Originally Posted by Ericka
.....and on the level of accomodation. The larger suites at the Amans, for instance, have one or two butlers that discretely stay in the suite with you 24/7. In this scenario, they do pretty much everything. I would guess this is the closest thing to a real butler.
In most hotel properties, a butler is just a "main point of contact".
On one extreme was the bulter at the FS Chaing Mai Residence who lived in the place while we were there. She pretty much did anything we wanted within reason. In addition, if you were there with kids (we were not), she would be the nanny too. It was great and I gladly gave her a big tip at the end - she was worth it.
On the other end of things was the 'butler' at the OO Palmilla, who was only a 'point of contect' as Ericka says. And unfortunately, we saw him once and then he was never available again . Worse than that, if we contacted other resort employees to handle something that the bulter normally would, the response was 'we cannot do this, you must contact the butler'. 'Butler' service at it's worst.
This 'point of contact' type of butler server is IMHO truly useless. In a good 5* hotel, I should not need a single point of contact. I should be able to contact any hotel employee and they should either be able to help me or communicate with someone who can.