With the presidential inauguration fast approaching, DC’s hospitality industry is gearing up for one of its busiest periods. Hotels tend to book up months in advance, and staffers never know what craziness will ensue. It will be an especially hectic time for the city’s concierges. To get a sense of what that means—during both inauguration season and the rest of the year—we reached out to several of the District’s top practitioners: Jeff Morgan, head concierge at the Conrad hotel and president of the Washington Area Concierge Association; Michael Chase, head concierge at the Four Seasons; and Robert Watson, head concierge at the Willard InterContinental. Much of what top concierges deal with involves minor travel emergencies, as when, Chase recalls, he had to rush to Neiman Marcus for seven pairs of designer shoes because a guest had forgotten to pack her inauguration heels. He also leaped into action when a head of state split the seam of his tuxedo pants shortly before he had to be at the White House. Chase duct-taped the trousers and got him to his meeting with George W. Bush on time. And Morgan says he’s the go-to bow-tier for “numerous celebrities and CEOs” who frequent the Conrad: “Even the wives are like, ‘Ugh, I can never do it as good as you, Jeff.’ ” Sometimes the challenges can be a bit more, uh, stiff. When the Conrad hosted a medical conference a number of years ago, a cadaver was set to be used as part of a presentation. It wasn’t until the body was en route to the hotel that staff realized they couldn’t legally receive it, per DC regulations. After doing a bit of research on regional dead-body policy, Morgan determined that such a delivery would be permissible in Virginia. Within the afternoon, he had the conference—and cadaver—moved. The job also involves assisting visiting celebrities in various ways. Chase was once asked to buy sanitary napkins for a Saturday Night Live star’s leaky pet, and Marvin Hamlisch thanked him during a Kennedy Center performance after he recovered the musician’s lost notebook. But Chase’s favorite story occurred in Detroit, where he happened to pass by a certain superstar crooner who was a regular at DC’s Four Seasons: “I’m walking through the Detroit Airport and Tony Bennett says, ‘Hi, Michael,’ and continues to walk.” RelatedOver-the-Top Inauguration Packages Are Back With Helicopter Rides and Shopping Sprees This article appears in the December 2024 issue of Washingtonian.The post DC Hotel Concierges on Surprising Requests and Celeb Encounters first appeared on Washingtonian.