Butlers in the Media
by Steven Ferry
Conrad Hotels announces a Room Butler whose duties are simply those of In Room Dining. Similarly, almost, we now have Bag Butlers—systems for easily bagging leaves in the autumn; The Laundry Butler (used to be called a Clothes Horse, but maybe horses objected to the stereotyping??); and The Medi Butler, which facilitates the removal of compression stockings.
If marketers keep it up, the word “butler” will have as many meanings, and as much actual meaning, as the words “get” and “got.”
An interesting article in the Miami Herald on the inroads robot butlers are making into hotels and resorts.
An article entitled The Life of a Modern-Day Butler contains some interesting information and perspectives—the last paragraph being nicely stated: “When they’re doing the job well, it looks like they’re doing nothing at all. They’re the invisible helpers, the cogs that keep things running in the most powerful, influential households on Earth. Because when it comes to keeping the personal lives of the world’s most powerful people moving along, the old line turns out to be true: ‘The butler did it.'”
Lastly, the second in a three-part series by the Chairman was published in various venues this month. The series covers the need for Quality Assurance programs for hotels and resorts to be modernized in many ways, including having standards for butler service. The whole concept is being very well received by managers and owners of hotels and resorts around the world.
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.