If there's one job that epitomises an ultra-luxury hotel, it's that of butler. Discretion is certainly the first thing that comes to mind when butlers are mentioned. At the service of their customers, attentive, anticipating their expectations, certainly too. Other words that pop into your head include excellence or perfection of gesture. Gifted with a broad and unique expertise and imaginative, knowing a thousand little ways to simplify their customers' lives. You also immediately have an image in your mind of a uniform to wear, white gloves...
But just how far do these facilitators of hotel life go? Kempinski reveals these extra-miles, these attentions brought by personal assistants to happy guests in the hotels of the Swiss group. One thing is certain, no two days are alike for the butlers!
Getting to know their guests' tastes and anticipating their expectations is part of their daily routine. The butler will discreetly perform services such as greeting guests with their favourite cocktail in front of the limousine at the airport, placing a flask of their favourite perfume in the suite, acquiring collectors' items, translating important documents or accompanying a guest to the tailor's providing his expertise on making a suit or choosing a tie for a special event.
At the legendary Adlon Kempinski Berlin hotel, Ricardo has been working for over 25 years, and his passion is reading guests' every wish and preparing them for a perfect stay. He is a master of protocol greetings or afternoon tea service. Shoe-shining holds no secrets for him and, like a Downton Abbey butler, he'll help you tie your bow tie in the evening. Of course, he can also iron the day's newspaper so that you don't get ink on your fingers when you read it. When you leave, he'll pack your suitcase and make sure your clothes won't be wrinkled.
Ricardo shares his passion and wealth of experience as part of the hotel's butler training programme.
Hamfrey is a young butler at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra in Ghana. For the past two years, he has been offering an exceptional service. He can also don boxing gloves and be your sparing partner for the duration of a boxing session. His anecdote? Adding a few phrases in his local dialect to an ambassador's speech and helping him to pronounce them.
In Istanbul, the sublime Cirağan Palace Kempinski offers an enchanting and personalised service called 'soap and perfume service'. While guests enjoy the breathtaking view of the Bosphorus, a butler passes by with his trolley of perfumes, like richly decorated cakes. He offers a ritual rooted in centuries-old Ottoman tradition, based on mint-lemon, jasmine or rose-lavender green tea. Guests choose their favourite scent and the butler cuts a slice of soap, produced in harmony with nature to preserve proteins, antioxidants and vitamins. Guests then use part of this soap, while the other part will be waiting for them when they leave the hotel, delicately protected in a small linen sachet, an olfactory souvenir of the unforgettable moments spent in the palace.
This art of service continues to be practised in the finest hotels, with a unique profession that makes all the difference to service, but which also keeps its share of secrets.
Sylvie Leroy, enthusiastic publisher since 1999 Her passion for luxury hospitality, "a score perfectly performed by a fantastic orchestra" as she often says, led Sylvie Leroy to build in 2004 Journal des Palaces the sole online daily news dedicated to luxury hospitality with news, jobs, directories and resources.
