We invite you to join the world of luxury hospitality at Raffles The Palm as we currently looking for Butler. Reporting to the Butler Supervisor / Assistant Head Butler. The Raffles Butler is not defined by the tasks they perform, but by what they make possible for every guest they serve. This is a role of presence, not just procedure. The Butler is the architect of the individual guest journey: the single point of continuity from the moment a reservation is made to the moment a guest steps into the world again, and the reason they return.
At Raffles, the Butler operates across two models of service. As Butler in Residence, they are a dedicated presence for every suite and VIP guest: proactive, personal, and fully accountable for the arc of that stay. As Butler on Call, they are a presence felt rather than seen: available, responsive, and ready to step in whenever a guest needs them. To the guest, both are simply 'The Butler.'
Key Responsibilities
Knowledge
- Hold thorough, practised knowledge of all Butler Service SOPs; not as rules to follow, but as a foundation from which to deliver with confidence and consistency.
- Remain fully current on Raffles Brand Standards, LQA criteria, Forbes Travel Guide standards, and the expectations that define five-star butler service globally.
- Maintain working proficiency across all platforms used to capture, action, and track the guest journey.
- Demonstrate accurate knowledge of all room categories, suite configurations, F&B offerings, in-house experiences, and property-wide facilities.
- Stay continuously informed on arriving guests: their profiles, histories, preferences, special occasions, and any intelligence gathered across all touchpoints.
- Remain current on local culture, seasonal events, and the area’s social landscape to serve as a credible and genuine resource for guests.
The 360° Guest Journey
- Internalise and embody the Raffles brand personality in every interaction: Charming, Graceful, Thoughtful, and Welcoming.
- Consistently execute the Top 5 Service Excellence pillars in every guest encounter: Look, Smile, Talk, Listen, and Thank.
- Operate as the orchestrator of the guest journey; the conductor who ensures every department plays its part at precisely the right moment.
- Own the guest relationship from pre-arrival to post-departure, not as a series of handoffs, but as a single, unbroken arc of care.
- Initiate meaningful pre-arrival contact: review profiles with intent, anticipate what has not yet been asked for, and personalise every element of the arrival before the guest lands.
- Conduct in-room check-ins and room orientations with warmth and genuine curiosity; reading each guest to determine the level of engagement they seek.
- Correspond with guests via appropriate channels – written, digital, verbal – always in the Raffles tone: considered, elegant, and never transactional.
- Anticipate needs before they are expressed. A pattern observed becomes a gesture before departure.
- Be proactively present: visible, attuned, and ready throughout the entire stay.
- Manage all guest requests with full personal accountability; coordinating across departments, tracking to completion, and following up without being asked.
- Handle complaints and service failures with ownership and composure: acknowledge, recover, and follow through until the guest's trust is fully restored.
- Inspect arrival and occupied rooms through a butler's perspective.
- Execute Raffles Rituals and special occasion set-ups with precision, creativity, and genuine care for the detail.
- Offer packing and unpacking service with the discretion and attentiveness that transforms a practical task into a considered experience.
- Monitor DND and OOO rooms with diligence, acting on welfare concerns immediately and in full accordance with SOP.
- Maintain impeccable butler notes: recording preferences, observations, and interactions in a way that serves the next encounter as richly as the current one.
- Practise genuine, knowledgeable upselling; recommending experiences, dining, and services because they are right for this guest, not to meet a metric.
- Collaborate daily with Housekeeping, Private Dining, Front Office, Engineering, Concierge, and all relevant departments; communicating with clarity, respect, and shared ownership of the guest outcome.
- Embody the 'We Are All Butlers' philosophy: treat every colleague as a contributor to the guest journey, and every interaction – internal or external – as a reflection of the Raffles standard.
- Attend shift briefings, department meetings, and training sessions with active engagement.
- Contribute to the team's culture through reliability, discretion, and a consistent willingness to support colleagues.