好英语网专门满足顶级客户需求的五星级服务团队
If you’ve stayed at a certain kind of hotel, you’ve probably seen them.
如果你住过某些酒店，你很可能见过他们。
They’re wearing a finely-made suit and that pin — two crossed golden keys — on their lapel. And they’ll go to nearly any lengths to fulfil your wishes.
他们会在笔挺的西装上别一个领章——上面的图案是两把交叉的金钥匙。无论多远，他们都愿意跑腿满足客户的愿望。
These people with the real keys to the city and the insider track to almost everything stand ready at one of the hundreds of four- and five-star hotels around the world that employ one of these super fixers, a member of the Golden Keys, or Les Clefs d’Or, the original French name for the society of elite concierges.
这些对所在城市了如指掌、几乎做任何事情都能找到内部渠道的人，就在世界各地的成百上千家四星或五星级酒店里随时待命。作为金钥匙组织的成员，他们就像超级英雄一样为顾客解决各种各样的麻烦。
From an exclusive birthday gift or a sought-after reservation at the hottest place in town, if anyone can get it, it’s a Golden Keys concierge. They have immense connections within their cities, as well as amongst each other, which helps with many of the logistically challenging tasks they’re asked to do. And, while apps and robots are replacing some of their key duties, like hailing cabs or making routine bookings, each year, dozens seek to apply for membership in the exclusive society.
从尊享生日礼物到最热门餐厅的预定渠道，如果有什么人能够搞定这一切，那一定是金钥匙组织的成员。他们在自己的城市拥有广泛的人脉，他们彼此之间也建立了联系，从而帮助其更好地应对颇具挑战的任务。另外，虽然手机应用和机器人正在取代酒店礼宾司的一些职责，例如代客泊车或订座订餐，但每年仍会有数十人申请成为这个精英社团的成员。
The human touch in the service industry, it seems, is still in demand.
服务行业似乎仍然需要由人来完成一些任务。
VIPs, of course, aren’t shy when it comes to outlandish or outrageous demands. An outright “no” simply isn’t an option, at least in the majority of cases, when it comes to the most important guests. Only when, say, a request is against local laws or entirely impossible to fulfil, will an elite concierge offer an alternative.
当然，VIP客户从来都不惮于提出各种古怪而离谱的要求。遇到最重要的客人时，生硬地拒绝对方显然不在他们的考虑范围之内——至少多数情况下如此。只有当这些要求违反当地法律或者根本不可能完成时，这些精英礼宾司才会为客户提供其他建议。
Mostly, members of the prestigious club are tasked with more normal requests, but there are the occasional embarrassingly intimate requests says Pham Cong Thinh, the chief concierge at the Sofitel Metropole in Hanoi and the head of the Golden Keys association in Vietnam.
多数情况下，这个久负盛名的社团接到的还是一些较为正常的要求，但河内索菲特酒店的礼宾部经理、越南金钥匙组织负责人Pham Cong Thinh表示，偶尔还是会遇到一些令人尴尬的私密要求。
“A guest came to me at 9pm at night, when all the shops were closed. He was shy and embarrassed, but he told me that he needed to buy a condom, and he needed my help,” Thinh says.
“一位顾客夜里9点找到我，当时所有商店都关门了。他显得有点害羞，有点尴尬，但他告诉我，他要买一个避孕套，因此需要我的帮助。”Thinh说。
It’s one of the stories that still makes Thinh laugh today. He knew the neighbourhood well enough to find a pharmacy that was still open. “The guest was very... happy,” Thinh giggled.
提起此事，Thinh至今仍会开怀大笑。他对周围很熟悉，所以可以找到一家仍在营业的药店。“那位顾客非常……高兴。”他笑着说。
These elite concierges have to cut their teeth on a hotel front desk for at least three years and show a number of recommendation letters before they can apply for provisional membership with their national Golden Keys societies.
想要申请成为所在国金钥匙组织的成员，至少要在酒店前台历练3年时间，还要获得多封推荐信。
Then there’s a lengthy interview and a written exam in which their knowledge, network and professionalism are put to the test. Once a member, they can ask any other member for help fulfilling a guest request, even if they work at competing hotels — loyalty to the club and the profession comes first.
除此之外，还要通过漫长的面试和笔试来考察他们的知识、人脉和专业精神。一旦成为金钥匙组织的成员，便可要求其他任何一位成员帮助自己满足客户的要求，即便对方任职的酒店与你存在竞争关系——对俱乐部的忠诚和专业精神永远排在第一。
Of sauces and smuggling
烧烤酱和偷运客人
In Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, Bill Murray’s character calls a series of fellow concierges to help smuggle a guest out of the hotel — a plot twist inspired by the Society of the Golden Keys.
在维斯·安德森（Wes Anderson）执导的电影《布达佩斯大饭店》（The Grand Budapest Hotel）里，比尔·莫瑞（Bill Murray）扮演的角色就叫来了一大批酒店礼宾司帮助一名客人偷运出酒店——这个情节受到了金钥匙组织的启发。
While smuggling people out of a hotel is not necessarily part of the daily itinerary of real-life members (aside from secretive celebrities, perhaps) their vast network of people who usually have decades of experience working in their respective cities is “tremendously” helpful, says Burak Ipecki, who has worked at five-star hotels across the world, most recently at the South Place Hotel in London.
虽然把人偷运出酒店未必是金钥匙组织成员的日常工作（除了一些需要避开人群的名人之外），但曾经在世界各地的多家五星级酒店工作、最近任职于伦敦南广场酒店的布拉克·伊培基（Burak Ipecki）表示，这些成员往往在其所在的城市工作了数十年，因此可以带来“巨大”帮助。
“Especially if you happen to work, like me, in major destinations like New York, London, Paris, etc, you tend to share the same guests with your colleagues in other cities,” he says.
“尤其是当你像我一样恰好在纽约、伦敦、巴黎这样的大城市工作时，往往就会与其他城市的同事服务相同的客人。”他说。
When he worked in New York, he recalls, a guest requested a specific barbecue sauce that was only produced in small batches in Louisiana — and that he wanted to have shipped to his home in the Caribbean for a garden party the next day. With the help of the network, Ipecki fulfilled the request.
他回忆道，当他在纽约工作时，有一位客人想要一点路易斯安那特产的烧烤酱——他希望明天在加勒比海的家里举行花园派对时能及时用上这些烧烤酱。在金钥匙组织的帮助下，伊培基成功满足了客户的要求。
“The list goes on and on.... We get to see our guests at their best and their worst,” he says.
“任务越来越多……我们看见过客户最好的一面，也见识过他们最糟糕的一面。”他说。
Many in the elite society have signed non-disclosure agreements with their employers in part because celebrities and politicians are frequent guests at the world’s five-star hotels. Some hotels give their concierges a budget of several thousand dollars a day to help accommodate their guests’ wishes — all at no extra cost to the well-heeled clients.
金钥匙组织的很多成员都与雇主签订了保密协议，部分原因在于名人和政要经常入住这些世界顶尖五星级酒店。有些酒店还会为礼宾司每天提供数千美元的预算，好让他们满足客人的愿望——而且不会向这些富有的客户额外收费。
The era of apps and AI
高科技时代
The personal touches, like finding items late at night or doing the impossible to get a sauce shipped, might not be able to done by a robot, but that doesn’t mean the posts are immune.
深更半夜买东西或者远隔万里寄送烧烤酱这些需要身体力行的工作是机器人难以胜任的，但这并不意味着酒店礼宾司的工作完全不受科技发展的影响。
The Henn-na Hotel in Japan has staffed its front desk with robots that look like young Japanese women — and one that looks like a dinosaur. The robots speak several languages and are programmed to make eye contact and smile politely.
日本Henn-na酒店就在前台配备了外观类似年轻日本女性的机器人——还有一台恐龙外观的机器人。这些机器人会说好几种语言，而且可以通过编程进行眼神交流，并保持礼貌的微笑。
Daniel Lesser, the president of LW Hospitality Advisers who has worked in the industry for more than 30 years, believes that artificial intelligence is a way of making hotels run more cost-effectively. Robots are expensive now but are expected to become cheaper with mass production. Even counting maintenance, their costs are much lower than paying an annual salary, or accounting for holidays or sick leave.
LW Hospitality Advisers总裁丹尼尔·莱塞（Daniel Lesser）在这个行业工作了30多年，他认为，人工智能可以提升酒店的成本效益。机器人现在的价格很贵，但随着大批量生产，价格有望降低。即便考虑维护费用，它们的成本也远低于人员工资，而且没有节假日，也不会生病。
But for now, it's apps like Uber and Yelp that have brought about major changes to the average work day of even elite concierges.
但现在，就连精英礼宾司的日常工作也因为Uber和Yelp这样的应用而发生了很大变化。
William Chen from the Portman Ritz Carlton in Shanghai, one of the world’s largest financial centres, says many guests he assists come to the city to invest their money. So, as apps have taken on some of the more mundane concierge tasks, Chen has learned about the real estate market and the stock exchange, and reads the local business and economy news every day to offer the best insights.
上海波特曼丽嘉酒店的威廉·陈（Willaim Chen）表示，他帮助的很多客人都是来上海投资的。所以，随着这些手机应用承担了礼宾司的日常工作，陈开始学习房地产市场和股票交易方面的知识，而且每天都会阅读当地的商业和经济新闻，以便为顾客提供最好的分析。
He stops short of providing financial advice, but he does point his guests in the right direction for information, local rules and regulations and experts. He’ll even go so far as to set up the call or arrange a meeting with an expert or businessperson.
他不会给出财务建议，但的确会向客人提供合适的渠道，帮助他们了解信息和地方法规，或者寻找专家。他甚至帮助客户拨打电话，或者安排与专家或商人的会面。
“There are definitely fewer guests who ask us for help, but that also means that you can spend more time with the individuals who do,” Chen says.
“向我们求助的客人的确在减少，但这也意味着你可以在那些需要帮助的人身上投入更多时间。”陈说。