All Welcomed at Berry's Desk

Name: Gordon Berry

Job: Concierge, Loews Coronado Bay Resort

Overview: Berry has been at the resort more than three years as a full concierge after a career as a personal assistant to several actors and politicians (don't ask – he can’t name them because of confidentiality agreements). He also worked as a guest services director for W Hotels in Hawaii and an assistant concierge at a downtown San Diego hotel. He greets guests, acts as the hotel’s ambassador, helps plan outings and trips and generally helps with whatever a guest might need. As a child, he was fortunate to travel the world with his parents (his father was a dean at UCLA and has worked in television and the media). “I would always run to the concierge to find out what’s the best thing I can do to get my dad to spend money,” he says. In 2010, Berry was selected the resort’s Employee of the Year.

The unusual: While most guest questions and requests are routine (“How do I get to the zoo?”), there is the occasional curveball. Some wayward visitors, coming in on yachts, call needing directions to the adjacent marina. Recently, a guest inquired where he could land his helicopter in Coronado (answer: nowhere, it’s not allowed). Berry has taken off his own shoes and lent them to a panicked groom who had forgotten to bring shoes for his wedding, and has delivered a guest’s urine specimen to a doctor. He’s also helped families plan surprise parties and reunions, and makes a point of sitting down with visiting children to suggest activities (and hand them seashells from Hawaii, where he lived for many years).

Advice: Most guests ask where Navy SEALs train in Coronado, and about the resort’s gondolas, SeaWorld and the Gaslamp Quarter, but Berry likes to point them toward smaller neighborhoods, too – such as Hillcrest and North Park – to get the full San Diego experience.

Summers: He’s experienced three summers as concierge and loves them. The hotel, he says, “Is filled with children, dogs and families. It’s like a circus every single day and it’s great fun.”

Background: He grew up in Beverly Hills, went to Beverly Hills High and Pepperdine University and was raised to think about doing and caring for others, he says. In his early travels, he came to love hotels. He calls “hotels and hospitality” his two passions. “I happen to love the adventure you can have at hotels.” Berry, who says he’s “almost to the 50 mark,” lives in North Park.

The team: Berry says he’s learned much from the “incredible people” he works with on the concierge team: Violeta Gomez Fierro, Francis Tucker, Travis King and Cheryl Raya, the longest-tenured member, whom he calls the “quintessential concierge.” Berry’s dream is to eventually train others for the Loews group.

Personal assistant: While working for actors, he says, he learned to be flexible, “wear four or five hats at once” and demonstrate “grace under pressure” with a constant smile.

What he likes best: “Having the ability to make each experience here, for every guest, a wonderful one.”

Always a giver? Although service is his passion now, it wasn’t always that way. “When I was 16 years old it was all about me, let’s be clear about that,” he says. “It was about getting a BMW and going to Paris.”