The Butler Did It: Butler Service on Rise at Luxury Hotels

June 12, 2007 at 1:16 PM | 0 Comments

Sophisticated diners know how to pair wine with food. Increasingly, sophisticated hoteliers know how to pair guests with butlers. Yes, butlers, those silent but obsequious senior servants commonly associated with the royal family and other stratospheric life-stylists, are on the rise at luxury hotels. You rang? Preferred Hotels & Resorts is tauting reinvented butler service at several properties.

Essentially floating personal assistants, the butler staff at The Lanesborough in London is on call 24/7 to pamper and problem-solve. The 23-butler staff carries wireless hand-held devices that allow guests to send their requests from parts afar.

If your meeting's running late, ping! A butler will move back your dinner reservation. If you arrive ahead of your luggage, ding! The butler staff will go into high gear.

Need something to wear to, say, dinner at Buckingham Palace? One guest recently did. The Lanesborough's butler staff summoned Sloane Street boutiques to deliver a selection of dresses. Ditto jewelry from Graft.

Stateside, The Cloister at Sea Island is the first U.S. property to receive a 5-Butler rating from the International Modern Butlers Institute. The Clearwater, Florida-based professional organization is trying to elevate the standards of hotel butler service. In addition to its rating system the institute seeks feedback from guests. (If you are so inclined, click here.)

The Cloister at Sea Island introduced butler service when it reopened in March 2006 after a $500 million renovation. At 49 butlers strong, it's the largest hotel butler staff in the U.S. One-third of the Sea Island's butlers are women, including head butler (or butlerette?) Fiona Cameron-Williams. Apparently there's something of a cultural disconnect among some guests and the notion of butler service. Even the well-heeled can feel shy about using butler service.

Well, use your imagination! Available 24 hours a day, the staff is on standby to do everything from draw a bath, press guests' clothes or satisfy a late-night craving for ice cream. As for the pairing part, Sea Island calls guests prior to arrival to suss out their preferences.

The Preferred Hotels & Resorts folks know where to draw the line. It wisely notes that their hotel butlers will fulfill every wish - provided it is legal. Butler service is also available at Sandy Lane in Barbados and Villa Premiere Hotel & Spa in Puerto Vallarta.

For travel-geek kicks, check out back issues of The Modern Butler's Journal. In one article, the chairman of the Modern Butler's Institute observed that today's hotel butlers "find themselves at the forefront of a global service industry...increasingly pushing the word out via the print and electronic media that butlers at the Bentleys and Bugattis of service." Vroom, vroom indeed.

Tags: Hotel Butlers / Luxury Hotels / Hotel Staff

by barbarab

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