Then they have guests so well-travelled that their requests are uber specific. One, in particular, was returning to Tanzania in East Africa despite having previously been there during the Great Migration. Witnessing the year-long phenomenon, which sees constant movement of over a million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of zebras and gazelles across the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, is one of the most sought-after experiences for wildlife and nature enthusiasts.
The guest had said, “I’m only going back to Tanzania because I need to see the animals crossing the river. I don’t want to see them running about in the fields. They need to be crossing the river”, Tan recalled in amusement.
“It’s a very specific request, so we had to stick them at a lodge that’s right by the Mara River, and you have to time it in such a way that you know the animals are going to be there crossing the river at the time they’re staying there.”
In Singapore, one of the most “puzzling” requests they received was from a guest who wanted to replace the mattress in the presidential suite of an ultra-luxe heritage hotel in the city centre, whose name Tan requested to withhold. He’d found it “too hard” due to his back issues.
“The problem is the mattress was made specifically for the custom-built bed frame. You can’t just switch it out with any other mattress,” Tan said. The repeated attempts by the butler team to use mattress toppers to soften the mattress were unfortunately futile.
So she’d initially apologised, unable to see any way her team could fulfil the request, even as they’d worked quickly with the hotel’s butler team to try and resolve the concerns. Then, unexpectedly, a solution presented itself.
“While (the client) was in the spa, we worked with the hotel’s butler team, who managed to source a softer mattress from a partner property that was able to fit the suite’s custom bed frame. The hotel’s housekeeping team of about six to eight people then transported the replacement mattress by foot, hand-carrying it across the road and switching it out whilst the client was in the spa.”
