Unlike many hotel leaders who move from property to property frequently, Chiosi—who goes by a single name—is still at her first hotel. The concierge at the Revival, a JdV by Hyatt Hotel in Baltimore, came to her position thanks to her local savvy and the property’s determination to give its guests a unique perspective of the city.
A Baltimore native, Chiosi earned her bachelor of fine arts in drawing from the Maryland Institute College of Art, planning to be a studio artist and work at a gallery or museum on the side. But while she loved art, she soon realized that she needed more interaction with people. She took a job as sales director at designer Billy Reid’s D.C. boutique, hosting events and using her artistic education to boost the brand. When COVID hit, she stepped back and considered her options. “Do I want to continue with retail? And if I do continue with retail, what kind of experience do I want it to be?” With that, she realized that while she was having fun at her job, she wanted to support the Black, Indigenous and people of color community, local businesses and women-owned businesses.
Seeking a different opportunity, she began working with creative agency Kiss Tomorrow Hello to run retail programs. “I basically would just design a retail element for whatever event that they would be putting on,” she said. Jason Bass, Revival’s director of impact and culture, had founded the agency, and alerted Chiosi of the opportunity to create the corner store gift shop for the hotel.
Forging Connections
The Corner Store Gift Shop is “a small space,” Chiosi said, “but we've been able to offer items of convenience and also giftable items.” Most importantly for Chiosi, everything in the store is woman-owned, BIPOC-owned or is from a local company. “I would say that we're the most unique gift shop in Baltimore just because we hold to that standard,” she said. “We want to be able to show a different side of Baltimore and show … the companies that make up the city in an authentic way.”
The hotel, Chiosi noted, had already started sourcing from local businesses like Lor Tush, a Black-owned, women-owned West Baltimore company that produces bamboo toilet paper. Revival also serves coffee from Black Acres Roastery in the Highlandtown district of Baltimore. With those values in mind, Chiosi said that it wasn’t difficult to create a retail space that matched. “They just needed a partner to basically take this concept and express it in gift shop form.”
As the hotel became a broader hub for the community, it began hosting pop-ups on the first Friday of each month, with local vendors setting up shop in the lobby to connect with visitors and locals. “We're working on expanding what that programming looks like,” Chiosi said, adding that she was “really excited” about developing it further.
Her position overseeing the gift shop and working with the local vendors—combined with her lived experience as a Baltimorean—gave Chiosi a unique perspective on different neighborhoods within the city and things that people could do in the broader region. In July, just over a year after she started working at the gift shop, she officially became the hotel’s first full-time concierge. In her new role, Chiosi is still connecting hotel guests with the broader Baltimore community and forging relationships with local businesses. “Living in Baltimore my whole life, a lot of those relationships are already established in some way,” she said. “Of course, I have to go through and reignite them and introduce myself. But it has been easier than someone coming in from outside the city [who] has to start from zero.”
Chiosi is now working with Bass to put together a guide to all the different neighborhoods of Baltimore, highlighting businesses owned by women and people of color in the same way the hotel’s gift shop has done. “The guide will just be an expansion of that,” she said. She is also developing a program for guests to purchase custom-designed packages upon arrival. “And of course, the items that I'm going to select for those packages are going to be from BIPOC-owned businesses, women-owned businesses and locally owned businesses,” she said.
Chiosi’s…
Challenge
Shifting from the world of retail to concierge services didn’t go perfectly smoothly, Chiosi recalled, because some responsibilities depend on factors that are beyond her control. “It's definitely a little bit of a learning curve,” she acknowledged.
Success
The hotel’s team, overseen by GM Donte Johnson, has pulled together to help Chiosi’s endeavors. “We're getting the hang of it, and I have a good team behind me [for] support.”
Advice for Concierges
“Are you someone who likes to do this? Are you someone who likes to go out and explore and make new connections? Because you have to be in the mix in order to give people the best recommendations.”
Secrets to Success
Be kind: “Yes, we are offering an elevated experience, but it doesn't mean kindness has to be detracted from the scenario.”
Be flexible: “You have more opportunities when you're flexible.”
Be empathetic: “Being able to read people, where they're coming from, and really empathizing with what they would want to do—not your favorite restaurant or your favorite bar—but really hearing them out and listening to their story [lets you say], ‘Oh, I know the right thing that is for you.’ Not my favorite thing, but the thing that is for you.”
Revival — a JdV by Hyatt Hotel
Owner: NuovoRE | Operator: Hyatt Hotels Corp. | Opening year: 2018 | Rooms: 107