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Want 300 Balloons in Your Room or a Racy Cake? 'Get it' at the Kinzie Hotel

 Concierge Julian Palmer meets with Manny the Frenchie to see how the hotel could better accomodate his and other four-legged guests' needs. Palmer's theater background makes him an expert on Broadway in Chicago show recommendations, Driza said.
Concierge Julian Palmer meets with Manny the Frenchie to see how the hotel could better accomodate his and other four-legged guests' needs. Palmer's theater background makes him an expert on Broadway in Chicago show recommendations, Driza said.
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Courtesy Kinzie Hotel

RIVER NORTH — If it's legal, chances are the concierge staff at Kinzie Hotel can have it waiting for guests in their rooms when they check in.

But maintaining the promise implied by the seven-person concierge team's new "We Get It" initiative requires a lot of planning.

That includes a standing reservation for adult-themed cakes from nearby Alliance Bakery so they're ready when an errant bachelorette party shows up.

"We Get It" is "kind of our catchphrase around the hotel," said Melissa Driza, front office manager and chef concierge at the hotel at 20 W. Kinzie St. in River North.

"It starts from the time they make a reservation," Driza said. "There's an entry form for 'accommodation and amenity requests' prior to arriving, which we encourage people to use, because it gives us more time to plan."

Lizzie Schiffman explains how a hotel is making sure the customer is always right ... no matter what:

When a guest wanted to surprise her husband with a hotel room filled with black balloons, Driza brought 300 of them to the hotel herself.

"I literally thought, walking down the street, that I was going to go airborne, there were so many balloons," she said.

Celebrities, of course, get the special treatment they're accustomed to when they visit, sending in riders in advance with demands like a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue waiting in the hotel room or "vases full of flowers, but they all have to be white," Driza said.

But the official launch of the hotel's "We Get It" campaign marks an effort to extend that treatment to nonfamous guests.

"We've done helicopter rides," she said. "A common [request] is to have a tin of Garrett's popcorn waiting" when guests arrive, she said.

When a family that regularly visits over the holidays started bringing their dog Millie, who didn't like being left alone, the team arranged "for her to hang out behind the front desk with us," Driza said.

Each member of the concierge team has a specialty based on his or her personal interests.

"All the concierges are trained to handle things like procuring tickets ... but Magan, she's our family-centric concierge. She has two kids and grew up here in Chicago.

"Julian is huge into Broadway and he's very passionate — he's done theater as well. So he takes over that role, and goes to all the shows so he can make recommendations. Haley is our brewery expert, and in the summer, with all the music festivals and street fairs popping up, Monica is our go-to girl for that."

Driza said the team enjoys the challenges of meeting guests' requests. In most cases, guests are charged for the cost of the item, service or experience, plus an additional charge for the labor of tracking it down, which can vary depending on how much effort was required.

"There's nothing we can't get — with an appropriate amount of time, of course," Driza said.

A recent request was one of her most outlandish: a guest with a history of sleepwalking asked if the hotel could arrange a "sleepsitter" to watch him overnight.

"We didn't have enough time to research, because he emailed us the day before, but that was one I would have loved to make happen. Given the proper notice, I'm sure we could have worked something out, but he ended up being fine," Driza said.

"Though I did make sure he had a room with a double latch lock on the door, just in case."