01
Beverly Hills
Where most of this work happens: hotel forecourts, gated addresses off the canyon roads, and a dinner run that has to be timed to a reservation rather than to a map.
Beverly Hills Beverly Hills chauffeur service
Service 08
Handled the way a concierge would handle it.
This page is written for the people who book on somebody else's behalf: a desk at a Beverly Hills hotel, an estate manager, an assistant with four diaries open at once. You give the detail once. Your guest is met by name and never sees a transaction.
01 — The brief
You are arranging this for somebody who will not be in the room with you.
A concierge's difficulty is not finding a car. It is finding one that behaves exactly as described when nobody from the hotel is standing next to it. Instructions given at four o'clock have to survive being handed to a chauffeur at six, and the guest — who heard none of that conversation — has to feel that all of it was arranged long before they came downstairs.
Say it once. The detail goes to a dispatcher rather than into a form that forgets. A guest who would rather not be spoken to, a wheelchair going in the boot, a preference for the coast road, a gate code with a second gate behind it: written down once, held against the account, and read to every chauffeur who takes the job afterwards.
The car should feel like part of the building. Somebody stepping out of a lobby and into a dark sedan ought not to notice a change of supplier. The chauffeur is out of the car before the guest reaches it, the boot is already open, and nobody is asked to confirm an address they gave to you an hour ago.
You are kept informed without chasing. A written confirmation to you, the chauffeur's name and number before the pickup, and a message once the guest is away. If something moves at the guest's end, you hear it from our desk rather than from the guest.
Regular work for one household usually settles into a private driver arrangement. A car and chauffeur kept at a guest's disposal for a block of hours is hourly and as-directed work, and most of what follows applies in Beverly Hills more than anywhere else.
02 — Both directions
What we need from you, and what comes back to you.
- Passenger
- The name the chauffeur should use, and whether the guest wants to be greeted by surname or not greeted by name at all in a public arrivals hall.
- Contact
- A mobile number for the guest if they will be carrying one, or your desk number if they would rather not be reached directly. One or the other, never both used at once.
- Timing
- Tell us the time the guest needs to be somewhere if that is easier than the time they want to leave. Dispatch works backwards and tells you what the pickup time has to be.
- Address detail
- Gate codes, service entrances, which of two driveways, and the door the guest actually uses. Written to the account once so that nobody asks you for it again.
- Luggage
- Counted rather than estimated, because it decides the class. Two people with four large cases is an SUV, not a sedan, and finding that out at the kerb helps nobody.
- Billing
- Which account the journey belongs to and who is permitted to change it. The guest is never asked about either.
- Back to you
- A written confirmation restating all of the above, the chauffeur's name and vehicle with a direct number before the pickup, and a short message when the guest is on their way.
- On request
- A printed name board at arrivals, bottled water in the door pocket, a child seat, or a car sent to look at an unfamiliar entrance before the guest travels. Ask on the booking rather than on the day.
An account exists so that the same journey stops needing to be booked. Give dispatch the pattern rather than the dates, and it sits on the diary as a standing instruction until you take it off.
03 — Sequence
From your message to the guest stepping out of the car.
You send it in one message
Telephone, email or the reservation form, whichever is already in front of you. A dispatcher writes it down and reads it back, which is where a misheard street name gets caught rather than at six the next morning.
A written confirmation comes back
Passenger, time, pickup, destination, vehicle class and the figure. Chauffeured hours are from $85 per hour, a set-price run is quoted instead where it is the cheaper of the two, and nothing is held until you accept what is written.
The instruction goes on the account, not just the booking
Gate codes, the door that is actually used, how the guest likes to be addressed. The next chauffeur reads the same note, so you are not repeating yourself in three weeks' time.
Dispatch names the chauffeur before the pickup
You are sent the chauffeur's name, the vehicle and a direct number. Pass them to the guest or keep them at the desk, whichever suits how that guest prefers to be handled.
The car is early and the chauffeur is out of it
In position ahead of the booked time, boot open, and the greeting exactly as you specified. At an airport the guest is met inside with a printed board, with thirty complimentary minutes counted from the moment the aircraft is on the ground.
Nothing is settled in front of the guest
No card machine, no figure and no receipt in the cabin. The journey lands on the account, itemised, with tolls and venue parking at cost and gratuity applied only where you have said so.
04 — Nearby
Five pages a booking desk reaches for next.
02
Private driver
One chauffeur attached to one household or principal, working to a diary rather than to a series of separate bookings.
Private driver Private driver service03
Hourly and as-directed
The car stays with the guest for a block of hours, from $85 per hour, and the order of the afternoon is decided inside it.
Hourly work Hourly and as-directed chauffeur service04
LAX arrivals
Flight watched from the desk, guest met by name, and thirty complimentary minutes from the moment the aircraft lands rather than from the ticketed time.
LAX transfers LAX airport transfers05
The fleet
Six classes with the exact capacity of each, for the moment a guest says four cases and two people and you need to answer immediately.
The fleet The RG Black Limo fleetSwipe for more
05 — The account
One account and a number of people who will never meet each other.
The practical parts of booking for somebody else, roughly in the order they come up on a first call.
- Several bookers, one account. A desk with four people on rotation can all place work against the same account, and each journey shows which of them arranged it.
- Guests never see a figure. No card at the end, nothing handed over the seat back, nothing to sign. It is settled with whoever holds the account afterwards.
- One statement, itemised. Journeys listed by passenger and date, with tolls and venue parking shown at cost rather than absorbed into an hourly figure.
- The same car held to the booking. If a vehicle has to be substituted for a mechanical reason, you are told which one is taking its place before it leaves the yard.
- Chauffeurs sign non-disclosure agreements. Who travelled, from where, to where and in whose company is not discussed, photographed or posted anywhere.
- Answered at any hour. A guest whose flight has moved at two in the morning should not have to wait for an office to open, and neither should you.
Choosing the class is usually a luggage question. An S-Class carries three and looks right at a hotel entrance. A BMW X5 carries four and takes a steep driveway without drama. An Escalade ESV or a Yukon Denali carries six, a Suburban seven, and a Sprinter fourteen when a whole party lands together. Each capacity is listed on the fleet page, and dispatch will say plainly when the class you asked for is the wrong one.
Set prices where they apply. The runs a desk books most often are fixed rather than quoted: into LAX from Beverly Hills, Santa Monica or Hollywood, from $125. Malibu, Irvine and Newport Beach from $150, and as far as San Diego from $525. The full list is on set-price routes; anything outside it is quoted for the journey, and every figure is confirmed in writing before the booking is accepted. A desk that would rather type than telephone can put the same details on the reservation form, which reaches dispatch directly.
06 — Questions
Six questions from the people who do the booking.
That is most of this work. Give us the passenger's name, a mobile number if they will be carrying one, the pickup and the destination, and dispatch takes it from there. You are copied on the confirmation and told when the guest is away, and the guest is never asked to arrange or settle anything.
The chauffeur's name, the vehicle and a direct number go out before the pickup, to you and to the guest as well if you would like them to have it. At an airport the guest is met by name on a printed board rather than sent to look for a number plate. Everywhere else the car is at the door and the chauffeur is standing beside it.
Yes. One account, one dispatch desk and one itemised statement, with each journey listed against the passenger and the person who booked it. Several bookers at the same desk can place work against it, and the account is never mentioned to a guest.
No. Payment is settled with whoever holds the account, away from the passenger, and there is no card machine, figure or receipt in the cabin. Gratuity is a decision made on the account rather than something a guest is put on the spot about.
A repeating journey is best set up once as a standing instruction and then left alone. For a new booking, earlier is easier, though the telephone is answered at every hour and a car can often be found the same day. If a request cannot be covered we say so straight away rather than accepting it and hoping.
A name to invoice, a billing contact, the people who are permitted to book, and how you would like statements sent. Chauffeured hours are from $85 per hour, set-price runs are quoted where they are cheaper, and everything that governs a booking is written on the confirmation.
Anything not covered here is quickest by telephone: (323) 799-3190, answered at any hour, or info@rgblacklimo.com if you would rather have it in writing. The conditions attached to a booking are set out in the terms.
07 — Reserve
Give it to us once. We will hold the detail.
Place a single booking for a guest, or ask dispatch to open an account for a desk that books regularly. Either one takes a single conversation.
(323) 799-3190Answered at every hour, which matters most when a guest's flight moves overnight.