Concierge? What’s that?
The concierge was originally a low-paid caretaker, usually a woman, who sat in a small room at the bottom of a block of flats in Paris or some provincial French city, protecting the residents from uninvited guests, and doing some cleaning of the public areas.
There’s disagreement as to the origin of the word. It could be derived from the Old French cumcerges, which was related to the Medieval Latin the Latin conservus, or “slave companion”. Or possibly it’s a contraction of comte des cierges (“count of candles”), a servant responsible for maintaining the lighting and cleanliness of medieval palaces.
In more modern times the concierge became the person who had a desk in a hotel, and could organise theatre tickets, arrange a taxi, or suggest places of interest you might want to visit.
For a monthly subscription, private concierge services, provide services such as hotel and travel arrangements. Examples include Quintessentially (average client net worth $36m), Innerplace, and John Paul Group, which has over 1,000 concierges across 12 offices.
Subsequently, cruise ships added a concierge. That person arranges tours and events for when the passengers visit a port.
Similarly, the upmarket banks such as Coutts have a concierge service for wealthy account holders, who’ll book tickets and arrange restaurant meals. And stores like Harvey Nichols will arrange beauty makeovers, or take care of your shopping bags while you eat in one of its restaurants.
The term was then appropriated by the corporations, to signify a higher level of service than the average customer gets. You pay extra for the better service, and you feel you’re a cut above the other customers. For the corporations, it’s a way of adding an additional service, and making the product sound more prestigious.
They can provide housekeepers, drivers, travel arrangements and art for the walls.
But today there’s a new class of concierge. They do more than just the trivial work, and its members work not just for the rich but for the corporations as well.
The new Concierge Class are the lawyers and accountants, the lobbyists and trade associations, who actively help corporations and the rich to make more money.
Members of this class include right-wing think tanks, supine regulators, and venomous journalists. In my book, the Concierge Class, I uncover the work of each and every one of them.
