Butlers in the Media

by Steven Ferry

It’s ironic that I keep going on about robots and robot butlers, and the name of what was probably one of the first «robot butlers»—dating back to 1986, the same time I was beginning my career as a butler—was called Steven.

Some new apartments in San Francisco offer what they call butler service to differentiate themselves from other apartment buildings. For those unfamiliar with American terminology, an apartment is a rental, as opposed to a condominium, which is owned.

Duties? Weekly cleaning, grocery delivery, organizing closets or pantries, running errands, ordering catering for a dinner party or purchasing tickets—all for an additional fee, of course.

In the software field, we now have a «group butler bot for telegrams;» and a butler for the Trello program.

The ex-butler for the Pope starts his trial for leaking documents; he was arrested almost two years ago and faces the possibility of four years in prison. It really does not pay, Burrell’s notoriety notwithstanding, to break the Professional Butler’s Code of Ethics.

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.