Web lodge: GoConcierge, created to relieve the pressures on hotel staff, has built on the expanding acceptance of technology in the hospitality sector.

GoConcierge.net can tell you a lot about Los Angeles--museum hours, limousine rates, boutique addresses, hair salon appointments, restaurant seating.

All this and more is available to James Little, head concierge of the Peninsula Beverly Hills, at the click of his computer. "The practices in use at the concierge desk were antiquated and out of date," said Little, referring to the mammoth log book that used to be the principal tool of the concierge trade. "It has given us a much higher level of consistency in our work."

GoConcierge is essentially an online database service that not only contains lots of information, but allows the hotels that subscribe to keep track of itineraries, guest comments and bookings.

After signing its first W hotel in 2002, GoConcierge is in 16 of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.'s voguish W-branded locations. GoConcierge also recently inked a deal with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group to enter six hotels in Asia.

Besides the Peninsula, local properties that have signed on include Le Merigot in Santa Monica, Raffles L'Ermitage in Beverly Hills and the Hyatt Regency Los Angeles.

"From shift to shift, you can see what the other concierges have booked throughout the day, arrangements with restaurants and other reservations," said Edward Martinez, assistant manager of the front office at the Viceroy in Santa Monica, who previously worked at a W hotel equipped with GoConcierge.

Innsight Reports LLC, the West L.A. company doing business as GoConcierge, was founded in 2000 by Keith Wolff, son of local hotel impresario Lew Wolff and president of Wolff Urban Management Inc., and Adam Isrow, GoConcierge's executive vice president.

Creating a knowledge base

Isrow developed the idea when he was director of front office operations at the Hilton Burbank Airport in the 1990s. With the encouragement of Wolff, a database-centered version of GoConcierge was applied to one of Wolff Urban Management's hotels.

"My role is primarily getting the resources and working with the team to develop the software and understanding the hotel side of it, because I have run hotels," said Keith Wolff.

A concierge desk, particularly at a higher-end property, is kind of a traveler's reference desk, as guests make inquiries about everything from theater tickets to what dells are open at three in the morning. Up until now, the job has been labor-intense and often inefficient, as concierges comb through phone books, restaurant guides, map books and newspapers in search of answers to guests' problems.

Wolff realized that a service like GoConcierge would be useful for the luxury hotels he operated.

"We said, why don't we create a knowledge base that allows anyone to service the guest, whether they have been working at the hotel for l0 years or one month?" he said. "We wanted the guest to be able to get a consistent experience."

When the Peninsula's Little is asked how to get from the hotel to Warner Bros. Studios, for example, GoConcierge comes up with the correct address and prints out directions on hotel stationery.

Started at the tail end of the Internet bubble, GoConcierge had no venture capital financing, relying instead on Keith Wolff's financial support and "operating on a shoestring," said Isrow.

Isrow said the business became profitable last year when revenues hit $700,000. He said the company is on track for revenues of $1 million to $1.5 million this year.

In each of the last several years, GoConcierge has doubled the number of hotels, retailers, credit card companies and private concierge services using its product, pushing the total to about 230 in 2004 from 100 the prior year. Isrow expects GoConcierge's client portfolio will again double this year.

Resembles Outlook

The big break came in 2002, when the company switched from using software that had to be installed and maintained at each of the client hotels to a Web-based system that doesn't require on-site maintenance.

"We were able to really control everything. If we needed to do support, we could do it online right way," said Isrow. "As we do new features and upgrades and enhancements, it's immediately pushed out onto the Internet."

GoConcierge's interface resembles Outlook, Microsoft's calendar, e-mail and Rolodex program--a format that Isrow said is familiar to most computer users. GoConcierge charges hotels a monthly fee, usually from $300 to $500. An additional training fee runs $3,000 to $5,000.

As more hotels sign up for the service, GoConcierge has forged partnerships with OpenTable.com, an Internet-based system that allows users to make online reservations at restaurants, and the reservation system at SuperShuttle International Inc., the door-to-door airport service.

"The concierge used to be such a complicated job because you needed to know anything, everything was in different books," said Marius von Tangen-Jordan, assistant rooms executive at the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena. "I just can't fathom how other hotels are running their concierges without a system like this."

PROFILE

Innsight Reports LLC, dba GoConcierge

Year Founded: 2000

Core Business: Web-based concierge product

Revenues in 2003: $320,000

Revenues in 2004: $700,000

Employees in 2003: 6

Employees in 2004: 9

Goal: To almost double the number of clients to about 400 this year from 230 in 2004

Driving Force: To boost hotel efficiency so concierges have more time to spend providing superior guest service