Crown Towers Melbourne is one of only two Australian hotels to make earn Forbes Travel Guide’s prestigious five-star rating. Picture: AAP/Julian Smith

But when you’re working at one of Australia’s top luxury hotels, the requests can get really out there.

Crown Towers Melbourne is one of those hotels. The Southbank establishment has just made its debut in the Forbes Travel Guide list of five-star properties around the world, becoming the first Melbourne hotel to earn the accolade.

The hotel scored full points across multiple categories, from housekeeping to the quality of its food and drinks, and also guest services — marking a big win for its ever-helpful concierge team.

The hotel’s chief concierge, Preston Forsyth, told news.com.au the job was to deliver whatever their guests wanted, and sometimes anticipate those needs before the guests even realised them.

“We really go above and beyond,” he said. “A lot of hotels would say the same thing, but we really focus on it greatly, being able to provide a level of service that the guest hasn’t seen before — especially because when they’re looking at a five-star location they’re expecting a lot already.

“We have a ‘getting to yes’ philosophy, where we try and say yes to everything we can and come up with options. We look at [the requests] as challenges to find solutions to ... and looking at solutions is the interesting part.”

How the other half live: the Spa Indulgence Suite at Crown Towers Melbourne hotel. Picture: Crown Towers MelbourneSource:Supplied

The hotel has six concierges, including Forsyth — which is a pretty big team for an Australian hotel — and they need to be jacks of all trades.

“Sometimes it feels like we’re tour guides, planning the entire trip for the guests, which is fun,” Forsyth said.

“We spend a lot of time ourselves getting out in the industry, going to restaurants, seeing the sights in Victoria and sharing that with our guests.

“We go out grocery shopping for guests, or maybe we’ll have to get them a certain type of hair product that’s only sold in one store in the city.”

But some requests, Forsyth said, really put the team through their paces.

The hotel is popular among the A-list crowd. Picture: Crown Towers MelbourneSource:Supplied

Such as during the Australian Open in January, when tennis champ Roger Federer asked for an upright piano in his hotel room so he and his team could sing “Happy Birthday” to a mate.

Hilarious video of a piano singalong involving Federer, Tommy Haas and Grigor Dimitrov went viral after the Swiss champion shared it online.

“We had to get the piano in that room two hours before it needed to be there,” Forsyth told news.com.au.

“This was after-hours, when piano rental places were closed, and it was those connections we have as a concierge team that helped — we used our networks to contact someone outside usual business hours and get a piano in the room, tuned and ready to go.

“There was a time limit but it was quite fun, especially to see him post a video of it the next day, which was a surprise to us.”

In another odd request, a guest asked the concierge team if he could be flown by private plane to Tasmania for a few hours, just so he could check out the Museum of Old and New Art and eat a burger.

And then there was the recent case of a very wealthy international guest who needed help landing his private Airbus — yep, a private Airbus — in Melbourne.

“The plane was supposed to land at Essendon Airport, but the airport realised just before they took off that it was an Airbus, and they couldn’t actually accommodate it,” Forsyth recalled.

The female vitality pool at Crown Towers Melbourne. Picture: Crown Towers MelbourneSource:Supplied

“We got the call about 10 hours before they were landing, and it was our concierge team that liaised with Tullamarine airport to organise for them to land, a hanger for the plane during the stay, and access for all the staff on the plane, so they could actually walk out on the tarmac and have that clearance.

“That was another fun one, another challenge that was exciting. When we get it done it’s a good feeling.”

There was, however, the odd request the concierge team simply couldn’t say yes to.

“We had a lovely international family who went out to Phillip Island and loved the penguins so much they were adamant on purchasing a penguin to take home with them,” Forsyth said.

Forbes praised the Southbank hotel. Picture: Crown Towers MelbourneSource:Supplied

“We never like saying no to our guests but of course we couldn’t help them purchase a penguin. But we did help them purchase a couple of stuffed penguins to have in their room the next day.”

Crown Towers Melbourne joined the likes of MGM Resorts International, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company on Forbes’ 2017 five-star hotel list.

Sydney’s The Darling at Pyrmont was the only other Australian establishment to make the coveted list.

Forbes sent undercover guests into Crown Towers Melbourne who returned with perfect scores for the hotel’s guest services, hotel phone services, fitness facilities, business service, housekeeping daily service, guest room, cleanliness and condition, courtesy and manners, food and beverage quality and staff appearance.

Forsyth, who has worked for Crown for three years and previously worked at the prestigious Pan Pacific hotel in Vancouver, said the accolade was a huge thrill for staff.

“It’s something we all worked very hard for, for a very long time, and to have that news come out was fantastic,” he said.