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Concierge Fulfills The Unusual Requests Of The Rich And Famous

BEVERLY HILLS (CBS) — Think of just about any outlandish request and Beverly Hills hotel concierge James Little claims he can make it happen.

From the time Little rolls to work on his motorcycle, he never knows what he will have to do or what miracles he will have to perform that day.

He works at The Peninsula Beverly Hills as chef concierge.

"Pretty much anything you can think of, we can make happen and we actually take pride in making it happen," Little said confidently.

Requests range from the unusual to the absurd. Some are mundane, like transportation and restaurant reservations.

But it's the unique challenges that really set his work apart, like fulfilling wedding proposals.

"The go in [to the car] for dinner and there you have it. Some Dom Pérignon in there, the hotel's Rolls Royce of course," Little said.

Little has also tracked down classic cars for sale for a guest.

"We helped them find some of them. We got them off and running on the Classic Car Network and now that have bought many, many of them," he said.

He once bought 100 bottles of Advil for a guest who would be out of the country for months.

Little also found a Teacup Maltese and had it trained for a guest, who forgot his daughter's birthday gift. The guest wanted the puppy waiting in the child's hotel room. It was.

He has his fingers in many different pies at the hotel, including maintaining a Ferrari for a frequent guest to use when he comes to town.

"It's kind of our responsibility to make sure that everything is handled properly with the vehicle, so that when he gets here, all he has to do is jump in, start it up and go."

Little was there on day one when the hotel opened and 20 years later, he still takes pride in accomplishing hotel guests' requests.

"It's not acceptable to say, 'No.' It's not acceptable to say, 'I'm sorry, I can't do that for you.'"

Goodyear Blimp
(credit: CBS)

That was tested when a guest requested a ride in the Goodyear Blimp. It took a year, but Little set up the ride.

"Obviously, if you were to call Goodyear, you would get a secretary or whoever handles their basic calls and they'll say, 'I'm sorry, that's not something that we do.' End of story."

But Little does not take "no" for an answer. He remembered that the hotel had purchased Rolls Royce sedans clad in Goodyear tires. The dealer introduced him to their Goodyear representative, who made the ride happen.

Little says anyone can do anything if you have three things.

"There is time, relationships and money," Little said. "If they give me absolutely no notice, it's going to come down to money and relationships. If they give me lots of notice, then money is not necessarily much of an issue. The relationships are almost always key."

He added that The Peninsula Beverly Hills allows him flexibility to think outside the box to fulfill requests.

"It's all about finding out the way in, the way around, the way to make it happen. But not in a subversive or an adversarial sort of way, but in a way that it is win-win-win for everyone involved."

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