Last-minute requests: what is possible

The desk’s reputation rests on the requests that arrive at nine at night. Most of them are possible. Some are not, and the value of the office is knowing which is which within the hour, so that the evening is spent on plan B rather than on hope.

Tonight

A table at a restaurant that is fully booked is usually possible, because the restaurants we work with hold tables for the office and because a table for six at nine is often a table for four at eight-thirty that we know how to ask for. A driver in any city we cover is possible within the hour. A doctor to the house, a dentist on a Sunday, a courier across a border: possible, with a price.

Tomorrow

A day boat with a skipper from any Mediterranean port is possible in season, though the best ones go by lunchtime the day before. A jet on most European sectors is possible with four hours’ notice, from a category the operator has on the ground. A helicopter transfer with two hours. A guide, a chef, a nanny, a masseuse to the villa: all possible, from people we know.

This weekend

A villa in August is the hardest thing we are asked for and the one where honesty matters most. The good houses were booked in January. What exists at short notice is what has been cancelled, which the desk hears about first, and what was never published, which the desk knows about. Sometimes the answer is a suite at a hotel with a private pool, and sometimes it is a boat, which is a villa that moves.

What is not possible

A table at the two restaurants in Europe that genuinely have no tables. A berth in Porto Cervo on the fifteenth of August. A seaplane in the Maldives after dark. A crewed yacht for twelve tomorrow in a meltemi week. Tickets that the organiser has not released. When it cannot be done, the desk says so within the hour and says what can.