Concierge

Within reason, a hotel concierge will get you anything you want. Just like a parent. Within reason, a concierge will smooth your ruffled feathers, locate what you're looking for, offer guidance, generally take care of you. Just like a parent. A concierge would never, never turn on a petitioner. Most parents don't either. Some do, though, and it somehow seems fitting that the Los Angeles Concierge Assn. has adopted as its favorite beneficiary the L.A. Police Department's Child-Abuse Unit.

Concierge, a two-year-old discount-card company that claims more than 5,000 members, offers discounts off regular room rates at about 350 domestic and 40 international hotels. In addition, the Denver-based firm has discounts at 2,000 condominiums domestically and internationally. At the domestic properties, the discounts are 50% off regular rates. At hotels abroad, 20% to 60%.

Three adult patients died unexpectedly and a teenage patient was raped after entering a Pasadena psychiatric hospital known for its association with celebrity physician Drew Pinsky, records show. The incidents occurred in the last five months at Aurora Las Encinas Hospital, which advertises itself as a "world-renowned" haven where patients with acute mental illness and substance abuse problems can recover in safety and comfort. It is a favored destination for rock musicians and actors, among others.

Ever wonder what a hotel concierge really does? The answer is, just about everything. If you want dinner reservations, transportation, sightseeing, advice, a concierge (pronounced kahn-see-airjzh ) should be able to do it. But that's just the beginning. A concierge, once a fixture exclusive to Old World European hotels, is now very much a part of many U.S. hotels. The genuine concierge is a veritable miracle worker, a man or woman with all the best connections.

Re "Dollars to doughnuts diagnosis," April 16 Dr. Albert Fuchs' rejection of insurers is also a rejection of the vast majority of patients. How nice it is that his Beverly Hills patients pay cash for his services so he can assuage his conscience with two afternoons a month of community service. Yes, it is awful that insurers have too large a role in setting prices. However, lay the blame where it belongs -- on the federal government for not setting up a system in which insurers are just insurers.

A plan to deliver laundry, shoe repair and other services to local offices may help keep commuters from using midday errands as an excuse to not take a bus, train or car-pool to work. In an effort to reduce traffic and smog levels in Glendale to meet requirements of the Clean Air Act, the Glendale Transportation Management Assn. has devised a commuter concierge plan.

There's this old notion that you have to be a powerful agent or a studio chief to get a reservation at a decent hour at a dozen or so Hollywood-heavy hot spots. And concierges at certain hotels allegedly are never turned down when requesting tables at a prime time. The rest of us, however, are at the mercy of the owner or worse, a temperamental maitre 'd. The hot restaurant hype is so heavy that Conde Nast Traveler recently put up a writer for one night at each of four different L.A.

Using a new interactive service aimed both at laptop-toting road warriors and technologically challenged vacationers, guests at seven Washington-area hotels can surf their way through the nation's capital this summer--via the remote control on their in-room televisions. Billed as "electronic yellow pages," Bell Atlantic's InfoTravel helps visitors choose a nearby restaurant, find a dentist or plan a tour of the Jefferson Memorial using the same system that provides pay-per-view movies.

With apartments holding strong as the hottest class in commercial real estate, developer Rick Caruso is testing the limits of the luxury category in Los Angeles with his residential complex that just opened on Burton Way. The developer, best known for his plush outdoor shopping centers such as the Grove, spent $65 million building an 87-unit complex where the cheapest apartment is $4,500 a month and many cost more than $10,000. "Those are New York rents," Caruso acknowledged. At about $8 a square foot, they are quadruple the Los Angeles average.

Former St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner's six-bedroom home will go on the auction block on Feb. 27 after the Super Bowl champion got tired of waiting for it to sell. He moved into a bigger house in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2011 and has been trying to sell his former home ever since. The house is expected to be sold for about $5 million. The 11,000-square-foot home boasts six bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms, as well as a home theater, billiard room, massage room, table tennis room, in-ground trampoline and a 62-foot pool with an overhead waterfall.