CONCIERGE CONVERSATIONS GET TO KNOW EIGHT EXPERTS FROM TOP VALLEY RESORTS
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WWW.UPTOWNPHOENIX.COM | RICHMAN MEDIA GROUP | JANUARY 2019
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The role of a concierge is to provide vacationers (and staycationers) with suggestions on where to go and what to do while making someone’s resort stay as memorable as possible. But beyond dishing out tips and tricks, concierges have unique stories of their own – and it’s through these experiences that they have become experts in serving both people and places. Go behind the concierge desk and get to know eight of them here.
BY ALISON BAILIN BATZ PHOTOS BY CLAUDIA JOHNSTONE
Uptown January ‘19
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Julie Baxter
Concierge, Arizona Biltmore, A Waldorf Astoria Resort Phoenix native Julie Baxter always knew what she would be when she grew up. “It sounds old-fashioned now, but my mother was a homemaker, so I planned on getting married, having kids and taking care of our home, like her,” Baxter says. But, as the saying goes, the best-laid plans often go awry. “After college, I found myself unmarried and in need of a career, so I got into real estate,” she says. “Then it gets interesting.” At 31, Baxter ran off with her boyfriend to the U.S. Virgin Islands, where they started a powerboat business. By 33, she moved to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and started a parasailing business. “Americans would often come to me for advice on what to do while in Cabo. I became an unofficial concierge of sorts, offering sailing customers tips on the best attractions the city had to offer,” Baxter says. Given parasailing instruction wasn’t a career option in Phoenix, Baxter opened the newspaper and surveyed the “help wanted” ads when she made her way back to the Valley in the mid-1990s. “There was an ad for a concierge position at the Arizona Biltmore, which required expertise in helping people navigate activities and attractions at the resort and across Phoenix,” she says. “It married my unofficial position in Cabo with my lifetime of knowledge of the Valley, so I applied.” That was 23 years ago. Since then, Baxter has become an icon within the concierge community as an active member of the Valley of the Sun Concierge Network for 20 years and a certified Biltmore Resort Historian for 10 years. “And whenever I think I’ve seen and done it all, something comes up,” says Baxter, who fondly remembers one of her biggest challenges – planning a woman’s leap year-themed birthday party, which had to dazzle the well-heeled guests in attendance, including Diana Ross. This year brings perhaps the biggest challenge of her career to date: Celebrating the Biltmore’s 90th birthday all year long with monthly events, culinary programs and plenty of other festivities.
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Uptown January ‘19