Airport and Platform Concierge services in demand as worried travellers seek professional help to get through airports and train stations on first trip post lockdown

The world’s leading global provider of luxury meet and assist services, DiamondAir International, is reporting an increase in demand for its concierge services as travellers request help to get through airports and busy train stations on their first trip post lockdown.

As people start travelling again, one of the areas they are most concerned about is how they can avoid busy airport terminals and crowded train stations with the minimum of interaction.

Christina Lawford, Founder and Managing Director of DiamondAir International, says:

“Often the most stressful part of travel is getting through the airport or train station to the final mode of transport. Inevitably airports are busy and confusing places with numerous queues and this, combined with locating where you need to check in, drop your bags, and get through security, creates maximum tension the best of times.”

“Currently, travellers’ worries are even more heightened as we gradually come out of lockdown and our services help remove this stress. They are designed to run effortlessly from the moment you arrive at the airport or station and can continue until you arrive at your final destination.”

The company regularly deals with the rich and famous, business travellers, individuals, and families all over the world. Since lockdown has eased, it has reported a 200 per cent increase in calls and increased traffic to its website as travellers seek assistance through airports. Its three key services are:

Airport Concierge Service

Available in 600 destinations, this service enables traveller to get through the airport as quickly and efficiently as possible and is available on departures, arrivals and transits.

A DiamondAir Airport Concierge Agent is ready to greet travellers on arrival kerbside and will assist them through check in, escort through security and assist through all additional passenger health and screening protocols pre and post flight. Baggage porters can be arranged to collect and transfer luggage, with sanitisation of bags provided upon arrival (subject to airport). The Agent will ensure dwell time is minimised in the congested passenger areas of the airport and take care of any common use touch screens.

If a lounge has been booked, traveller/s will be escorted there while waiting to board. A boarding time will be arranged with the DiamondAir Airport Concierge Agent who will then collect traveller/s from the lounge and escort to the aircraft, avoiding busy areas and removing any unnecessary stress encountered before take off. The same process takes place at arrivals, with the Concierge Agent assisting traveller/s through immigration, baggage reclaim and customs, and escorting traveller/s to their final mode of transport. For those who have connecting flights, the Concierge Agent will escort to the onward gate, and has the benefit of knowing the layout of the airport and most efficient ways around it.

Airport By Invitation

This premium and bespoke service makes the private jet experience available without the price tag but with all the benefits of using a private terminal, taking travellers from airside to kerbside and vice versa. It is accessible in more than 80 airport locations.

Tailored to the needs of the individual, looking for the ultimate in discretion, privacy and exclusivity between plane side and kerb side, it provides transport to and from the tarmac to VIP suite, completely exclusive for a traveller/ travellers. The suite is sanitised after each use, includes a butler service and clients can also access entertainment or spa services, personal shopping and catering.

As part of the Airport By Invitation service, security, customs and immigration checks are carried out individually in the private suite, avoiding other passengers in congested areas. Those travelling via this service are able to relax in luxurious surroundings, while the DiamondAir Agent coordinated the transfer of baggage.

Boarding and disembarking is made simple with a private tarmac transfer from the lounge to the aircraft with fully sanitised vehicles for optimum safety measures.

Platform Concierge

This service runs from train side to kerb side across major worldwide rail stations. DiamondAir’s Platform Concierge Agent provides a luxury meet and assist service, helping to support travellers’ end to end transit across the world’s busiest stations. This can include help with travel schedule monitoring and coordinating all travel arrangements. This service can benefit not only business travellers but also individuals, families and groups and provides valuable local on-the-ground knowledge. Assistance is available on both arrival and departure to minimise dwell time in the busy passenger areas.

New for 2020

Ahead of the summer getaway, DiamondAir International’s new Family Getaway package offers all the benefits of the above Airport Concierge Service and costs £150 including VAT for a family of four with the optional extra of adding access to an airport lounge if the family wishes. The service includes a baggage porter and the use of pushchairs to and from the aircraft – fully sanitised after each use – and assistance with hand luggage.

Christina Lawford adds:

“Our Family Getaway package not only caters for those with young children but also young passengers travelling alone, nervous flyers or inexperienced travellers who simply appreciate a guiding hand. We aim to make the airport experience as enjoyable as possible at the beginning and at the end of a holiday.”

DiamondAir Airport Concierge Agents can also escort families to the children’s play area and its CRB-checked Agent can oversee children if parents wish to do some last minute shopping before take off.

• Airport Concierge starts from £150 for up to 2 passengers
• Family Getaway service starts from £150 for a family of 4
• Airport By Invitation starts from £170.00 per person
• Platform Concierge starts from £150

For bookings please:

• Call: 020 8897 9183
• Email: reservations@diamondairinternational.com
• Website: https://diamondairinternational.com

DiamondAir International’s services now incorporate further safety and precautionary measures which are continuously monitored and adapted in alignment to local Government advice and guidelines, and as travel policies and border controls change globally, so will its service protocols.

All its Airport Concierge Agents wear PPE whilst at the airport, handshaking will not be observed and it continues to monitor its frontline staff. Social distancing is adhered to between the Airport Concierge Agent and passengers at all times.

The world’s leading global provider of luxury meet and assist services, DiamondAir International, has appointed London based Maria Boyle Communications Ltd to handle its global PR

DiamondAir International regularly deals with the rich and famous, business travellers, individuals, and families all over the world. Since lockdown has eased, it has reported a 200 per cent increase in calls and increased traffic to its website as travellers seek assistance through airports. The company has previously handled PR in house and this is the agency’s first external appointment.

Christina Lawford, Founder and Managing Director of DiamondAir International, says:

“We are the pioneers of the global concierge business and our services are available at more than 600 airports and railway stations globally. We felt now it was an important time to communicate with new travellers, reassure existing clients and generally go up a gear in relation to our communications.”

“Maria is a smart operator and very well connected in the sectors we work in. We’re really looking forward to working with her and her team.”

Maria Boyle, Director, Maria Boyle Communications Ltd, comments:

“Currently, travellers’ worries are even more heightened as we gradually come out of lockdown and DiamondAir International’s services help remove this stress.“

“We are delighted to have been appointed to help further build the brand and promote its range of services which really are the best in the business.”

Based in an airside office overlooking the Heathrow runway in its World Business Centre, DiamondAir International trades in five currencies and employs a staff of 70. Its three key services are:

1. Airport Concierge Service: Available in 600 destinations, this service enables traveller to get through the airport as quickly and efficiently as possible and is available on departures, arrivals and transits.
2. Airport By Invitation: this premium and bespoke service makes the private jet experience available without the price tag but with all the benefits of using a private terminal, taking travellers from airside to kerbside and vice versa. It is accessible in more than 80 airport locations.
3. Platform Concierge: This service runs from train side to kerb side across major worldwide rail stations. Assistance is available on both arrival and departure to minimise dwell time in the busy passenger areas.

Maria Boyle Communications Ltd clients include Mayfair jewellery Hancocks London, L’Oreal UK & Ireland, Luxury Family Hotels, Thornbury Castle and international bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford OBE.

For bookings please call 020 8897 9183, email reservations@diamondairinternational.com or go to https://diamondairinternational.com

77% of the National Hair and Beauty Federation members say they feel “very prepared/prepared” to reopen now. Here’s one of many examples of how UK salon and L’Oréal partner, Gatsby & Miller, have been busy getting organised and making modifications for a safe reopening after lockdown that accounts for every step of the client in-salon journey.

Gatsby & Miller: The NEW 7 Steps of the Client In-salon Journey

1. Arriving at the salon
   Gatsby & Miller will be optimising a digital screen in their window to display important messaging for clients so they know what to expect before they enter the salon, with reminders about social distancing and new hygiene measures for client safety.
2. Check-in & reception
   Gatsby & Miller has installed a protective screen at the reception desk and will avoid congestion by ensuring a streamlined appointment flow and ask clients to move in one direction around the salon. One dedicated stylist will welcome clients and they will remain with this one stylist throughout the salon visit to help limit risk. Signage will be used to explain how the new client journey will run before the appointment begins. Stylists will be wearing personal protective equipment (masks and gloves) and will encourage clients to also wear a protective mask throughout the appointment. However, the salon will adapt rules in accordance with government guidelines. . Client PPE packs will also be given as well as disposable items being as eco-conscious as possible.
3. Consultation
   Stylists will conduct short consultations in-salon or virtually prior to appointments to reduce the amount of time that clients will spend in the salon. Gatsby & Miller have been offering virtual consultations throughout lockdown very successfully.
4. Backwash
   Gatsby & Miller has installed protective screens at the backwash and will be observing social distancing by blocking off some backwash stations, and each backwash station will be cleaned and disinfected after each appointment.
5. Client Services
   Gatsby & Miller has a large spacious salon, which they have mapped and adapted to ensure that all clients and stylists will observe social distancing. If needed, the salon will also use protective screens between styling stations.
6. Retail
   Gatsby & Miller has removed all product testers. The salon will use signage in retail areas and around the salon asking clients not to touch products. If a client wishes to purchase a product, they will let their stylist know, who will wipe products down before placing in a bag for the client to take home at the end of the appointment.
7. Check-out
   Gatsby & Miller will be accepting contactless card payments and no cash. Contactless payments will be taken at styling stations and at the reception desk to help streamline appointments. The salon are also looking into online pre-paid appointments. The salon will rebook appointments at the styling station before clients leave. All touchpoints of each client appointment and all tools used will be cleaned and disinfected after each appointment.

Dawn Montgomery, Gatsby & Miller, Salon Manager

“We have been working on reorganising and modifying the salon for a number of weeks and we feel confident to reopen safely anytime from now. We have been taking note from salons reopening in Europe as inspiration, alongside helpful recommendations from our partners, L’Oréal and their Back to Business Salon Support Guide.

“We have sourced and secured the personal protective equipment that we may require for our team, whilst we await any official government guidance. The safety and wellbeing of our clients and team is our number one priority and throughout lockdown, we have increased communication with both parties to ensure everyone feels ready, confident and prepared for what to expect from the new in-salon journey.

“We are ready to open now and once we have the date, we will be booking a team-training day before commencing client appointments to walk the team through every new protocol that we are implementing. We will also be investing in a Risk Assessment expert to check the new modified salon environment and protocols so that we can be extra confident.

“We know that both the team and the clients are looking forward to going back into the salon; with the level of weekly communication, they know how thoroughly we and other hair salons are planning a safe reopening that caters for the highest standards of health and safety, whilst still delivering an enjoyable and relaxing experience.”

Beatrice Dautzenberg, Managing Director of the L’Oréal Professional Products Division,

“This crisis has been a challenging period for everyone and we have been providing as much support as we can for our salon partners to prepare to safely re-open. In fact, we have designed an E-learning to help train all hairdressers and salons on hygiene and safety, available on our L’Oréal Access online education platform in the coming days.

“The past few months have provided us with even greater awareness of the importance of our hairdressers (over 250, 000 in the UK) who are the beating heart of the community – and the demand from consumers for hair salons reopening is high. Hairdressing is the single largest contributor to the British Beauty Economy valued at GDP c. £6 billion, and salons play an integral part in communities and boost consumer wellbeing. As a committed partner to the industry, L’Oréal is proud to help our network of salons to re-open safely and to support the wellbeing of our employees, salon partners and consumers.”

Luxury Family Hotelsis pledging to open its hotels exclusively to NHS workers and their families post lockdown as a very special thank you for their hard work and commitment throughout the Coronavirus pandemic.

The hotel group is promising a total of up to 150 parents and their children a free overnight stay in all of its five hotels as part of its support for the #treatourNHS initiative.  Stays will also include complimentary breakfast for families and access to all the hotels’ facilities including OFSTED registered crèches (in line with the latest Government advice).

The #treatourNHS initiative, created by Sarah Bowman, owner of The Hayloft in Devon, is seeing accommodation owners across the UK pledge stays in hotels, eco lodges and cottages to NHS workers. 

Simon Maguire, MD of Luxury Family Hotels, said: “Our ethos is all about making time for the little things, so as a way of saying thank you to the heroes working on the frontline, we will be offering NHS staff the opportunity of spending quality time with their family and loved ones which they might not have been able to do throughout the lockdown period. “

Luxury Family Hotels will be offering a complimentary overnight stay on a B&B basis for up to 75 NHS families across its five hotels*. That will equate to 15 rooms per hotel available on the night before they re-open to the public (dates are yet to be confirmed in line with Government guidelines).

Participating hotels will include:

• The Ickworth in Suffolk;
• Woolley Grange in Bradford on Avon;
• Moonfleet Manor in Dorset;
• New Park Manor in the New Forest;
• Fowey Hall Hotel in Cornwall.

Further details will be released once there is a clear date for re-opening on Luxury Family Hotels’ social media with a link through to a landing page on the Luxury Family Hotels’ website with more details on the booking process and conditions.

Families will be selected on a first come, first served basis, cementing Luxury Family Hotels’ corporate social responsibility efforts.

Final conditions for NHS workers and their immediate family to be confirmed at a later date but will include a valid NHS Identity Card which will need to be shown upon arrival. 

For more information/bookings visit www.luxuryfamilyhotels.co.uk