Nicholas Lander
Name: Nicholas Lander
Job: Head Concierge, Kingsway Hall Hotel, London<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>
Date of birth: 21/12/72
Route to job: At the age of 16, Nicholas Lander had already decided that the hotel business was for him. He left school in 1987 and went straight into a trainee hotel manager scheme at the 300-bedroom, four-star St Giles Hotel in London. He started as a part-time breakfast waiter serving 300 covers a day, from there he was promoted to à la carte lunch/evening waiter.
In October 1989 he became a breakfast chef, responsible for the production of the 300 covers he was serving just two years before. His management training was based on knowing every part of the hotel inside out, so when he left in June 1992 he had been a linen porter, chamber person, reservations clerk and bar manager. He even did stints in the personnel department, accounts and sales.
It was during this constant job swapping that he got his first taste of being a concierge and it was this role that he enjoyed the most. From the St Giles he moved to the 89-bedroom Sheraton Belgravia, another four-star London hotel, initially as a management trainee and then as senior desk concierge.
In 1996 Lander moved again, to the Harrington Hall hotel in south-west London. As deputy head concierge, and then acting head concierge, he honed the skills that saw him move again in mid-1999 to the position he now holds at the 170-bedroom Kingsway Hall hotel.
What do you need to be a head concierge? "The main thing is just to love what you do. I adore my job and wouldn't change it for the world. Every day is so different. You have to be outgoing, approachable and confident, you definitely can't be shy. You must know how to juggle a million different things at once, and remember not just people's names but what they like and don't like and anticipate their needs.
"You also need to be able to spend your time out of work constructively. Your primary job is as an information source to your guest and you have to know what the best restaurants, shows, clubs and bars are by going to them yourself. I'll admit though that that isn't too much of a chore!"
