Just as he has greeted high-net-worth clients on foot at the doors of the hotel where he works to carry their suitcases to their rooms, he has suddenly found himself organizing a lightning trip from Gran Canaria to Tenerife by helicopter for a client to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Luxury has no limits and neither do the needs of customers, and José García, second reception manager at a luxury establishment in Meloneras, knows this well. Together with his team, he has had to move heaven and earth to satisfy the extravagances of some guests of important economic level and even cultural relevance, like Bruce Springsteen himself, for whom they had to find water from the Fiji Islands. José is one of those people who gets up every day to offer the best of himself to boost the main sector of the Canarian economy.
José landed in the world in 1978 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, coming from a family from the north, from the municipalities of Gáldar and Guía, who were dedicated to growing bananas and flowers but who decided to move to Maspalomas to work in the tourist sector in the Don Gregory hotel, when it was owned by Seaside Hotels. And he drank from that culture; So much so, that after determining the school he studied a cycle of business administration and management and went to Liverpool for two years to perfect his English. When he came back he joined the same chain where his parents worked, first in the purchasing department and then, when he opened the Seaside Grand Hotel Residencia, as a porter. Today, 20 years later, he is the second reception manager at this luxury complex.
José received the great millionaires at the request of a car and took their suitcase to their room. «It was the first face they saw when they arrived at the hotel and the service had to be exquisite, but it did not stop there, but if they needed any other service during their stay, they only had to ask for it», he recalls, “it was the first face they saw after a long trip and it was when we had to show them that everything was going to be fine and that they had chosen the right place for their vacation.” The manager values that stage as one of the most important in his working life. «I am very proud of how I have been growing professionally; Being a porter helped me to learn how the hotel’s machinery works screw by screw, he recalls, “it was a beautiful stage in which I had the opportunity to provide a different service to the client and be very detailed.”
«Starting to work as a porter helped me get to know the hotel machinery screw by screw»
He left the hotel and went to Germany for two years to improve his language, but returned after two years after a call again from Seaside to offer him the position of reception assistant, a position he held for only six months until he reached his current position.
José says that his passion is customer service and that he puts all his effort into it in his day to day. «My hobby is to know every morning who enters and who leaves the hotel; we have 70% of repeat clients and taking that into account I like to have a minimum detail with them », he points out, « I like to take into account what their wishes are in order to satisfy them before they ask us; we always have the lessons well learned».
“It is a responsibility to deal with a client who pays about 600 euros a day for the cheapest room”
The professional defines it as a “great responsibility” to treat a client of this hotel because they have a high purchasing power and are very demanding. “Imagine the responsibility of dealing with clients who pay €600 per day for the cheapest room and €3,000 for the most expensive in high season; everything must work perfectly, there is no room for error », he relates, « our clients have stayed in the best hotels in the world and we must be aware of that ».
celebrities
Among the many anecdotes that José has lived in two decades, he remembers that of a German client who every time he stays asks for help to celebrate his wedding anniversary. «It gave me the great opportunity that he was an accomplice to surprise his wife; on one occasion I had to organize a helicopter trip to Tenerife so that he could have lunch in a rural hotel, from there he would go back to have coffee and champagne in a restaurant in Bandama, and from there the helicopter continued to Maspalomas where they were picked up at the foot of the runway by a limousine to take them out to dinner on a yacht; it was a challenge to organize all that chain of surprises”, says José.
Another of the challenges that this worker has faced together with his colleagues is to locate water from the Fiji Islands for the American musician Bruce Springsteen. “The reception department is very professional, and so is everyone else, and the purchasing and commercial colleagues there shined,” he says. Other celebrities who have stayed in the facilities of this luxury hotel complex have been the actor Orlando Bloom or the late British actor Christopher Lee. And recently the Spanish actor Paco León.
José says that given the level of repetition of the guests of this complex, his relationship with tourists in some cases almost becomes intimate, and he likes that. “Tourism is the main economic engine of this island and I am grateful that our visitors choose this tourist destination, and that they choose us considering that this hotel is the highest category on the island of Gran Canaria”, points out, “Tui’s clients have chosen us on several occasions in the list of the 100 best hotels in the world, so being able to work here, with this clientele, is truly a luxury.”
When he looks back and looks at his career, José has no doubt that he chose the best profession to dedicate himself body and soul, and when he looks to the future he sees himself in the same place. “I love my job and being able to deal daily with clients who are mostly repeat customers, a bond that is impossible to break is already being created,” he says.
