Many people are becoming familiar with the term "concierge,", however very few know the origin of this customer-service based profession. The word "concierge" evolves from the French comte Descierges, the "keeper of the candler," a term that referred to the servant who attended to the whims of visiting noblemen at medieval castles. Eventually, the name "concierge" came to stand for keeper of the keys at public buildings, especially hotels.



Regardless of the origin, hotels from around the world were the first ones to adopt the concierge idea and offer the service to their guests. Today, independent concierge companies have brought this ancient service to the modern world so that now everyone has access to them.

The question still remains as to what exactly is a concierge? Many say that it is a short term or another word for personal assistant.

The concierge industry came into existence about 10-15 years ago and started with a few brave pioneers who took the hotel concierge idea and decided to offer it to the corporate world.

You can now find concierge everywhere; in hospitals, malls, corporations, apartment buildings, office buildings, airports, colleges, associations, churches and so on. You could sum up the state of the industry in two words, extraordinary growth.

We all manage and balance our tasks and important assignments every day, and since many people don't have a personal assistant to make the phone calls and run the errands for them, they try and cram them into the weekend and on their lunch hour during the week. In fact, many people feel that there are simply not enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Although the concierge industry is fairly new, the number of companies that are catering to time-starved people is skyrocketing as is the customer demand for such businesses. Why? Simple, people are trying to squeeze 36 hours into a 24-hour day.

Here are a few services that are currently offered by concierge companies:

? Search for tickets to concerts and special events

? Transportation Services

? Business Referral Service

? Restaurant Recommendations and Reservations

? Dry cleaning pick-up/delivery

? Grocery shopping

? Pet services

? Senior care

? Modified house sitting

? Tickets to concerts and special events

? Travel and Vacation Planning

? Meeting and Event Planning

Concierge services are also a terrific new work/life benefit as corporations begin to offer these services to their employees and clients. Concierges are being added to hospitals, universities, shopping malls, airports and more. Certainly Concierge services are the wave of the future.