An attendant who gives hotel guests personal service through their stay, or who runs the table, wine and staff of a private household.
In a hotel, a butler gives guests personal service through their stay. ESCO, the European Commission’s classification of occupations, describes hotel butlers as providing personalized services in high-level establishments, managing housekeeping staff and answering for the guests’ general welfare. The skills it lists include handling luggage, running errands, taking room service orders, serving drinks, overseeing laundry and protecting guests’ privacy. ESCO classes the hotel butler with housekeeping supervisors, and the concierge, who books and advises, with client information workers. Its French title for the hotel role is majordome en hôtellerie.
A private household’s butler does a different job. ESCO’s domestic butler serves at official meals, oversees meal preparation and table setting, organizes the wine cellar and manages the household staff, and may also book travel and restaurants and look after clothes. Other titles for the role include domestic house manager and major-domo.
In job listings
Butler titles come mainly from hotels and resorts: butler, senior butler, head butler, residence butler and majordome, sometimes on night shifts. Listings describe in-room welcomes, arrivals and departures, and service to the guests of particular villas, chalets or residences, and some place butlers in the front office department. See current butler roles.
