it was a couple of thousand pounds yeah they were all flat in the nicely folded yeah so that's why I'm always checking inside now just in case yeah the girls they found a lot they found a lot of money they don't find a lot of money in the room sometimes it's locked in a safe and if the guest is not asking for it I think it's for six months and yeah the money the girls will get it yeah it can be a lot of money I think it depends on the on the value on the value she just got two thousand dollars recently yeah which was left locked in a safe Anna you like this at home no I have a dog no not at all not at all [Music] not every dog is Left Behind Sammy the spaniel has stayed over 20 times at the hotel the minute he gets out of the car and you walk straight up to the door and puts his nose up and says this is it sometimes I drop him in luggage off and they check him into the room [Music] they always ask is Sammy coming too and then they put out a little towel for him and the dog bowl and so and then they they then get his his bed out and things like that sometimes it takes a long time to check in and a long time to check out because everybody's so busy talking to Sammy at checkout Sammy's toy food and water bowl are put into storage awaiting his next visit before we came to carriages time used to get rather depressing in London one night was enough for me they have a depression you could always tell the head would droop and he'd say just get me out of here ever since we've been staying at Cloud just he says I'm very happy thank you very much and I'm quite happy to stay another night [Music] hi Stephen you're very kind you're going to take them for a walk of course and I'm afraid I'm going to give you absolutely absolutely so where's mommy where's Mommy left you know Sam we've found and do you ever say no to a guest I never say no to a guest I cannot say no to a guest I will do everything in my power to do whatever it is they want me to do so let's just briefly talk about what we can do today in the on the third four rooms yeah three one eight three one six three two one claridge's has 83 000 guests a year as well as those booking for a night or two the hotel is used to dealing with people who demand a whole lot more I'm gonna take the Bible's out in three days time they're expecting the arrival of foreign royalty who want to occupy the entire third floor thank you [Music] they all paying a lot of money is very high rate so we need to extra careful yeah hi Chris the arrival time still is about six o'clock I presume Security will be on the site probably close to noon so basically we just we make sure that we take all the alcoholic products out from us everyone important in this group is how perfectly it needs to go okay the whole floor will be taken over by 27 female guests with their women only security guards no men will be allowed to set foot on the floor we have to um line all these glass doors so that people can't see in [Music] it's very soft bed for the princess she wants very very soft bed so we are putting the extra duvi is for her four yes she wants very very soft there are 40 rooms on the third floor ten have to be cleared of all furniture to create space for private dressing rooms and dining rooms so all these rooms will be connected we will be opening the connecting doors throughout the whole floor yeah so the guests will be able to go around in one big circle they can do that yeah the other bedroom will be turned into kitchens we completely cover the carpet and then they will lay banking tables all the way around the room and fridges and then they'll put serving dishes on top and things like hot plates [Music] tar sweets will be used just for storing shopping bags [Music] presentation must be perfect all scuffs are touched up dripping Taps fixed it's just it's actually it's actually running here from the top and one bath is re-enameled so basically what we've done this this has been a chipper taking all the Chrome off or yeah yeah we're going to sprayed it so no it's been a heat lamp you know to being hardened so basically rather than replacing the bath we're repairing all the chips however the guests have yet to confirm their booking [Music] delayed a day how does that happen possibly travel travel plans change is it London is it Paris is it will it be the us or the Alps maybe they might they might go skiing they might go to a skiing Resort you know the schedulers of people's lives are very very demanding and very busy we have this with a lot of our top top guests they probably have every intention to stay here on Wednesday and then the day changes demands change playing different demand for a different city and they arrive on Thursday or a week later or you know we deal with that all the time so for one room that's of course slightly different in comparison to a whole floor it's taken two days to transform the third floor into a temporary Palace but still the booking has not been confirmed could the guests yeah they could after all this work yeah or they could delay their visit well obviously very upset [Applause] the royal family finally arrives two days behind schedule [Music] so have you met her highness her highness I haven't met no I haven't been to her room I have I had shaken her has spoken to her or had an exchange so it's really not unusual for um for for me not to see certain guests one wouldn't think would one with more than 11 000 five-star luxury rooms in London claridges faces stiff competition Thomas knows he needs to keep attracting the likes of the guests currently occupying the third floor how can people understand how big a business Clarity is it is all relative you know there are of course companies and corporations in this world that probably um turn over more Revenue with 420 people and then others that turn over less or claridges is is is a 58 million pound business in turnover terms and that is a year and is there pressure on you to increase the revenue every year yeah yeah well yes again you can call it pressure or you can look I'm probably the one to ask for more so it's what you do to yourself um it wouldn't be it wouldn't be a healthy budget if you said like yeah it was amazing what we did last year let's just do the same you would always want to do a little bit better and a little bit more more than a third of clarity's guests are from the United States and a couple of times a year Thomas travels to New York to meet the most influential American travel agents foreign [Music] that the general managers go once or twice a year themselves and there is nothing more valuable than personal contact and that's really that's really why I'm here so will the general managers of other hotels in London like the Ritz the Dorchester the Savoy come out to New York too I'm pretty certain they do first stop Fisher travel father and daughter Bill and Stacy craft Ultra Luxury experiences for the super rich they can't be found on the internet and you can only get their number by paying a joining fee we charge a hundred thousand dollars to become a client and then 25 000 a year to stay on as a client and that's before you've even made a phone call well yeah we'll make one call there's a fishing story you're like a woman like a fish and she went to her husband to fish too and they were in Africa so we wanted to make sure she said I want to make sure he catches a fish so we had to have a hire a frog man to go in the water to put a fish on the hook he caught a fish but we still had to pay for the Frog man well welcome back to New York thank you very much always good to be here yeah hotel is doing well London London yeah London is like New York I mean New York is doing terrific yeah our forecast looks very very positive but then of course when you read the press and when you when you see what's going on I mean the reality it doesn't quite reflect yeah the Press doesn't really know these type of clients that's true yeah that's true you know the president you know the Press if they stay in a room they're spending 100 150 pounds a night they're not spending a thousand or two or five or whatever that's the difference so there you know they just it's out of their Realm this card is um not suit certain people sure yeah exactly that for everybody it's uh you know they don't like maybe the art deco style they they want something a little more contemporary a little more modern yeah it's not it's not for everybody I would say something smaller yeah more Boutique have you ever had um clients requesting rooms redecorated for them oh yeah and is that done yeah they need you know they want to don't like the color scheme of the room or they don't like so they'll go in and do it and then of course charge them for it and then you know when they leave put it back to what it is and they don't mind paying not if they're asking for it Andrew yeah I can hardly hear you I must say Thomas is Never Off Duty he knows what's going on in clarities even when he's on the other side of the Atlantic did anything amusing happen in the hotel last night was a pretty straightforward normal night shame no I just think sometimes the you must have things that happen that just make you smile or make you groan but they're very human like the overrunning of the baths and yeah that happens a lot yeah how often do balls get overrun there too often another way how this are built it all drips through so you have a leak in the room below oh I know so when that happens you just think oh here we go again here we go a catfish it's a shame that's very wasteful often your carpets ceilings have to be painted made good the rock stars trashy yeah I knew that this would come up now exactly guitars breaking table glass tables being smashed peanuts all over no no no they're very well behaved our rock stars I just rock star's a good rock stars clients in claridge's last year Thomas is determined to improve on that hi nice to meet you absolutely delighted thank you today I think I checked two hours ago the market was collapsing again unfortunately when I looked it was about 350 points down based on some stuff in Europe uh so you know people are concerned what can you um Supply coming into the market yeah if I was a London I'll tell you I'd be nervous about all your new competition I mean there's a lot of it right there there's a lot of it yeah it's a boy and the Corinthian and the Four Seasons I mean boys a lot of new beautiful rooms in there absolutely yeah yeah absolutely but like I think someone who likes your hotel will stay with it I don't see why they wouldn't you have a great product but everybody likes to see the new kid on the Block when they first open but you see I think we always have to be cautious you know you have to say that we may leave you can't rest on your laurels no absolutely not you can't rest on your laws but I think you have a great name you have a great reputation but more importantly you have great service levels how much is a luxury room worth at what point does it become ludicrous to spend that money that's really an individual thing you know one man's one man's ludicrous is another man's normal so that's really an individual thing you know um there are certain Suites in the world that go for you know I might I might pay two thousand dollars for a suite another person think that ludicrous and another person will pay fifteen thousand dollars a night for a suite and I think that insane I know what I paid for one night in the best Villa in Tara Blanche in provides at the Four Seasons that other people would have a heart attack I asked what that was thirteen thousand dollars thank you this is a view you can't put a price on or actually you can we need to know the price don't you think claridges likes to flirt with its fashion and cultural connections and now has an artist in Residence who stays 52 nights a year in exchange for drawings you've got all of London like all these things you just think of all the lives going on all the people working it's amazing what do you think they're thinking about you I hope they're looking up and thinking God he's in the brook Penthouse he must have done something good he must have done well art is doing well that's what I want them to think my title is a fashion artist in Residence and it's the in Residence we love that's where we that's the bid I keep repeating I'm going to be recording in drawing some of claridge's favorite guests some of them are very famous some of them are known there is an underlying thing about style within the group of people that we're going to draw one and she's been staying at claridge's since the early 60s the one wonderful thing that's still operative is that breakfast comes with the most discreet people who see me in my curlers my flannel nightgown in the morning and they never look at me and it's always Madam may I pour this for you that it's a real treat to have somebody pour something for me she doesn't get how great she is thank God because she could be a monster and that's 66 years in an industry that hates 30 year olds so it's no wonder she's good at it as I always say she damned ought to be you know because 66 years of practice what's your favorite room I like one more before I like a lot of them actually but one one four I'm very keen on it's a great big Suite on the first floor where you get a butler or two you only have to ring the bell and two people come it took me ages to ring the bell I didn't dare I thought I'm not a person who has a butler I'm not a person who rings for a butler so I would ring down to reception and ask them what to do rather than ring the butler but they're great they're great at their job have you got used to having a butler I don't want to get used to having a butler it's dangerous you know because you do have to go home eventually I love people I love serving people and they're a great Challenge and I like challenges a bad day now and then like everybody else but I think you know if you deal with people you have to like people it's not coming oh you know you have to be that willing to serve you know and I like I like serving people Michael Lynch first came to work at the hotel in 1976 when he was 16 years old I grew up in a little village in Limerick Limerick is in the southwest of Ireland and there's about a thousand people and you know everybody and what's special about this Suite especially it's one of our it's one of it's one of my favorite sweets It's very very nice and it's very peaceful it's very quiet and when we have royalty in the hotel they usually stay in the road Suites or heads of state hello nothing it is welcome welcome to the Royal Suite here we have the sitting room it's Edwardian it's very nice it's a we have a French and marble fireplace here we have a piano it says here this piano belonged to Richard Dolly card of Gilman Sullivan fameda I can play things but not very well [Music] who's the most famous person you've ever had to for your butt litty I say probably daradella Versace she was wonderful I loved her she was very very nice she said in the penthouse she was really sweet she was on her letters and she could walk very strange because she came with her legs but she was sweet she was very nice and Mariah Carey she was lovely it's very nice lady she stayed upstairs and when you're famous you can't choose your own meme you have to use your Alias you can't people right here you stay in Clarity if you're something else so it's quite nice but because Clara just loves you when you stay here you don't have to lift your leg too too hard into the bath it's sunken and when you're in the bath if you need a value of the maid to come there's call buttons there as well shower and everything else thank you very much [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning Mr neggers this is your 6 45 wake-up call thank you you're very welcome ah today is going to be cloudy with some light rain in the forecast and the high is going to be approximately 8 Celsius or 46 Fahrenheit yeah you do sometimes you have to recall it with what's called a sound board where they take a celebrity's voice and they splice it up into various little audio bits but you get used to the ones that they'll call you with all the time they call you with Arnold Schwarzenegger quite a lot so you'll pick up the phone say good afternoon Claridge is how may I help you and then you'll hear who is your daddy and what does he do Christy is Christy here tell us a little bit about that we have some news about a very exciting booking that came in overnight she's going to be checking into our penthouse for one month starting on November 1st um so if we can all just get to familiarize ourselves with her and there'll be more details to come on that shortly okay and Carl you will um basically the requirement is a Jacuzzi yeah let's put the jacuzzi in um we just need to make sure it's ordered today basically we need the room for Monday Christian to make sure it's off on Monday we're going to rip everything out Monday and start building Tuesday to the end of the week so it's quite a lot of work a lot of marble work and that is it for today okay well have a good day everyone thank you very much can you tell me both about the pop artist who's coming that's quite exciting it is we just heard about it at 11 o'clock last night so we don't know a whole lot we have to now do some research but she does have a crew of 35 people that she travels with well she one of her preferences was to have a Jacuzzi um a Jacuzzi but also to stay on a high floor and to stay in the penthouse and our Penthouse at this point doesn't have a Jacuzzi but it will have one in about four days [Music] out goes the 15 year old bath in goes the jacuzzi surrounded by the original marble [Music] have you done this before another jacuzzi I'm not a Jacuzzi a gym a real real big gym I actually have pictures of that one exactly I don't think I've ever showed you that yeah [Music] Ian do you want to kick off and start through arrivals for Friday the artist going into the brick Penthouse she's actually pre-registered for arrival on Saturday everyone's received a memo the claridge's team has researched their new guest from her stays in other hotels I was just looking through emails they're actually quite interesting of like specific comments made by her team from previous days um as Ian said going to that Suite without any pre-authorization without being accompanied by their staff without going through the Butlers can't be stressed any stronger it's just imperative that nobody for any reason goes to that Suite um also they had issues there they had like a tap you know a tap falling off you know um which put the whole stay into Jeopardy so you know even you know there's obviously quite a serious thing to happen but that one thing nearly lost that hotel the entire piece of business we're going to look at the um jacuzzi that we have in store it last week for our arrival on Saturday okay let's have a look let's hope we like it so one jacuzzi oh wow nice little remote control okay okay well this looks very very good foreign you see the most important thing is that you always test everything because of course you everyone is telling you it's perfect and it's ready and it's in stores but Michael and I we very much believe it's only once you've seen it it really works so someone will have to sit in this jacuzzi before she arrives you is [Music] the pop star has arrived and been settled into the 6 700 pounds a night penthouse [Music] of course let me connect you with the foyer in reading room you're welcome all the numbers are up here I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning but I can remember all the numbers and have you had many calls from the pop artist not one I I've not spoken to her once her manager yes he he calls a lot uh but her herself no um I don't even know if she has a voice have you seen her I've not no I think I've seen a video on YouTube but uh yeah no not in person good afternoon claridges how may I help you have you met the pop artist who's up on in the penthouse has she been in this lift yes and so sit over here and is very happy to be up and down this lift under she ever say good morning good afternoon because the always is very tired because he's working on most of the time good evening I met her twice and she said hello I'm going out you can do my room full of luggage hundreds or like it's what did she buy she buys shoes designer like Chanel Louis Vuitton all all designer clothes and these high heels with sparkling shoes so you have hundreds Maybe so what have you learned about rich people Tita are they always happy I think what I think to the rich people I think because they have too much money would you like to be famous no I think Ordinary People Like Us is better life we can do whatever we want we have Liberty but not with bodyguards [Music] Christmas season is key for the hotel more is spent in its four walls than at any other time of the year [Music] that's a nice time of the year isn't this Christmas it is when you see how it all comes together and yeah it's really lovely [Music] foreign 's tradition that every year the hotel has a famous designer to build its Christmas tree for the past two years this has been John Galliano but not this year another French I don't know if you've all seen here's a printout so now so this is a visual drawn by Albert Alberts obviously the the head designer for for long van it's a completely and utterly different design from anything we've done before which actually I think is probably a very good thing but I personally I love the idea and the concept of the tree I think I think it has something very artistic and it's got something very bespoke and personal this is really I'll bear Airbus creating a Christmas wish and and you know I can remember the attraction that the tree has been over the last few years and I can really see people coming in and families under the tree and children just being super excited that tree is obviously not just magically appearing it will require some meticulous planning and getting ready for this to happen but in essence we have the time frame between midnight and 6 a.m so that's only six hours the tree just has to be ready it has to be ready at six later 6 30 lit there comes when everybody gets tired and everybody's more interested in coffees and sandwiches and we need to watch that [Music] [Applause] [Music] so this is dear [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] looks good come on [Applause] [Music] are you pleased with it I I absolutely love it I'm very very pleased yes so first of all what you see is you see an amazing big Christmas tree and you think wow it's it's a great tree and then you look closer and the first thing you probably discover is the scene around the tree of Mr and Mrs lava and his mistress after the Christmas lunch congratulations are you able to say how much it costs claridges to put up all these decorations outside and inside shouldn't there be a well-kept secret how much does magic cost Jack and Norma melker are in their late 80s and have been coming to the hotel for 40 years [Music] this year they'll spend Christmas with their family in the royal suite Jack sold his software company to Hewlett-Packard a Norma joke she bought early shares in Google very happy very happy life we've had together these many many years yeah it's been fun and the times that we've been at carriages have been this delightful we always enjoy there as well oh I see if you hold it this way she could read it I think look at that congratulations to Jack and Norma melker on their 65th wedding anniversary from the entire courageous team we know him so well they're like family our first visit to claridge's to London we went up to parents I think it was Harrington Fordham and Mason and saw that and that's what we got yeah [Music] foreign we get the Royal Suite constantly now so we're in there every time we go over there yeah I think excellent caring and beautiful that would be mine you can say that about me I won't mind I I think they screwed it up when they gave the 10-year lease to the restaurant tour oh Ramsay I think they made a mistake amazing okay well let's look at the arrivals um there was one pre-registered on there today it's the melkors are coming back tomorrow as everyone knows so let's pay a lot of attention there and prepare this it's a Christmas day looking forward to having them back but they're staying for 16 nights so it's a long stay and they're going to celebrate Christmas here make sure that everybody in your teams who has joined after their last stay is discreetly being introduced and pointed out to them they are our most regular guests and they've been coming for 40 years and it's such a special stay so they should be recognized and known they love to be introduced they love to be introduced exactly so good thank you that's the mail course okay Mr Mrs melkor coming in for 16 nights Katrina one one one I need to prepare the beds for Mr and miss malhor and plus I need to organize some Furnitures for them as they like like a wing show in the sitting room and the little table next to it anything else that we need to do everybody knows who the melkors are yeah yeah good and next to connecting doors is the royal suite is being minutely prepared for the melka's arrival a detailed guest profile document is gathered on all returning guests that outlines their every preference from how the beds are made up and types of pillows to where the furniture is placed within the room this is a setup of the pictures here so the setup of the sitting room how it looks and the setup of her bedroom [Music] the husband have a different way of his making of the bed and then the wife has a different way as well but they are like a traditional people they really love sheets for example yeah pet likes to the window is for me smarter and we are using only two sheets and blankets she don't want nothing else and on the top we are putting just the end down it's like a kind of duvet but it's just on the top Karen yes yeah yeah okay can we just make sure the those beds have tied it up at the end yeah okay see you later two and typically what does this suite cost to rent for the night uh this week is five and a half thousand a night yeah it is a lot of money but I think you can quite easily spend ten thousand pounds flying to New York for a five hour flight so you know it's all become very relative it's a management tradition that on her arrival Mrs melker is handed an old set of keys to the doors in claridges they joked that she knows the hotel better than any of the staff and can act as honorary night manager they are always in the same place and they have been for a long time because this has been the general manager's desks for I mean we need to ask a pet but for I think for probably more than 50 years does she look very pleased when she gets them I mean Mrs Marco is a fantastic woman and she has a great I think she has a great spirit and a great sense of humor so you can actually see a twinkly eye when she gets these keys that as they disappear in her handbag okay yes okay do you have a key I have a key good after a day of preparation Thomas checks every Last Detail before Mr and Mrs melker arrived yes so but Ian let's just wait here for a moment so I think I think we should take the orchids away because that clashes with the wreath look it's it's not the same so we can just maybe get some but either nothing or a fruit bowl or more traditional flowers or another Christmasy Arrangement but yeah not sure than that yeah so that's very nice traditional Christmas arrangement pretty much yeah it's where will Mrs Marco sit this is Hersey yeah um and in this space it's always left clear for just a little coffee trolley in the afternoon Mr Malco so biscuits always here and then here is for Jose yeah iPad for his reading no everything is is prepared perfectly that's how it always is and it always has to be like this so it's good all done just a few flower changes and and we're all set we need to add some some amenities like the fruit but but of course they're not here yet they come fresh from the kitchen do you ever wonder when their last visit will be let them enjoy this visit and I'm sure there will be many more to come so yeah Michael has been serving the milkers since he started working in the hotel and you're they're still coming my God he said I become 34 years I've been here and they're becoming longer than that [Music] this is the best part for our job we get lots of return customers coming back and they slowly see the familiar faces coming back and it's nice [Music] how are you so glad you're welcome back it's important thing the keys the key okay someone in charge two hours from the airport [Music] during their 16-day stay the melkers only leave the hotel twice We're All Creatures of habit and that's the great thing about working with the Butlers people have breakfast and usually the same thing the Americas they have the same breakfast every morning they have coffee for two toasts well done white toast that's this and maybe an oranges now they might have some porridge are you amazed at how much money some people have yes and yes it's amazing you know these very difficult times you know you come to Cloud to get somebody paying Recreation oh my God which will you get used to us working in one hotel like this you just it just goes over your head with sometimes some hot strong coffee I'll just I'll just open this for you here yeah that's it I mean protein milk a little honey actually apricot there we are and for you Mr marker makes it nice when you know exactly what we need right Monday's my good day you're very lucky Monday's my good day you got your morning papers already yes please I read almost read them already the good Butler's not here no no you're stuck with me today but I've been sick for the next three days so you had a good bottle tomorrow I got jealous or enviously never never would I get jealous jealous no I I I think you know more part of them you know it's a they've probably worked very hard for that money here no I've never been jealous of our guests thank you very much in very very simple terms every time someone visits you need to create a reason to visit again so there needs to be at least one memory that will encourage another visit in the airport and to create loyalty and to create that emotion or that association with a hotel that will make this person turn into a regular guest [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] my late mommies I will say don't you have things you know give 100 trust don't do it I think it's a very good outlooking knife don't do half measures won't be happy life is very short with you know we're already passing through [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Our Stories

Views: 2,534,737

Keywords: Our Stories, Documentary, Observational Documentary, Real Stories, Full Episode, Full Length Episodes, Full Documentary, Fly On The Wall, Yearbook, Real Life, Documentaries, Real Lives, Behind The Scenes, inside claridges, claridges, super posh hotel, finest hotel, best hotel, posh hotel, claridges documentary, hotel documentary

Id: mBsJ0vC4Xnw

Length: 55min 43sec (3343 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 22 2022