We did have a dedicated butler at Shangri-La in the Maldives and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, they provided us with a cell phone with his number pre-programmed and it was nice being able to call him when we mistakenly left our bicycles someplace. He retrieved them and returned them to our suite.

On the other hand, this was the only time I recall benefiting from having a butler (there was really very little I could imagine asking him to do on an island) and I probably would have preferred not to have had this additional presence. I occasionally found him intrusive and a bit of a nuisance, like when you have a waiter who comes to your table too frequently.