365Playground Management Welcomes Steven Ferry, Respected Butler Service Specialist, to Team

365Playground Management is thrilled to welcome our new team member Steven Ferry, Butler Service Specialist.

Ferry is the founder and Chairman of the Board of the International Institute of Modern Butlers, overseeing the operations of the Institute’s offices and trainers around the world, as well as personally training butlers and other household and hospitality employees on the butler model of service in private households and estates, hotels, resorts, spas and private villas.

In the 1980‘s, Ferry worked both in the hospitality industry and in private service in England before going on to train as a butler. Upon completing his training, he began work as a butler in the United States. During this period, he established the International Guild of Traditional Butlers and authored a basic manual on how to butle. In the mid-1990s, he left private service to focus on writing and consulting.

Drawing on his early years as an educator in England, Ferry has published three textbooks for the profession: “The British Butlers’ Bible,” “Butlers and Household Managers, 21st Century Professionals,” and “Hotel Butlers, the Great Service Differentiators”.

He subsequently broadened his campaign to improve on service standards using the butler model, providing training and consulting services to the hospitality industry. In 2004 he founded the International Institute of Modern Butlers with the goal of exporting the superior service style of butlers to all service industries.

In 2003, he introduced the concept of spa butler as a resource for hotels and resorts with spas, helping bring about the ultimate spa experience for guests. In 2006, he introduced rating standards to the industry for butlers in hotels. In 2007, he introduced the concept of the Guest from Hell and helped establish the HotelSafeguard program for hotels.

Ferry is currently on the Editorial Board of Hotel Business Magazine and writes for a variety of industry trade magazines and newsletters. He has lectured at a number of venues, including Harvard University.

Prior to working in the hospitality profession, Steven was a professor of education and worked in the non-profit sector in various capacities. As a writer and photographer, he has 20 books published, and has contributed hundreds of articles and photographs for major U.S. publishers and corporations.