Butlers at your service at Yanqi Lake

Pack a suitcase in 10 minutes?

I was surprised to learn that was part of the final exam given to trainees in a formal course for five-star butler service. As a long-practiced procrastinator, I often pack about that quickly myself.

It turns out, of course, I didn't even know how to start.

Trainees at the Sunrise Kempinski Hotel at Yanqi Lake set a table as part of the final exam for butler services. Provided to China Daily

Under the watchful eye of certified butler trainer Marc van Bergen, his student at the Sunrise Kempinski Hotel at Yanqi Lake in Beijing faces a bed covered with clothing and a hefty suitcase. She knows what goes in first: A layer of paper to keep things neat and fresh, then trousers.

"Do we need paper for shirts?" van Bergen asks.

"Yes," she replies, "because that will keep the collars nice."

"This is the first time that we have provided specific butler service training for a hotel in the Chinese mainland, and we are thrilled," says van Bergen, founder and managing director of Heilbron Hospitality. The Dutchman based in South Africa has more than 25 years' experience in the butler profession. Formerly the director and senior butler instructor at The International Butler Academy in the Netherlands, he continues to train professionals in this elite luxury service all over the world.

Van Bergen has been formal but amiable through the final exam morning, but as the group puts on a demonstration of table-setting skills, his voice becomes quiet and slightly terrible as he inspects the plates and wine glasses.

"I don't think ... is this glass polished?"

One of the trainees scrambles to remedy the faux pas, but the lesson sinks in. Give every item in the table setting a last check before placing it on the serving mat.

That placement is extremely precise. Not only do butlers have to know which fork goes where, they train their eyes to judge the spacing between cutlery and plate, cutlery and glasses and any other object on the table.

Precisely.

When each butler trainee thinks they've got it right, van Bergen appears with a measuring stick to check the positioning - to the centimeter.

Other tabletop lessons every butler should know: You set a table one way for a business dinner, and another way (closer) for a family-style dinner. And never place a knife on the left.

While many well-heeled Western guests know what to expect, Chinese who haven't encountered such service in their travels may be wary at first and inclined to say, "no thanks" to having a butler dedicated to their villa at the hotel.

But once people realize that the butler's job is to be invisible and discreet - not a white-gloved shadow hovering around the guest all day - the idea can be very appealing.

Modern butlers deliver tradition but go beyond stereotypes. No one in this class of 12 - or van Bergen himself - sounds like Sir John Gielgud in the movie Arthur, or the fictional Jeeves. More than half of the class are women.

"Formal butler service is new to China, but we believe Chinese people who can afford it will really enjoy it," says Brice Pean, general manager of the sister hotels, Sunrise Kempinski and Yanqi Island.

A few other luxury hotels in China offer butler service, he notes, but some are merely "glorified ayi". Many of the services a designated butler provides are already available from the hotel, whether it's table service, packing, nightly turndown, shoe polishing or ironing. A butler combines services that usually come from several hotel departments into a dedicated face, a touch point. "In a short time, a butler should not only be able to meet your needs, but to anticipate them."

In the end, it's up to guests to decide how much direct contact they want, Pean says: "Some will want a lot, some will say I need you at 8 in the morning and then not again until 5."

"As Europe's oldest luxury hotel brand, we are committed to providing our guests with memorable journeys inspired by exquisite European flair. We believe life should be lived in style."

There are limits. Butlers aren't waitresses and don't change diapers. They don't procure sex.

"A butler's job is to make guests happy," says van Bergen. "Do the unexpected. Make magic."

michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/07/2016 page10)