The International Institute of Modern Butlers

IIMB Chairman Steven Ferry The International Institute of Modern ButlersMessage from the Chairman

Please feel free to enjoy the information on this web site.

If you would like to enquire about our consulting or training services, may I be so bold as to say that not everyone can afford our rates. They are the highest in the industry for the simple reason that we believe five-star standards are best served by five-star training—which does not mean exorbitant rates, but it does mean that when we write proposals, they are designed to bring about well-trained butlers who are a credit to their employers. We are happy to bid on, and participate in, projects where this is the understanding and the goal.

We cannot endorse training of  butlers in a day or two just so a certificate can be issued—the butlers know when they have been trained properly, as do their employers and guests. The simple truth is, it is well-trained butlers, not certificates, that provide superior service.

Please help us maintain standards in the profession.

Thank you, 

Steven Ferry

The International Institute of Modern Butlers LLC is dedicated to raising service standards through innovative on-site and long-distance training, consultation, books, and articles that develop, modernize, and adapt the superior service standards of the old-time British butler to service professionals in any industry and market around the world.

Our goal is: Employers well served by employees who are capable of intelligently executed, anticipatory, and invisible service. We increase service levels, morale and efficiency, and so lower costs and turnover.

While the Institute provides all the usual training on mechanical skills, it has found that where employers routinely experience the most disappointment lies in the soft skills of their staff. The Institute’s specialty, therefore, is in the skills and mindset of the traditional butler as applied to the modern world’s service needs.

By focusing on developing the mindset, persona, attitude, reading of employers and communication skills, the Institute’s trainers are able to ground the modern-day employee in the tried and proven approach to service developed by butlers over a millennium.

Whether establishing service for the first time or raising service standards in private, hospitality, or corporate employees, the Institute’s consultants and trainers around the world can help achieve your goals.

INTERESTING EVENTS…

  • Watch Chairman Steven Ferry address an audience of students and faculty at a top University in Moscow, Russia: Videos and Podcasts
  • May 2013 update: Congratulations are in order again for the executives and staff of Gili Lankanfushi in the Maldives. After  last year’s nominations as the World’s Leading Luxury Resort and World’s Leading Villa Resort & Spa at the World Travel Awards Grand Final 2012, they just received another three World Travel Awards: the Indian Ocean’s Leading Luxury Resort and Leading Spa Resort, and the Maldives’ Leading Luxury Resort. The Mr. Fridays (butlers) at Gili Lankanfushi were trained extensively by the Institute during October 2011.
  • The Institute recently trained two Hollywood actors on their roles as butlers, in the interests of promoting an accurate depiction of the profession.
  • The Institute is now partnered with Thailand-based 365Playground to provide butler training and related services to its clients around the world.365Playground logo The International Institute of Modern Butlers
  • The Institute has also partnered recently with:
    • Butlers & Household Consultancy in Malaysia to provide butler services and training to the region;
    • Özel Tatlar in Istanbul, Turkey, to provide continuing education in that country to various sectors and industries, in part through Bosphorous University;
    • Swiss-based Danhtin GmbH, to provide training for five-star hotels in Vietnam Danhtin logo The International Institute of Modern Butlers
  • The Institute helped innovative Norwegian Cruise Lines to fine tune the butler services on a dozen or more of their ships, with a view to making them the best ship-bound butler services in the world.
  • Having trained at the multiple award-winning Six Senses Soneva Gili and Fushi Resorts in the Maldives in 2011 and 2012, the Institute is now a training partner to luxury brand LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey) Hotel Management in opening their second hotel, Maison Cheval Blanc Randheli, in the Maldives in 2013.
  • The Institute helped pioneer introducing butler-service standards into the high-end retirement community—the first-ever such adoption/adaptation.
  • Chairman’s thought-provoking private-service article, Poor People Skills and the Wealthy, expresses some thoughts that rattle around in the minds of most private and hospitality service professionals (and deep down, those they serve) but rarely see the light of day.
  • The Institute launches unique training in superior service skills and preventive, supportive and emergency medical care for cabin crew in private jets, and commercial airlines… read more
  • A Richey report gave a certain resort’s butlers a 3% rating (we’d prefer not to name them for this reason!). The Richey report that followed the Institute’s subsequent training showed an improvement to 89%. Still not ideal, but closer to it.