What a London concierge can actually get you, and what it can't

No concierge can conjure a table at a restaurant that's properly full, and anyone who claims otherwise is bluffing or buying from a tout. What a good one can do, often at a few hours' notice, is find you two seats for a Saturday matinee, a driver for the day and a vetted nanny. A hotel concierge works for the building and helps whoever is standing at the desk; a lifestyle concierge works for you, through an app, a phone line or a named manager, and follows you from city to city. The job is the same either way: knowing who to ring, and being someone the restaurant, theatre or car firm will pick up for.

Tables, theatre and cars

London's most sought-after dining rooms release tables online on a fixed schedule, and a concierge with a good relationship can sometimes winkle out a cancellation or an off-list slot at 6pm or 9.30pm. Prime time on a Friday at somewhere that has just opened is another matter. Give them three restaurants in order of preference and a window of times and you'll usually land one; give them one name and 8pm and you're relying on luck.

Most West End shows play matinees on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, a handful add Thursday, and curtain up is usually at 2.30pm. Saturday matinees for the big musicals go first, while Wednesday is quieter and the seats are better. Lunch plus a matinee is where a concierge earns the fee, because the hard part is the timing rather than the tickets: a restaurant within ten minutes' walk of the theatre that will seat you at 12.15 and have you out by 2.10. Ask for exactly that, and say which seats you won't accept, whether that's restricted view or the back of the upper circle.

Be wary of anything sold above face value on unofficial resale sites. A reputable concierge buys from the box office, the official ticket agent or the producer's own resale platform, and will tell you which one.

For a day of meetings or a trip out to a school open day, a chauffeured car booked by the hour beats a string of taxis, since the driver waits and your bags stay in the boot. For a single journey a black cab hailed in the street or a pre-booked minicab is cheaper, and as London minicabs have to be booked ahead anyway, a concierge ordering one is doing nothing you couldn't do on your phone. Before you agree a quote for a car, ask whether it covers waiting time, parking and the congestion charge.

Nannies, gifts and the bill

Many people don't realise that Ofsted registration is voluntary for nannies in England, because care in the child's own home is exempt from compulsory registration. Those who join the voluntary part of the Childcare Register have to meet requirements on suitability, safeguarding, first aid training and insurance. So if a concierge offers you an evening babysitter, ask whether the person is on that register, who checked their references and whether they carry their own insurance. A good concierge will have the answers ready without calling you back.

The department stores run their own personal shopping teams. Selfridges on Oxford Street does styling appointments in store and has a separate team, 40 Duke, for private appointments; a concierge can book these, but it's just as easy to ring direct. Where they come into their own is the 9pm realisation that you need a gift on a client's desk by 10am, because they'll know which florist or wine merchant can deliver first thing and will get it wrapped and sent with a card.

There are three ways to pay. Membership firms charge an annual fee: one independent review of Quintessentially puts its entry tier at roughly two to three thousand pounds a year and its top tier at £15,000 or more, with extra charges for labour-intensive requests. Pay-as-you-go personal concierges charge by the hour instead, and Price & Price Bespoke in London lists £35 an hour including VAT, less if you buy a block. The third route you may already have, since some premium bank accounts and charge cards include a concierge; HSBC UK's Private Banking Account, for one, comes with a 24/7 lifestyle service run by Ten Group. Check before paying for a membership you'll use for one trip, and remember that the tickets, meals and cars are on top, because you're paying for time and access rather than discounts.

How to brief one

Whether you get a concierge who delivers or one who sends back a list of links comes down, nearly every time, to the brief. Put it in writing, in a single message:

• Dates, times and how flexible each one is
• Party size, with children's ages
• A budget ceiling per item, and whether that includes service and booking fees
• Allergies and dietary rules, stated plainly
• What's non-negotiable and what's a nice-to-have
• Where you're staying, so they can judge travel times
• How you want to be contacted, and when not to be

If you're in a serviced apartment with a staffed front desk, which about half the residences we list have, start there for taxis, parcels, a dinner booking or a steer on what to see. Save the lifestyle concierge for bigger jobs like a week of childcare or a sold-out show, and send the brief a week ahead if you can, because inside 48 hours the options shrink fast.

Is there someone downstairs, or just a phone number?

'Concierge' can mean a staffed desk in the lobby round the clock, or a mobile number that someone answers from another building, and both get sold under the same word. Before you book a concierge service apartment in London, find out which you're getting, because it decides who lets you in at 1am and where your parcels end up.

About half the residences we list have a reception or front desk. The rest are run remotely: you pick up keys from an office or a lockbox, and out of hours there's a phone line. Neither is wrong. A mews house or a small block of six flats would struggle to justify a night porter, and a remote team can be quick and helpful, so what matters is knowing beforehand. There's also a third arrangement, and a common one, where a desk is staffed until 10pm and then switches to a phone line, which is why the question to ask, in exactly these words, is whether someone is physically in the building overnight.

A staffed desk also means someone sees who comes and goes, which plenty of guests value, families and anyone staying alone especially. It doesn't replace locking your door or using the safe, and if building security is a priority, ask whether the entrance has CCTV and whether visitors are announced before they're let up.

A late flight is where the difference shows. With a 24-hour desk you walk in, show ID and go upstairs; with a remote setup you'll get a code, an app key or instructions for a key safe, usually on the day, and the residence will want your flight number so they know when to expect you. If you lose a key or lock yourself out, a desk sorts it in minutes, while an on-call team might need to send someone across town, so find out how long that takes and whether they charge.

On a long stay, parcels are the concierge's most useful job. A staffed desk signs for them, holds grocery deliveries and dry cleaning, and lets you know when something's arrived, whereas without one a courier may leave a card or take the parcel back to the depot. Ask whether the building takes deliveries for guests, how big they can be, and whether there's anywhere cold to put a supermarket order if you're out.

You can hail a black cab in the street, but a London minicab has to be booked in advance. A front desk will order either, line up a car for an early airport run, and tell you honestly when the Tube's quicker, and plenty of residences use a regular car firm and can quote the Heathrow fare before you commit.

A building concierge will usually book a table or suggest somewhere nearby, and a good one knows which local places take walk-ins on a Sunday. Most aren't a lifestyle concierge with a contact book full of sold-out shows and hard-to-get tables; that's a separate service, and our guide to lifestyle concierges covers what they cost. The desk is also your route to maintenance. A dripping tap or a dead bulb reported downstairs tends to get fixed the same day, while the same fault reported to an out-of-hours number may wait till morning. Housekeeping is usually scheduled rather than daily, and only a minority of residences offer a maid service, so check how often the flat's cleaned and whether extra cleans can be booked through the desk.

These questions take a minute to ask by email and settle most of what matters.

• Is the front desk staffed 24 hours, and if not, what are its hours?
• Who answers the out-of-hours number, and how quickly can they be on site?
• How does a guest get in if they arrive after midnight?
• Will you sign for parcels and grocery deliveries on a guest's behalf?
• Can you book taxis, airport cars and restaurant tables?
• How are faults reported, and what's the usual response time?
• Is there a charge for a replacement key?