Ten Lifestyle: Delivering a flawless Christmas and New Year in 145 countries

Tuesday, 20 December 2011 15:17

Venues & Events

Andrew Long, COO of international concierge company, Ten Lifestyle, says: “December and January are incredibly busy times for Ten. However, demand isn’t consistent during the period, meaning we need to keep an eye on resourcing and learn from the experiences of past years.”

In the lead up to Christmas from mid November onwards Ten, which has members in 145 countries, sees a big spike in business. Requests for help planning Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year getaways feature heavily, as do calls for help sourcing gifts, food and last minute venues for parties.

On the day of Thanksgiving, there is typically a big dip in requests from American members. It’s business as normal for the teams serving the rest of the world.

On the 23rd, 24th and 25th of December there’s a lull in requests from most nationalities except for calls from members who are away from home and need help finding and booking a restaurant or bar for an evening out, or for skiing advice and bookings. There are sometimes festive emergencies which need to be sorted. Last year the snow caused a lot of cars to breakdown and Ten’s Motor team was working hard throughout the holidays to find roadside assistance up and down the UK.

Ten’s Russian members don’t celebrate Christmas, so it’s business as usual for the Russian-speaking team.

From Boxing Day onwards, members are concentrating on their plans for New Year’s Eve and call their lifestyle manager to confirm bookings, or ask for last minute ideas. Ten’s members also love the sales and ask for help from the retail team to find the best bargains. Full retail and travel coverage is needed for this week.

Members of the concierge from countries which exchange gifts on New Year’s Eve, such as Russia and Denmark, continue to call Ten to source gifts for their family and friends right up until their big day.

The New Year is celebrated at least four times in Ten’s London office. The Chinese-speaking team is first at 4pm GMT, followed by the Russian-speaking team at 8pm GMT, the UK teams at midnight GMT, and finally the US-based teams will share their celebrations at 8am GMT.

Celebrations for Ten’s Russian members continue right through until January 14, with party, restaurant and gift idea requests. Then the business is in the run up to Chinese New Year which falls on January 23 in 2012. Ten’s Chinese members call from all over the world requesting restaurant bookings and gift ideas.

January is a busy time for all of Ten’s teams. Members ask for help to find the best deals in their local gyms and also start to plan any holidays they have in mind to take advantage of any January sale prices.

Finally, Ten has its traditionally-belated Christmas celebrations for its staff. The celebrations typically turn heads. People don’t expect to see Santa hats and decorations out and about in February.