By Rachel Chan

AS MORE deluxe properties sprout up and international events make their way to Singapore, the demand for personal butler services is expected to grow in tandem.

Demand is expected to be so good that Shatec Institutes, the Singapore Hotel Association's (SHA) training arm, and luxury hotel St Regis Singapore launched a butler-training programme in August this year.

Believed to be the first of its kind here, the three-month programme will teach students skills such as cigar cutting, brewing tea and packing clothes in a suitcase without creasing them.

Trainees will then serve a three-month attachment at St Regis.

Traditionally associated with English upper-class society, butlers - who take care of household matters ranging from polishing the silver to managing the household - are now sought by affluent individuals and luxury hotels.

Currently, only three hotels here have full-time butlers, and hire 54 of them in total. Raffles Hotel and St Regis provide the 24-hour service to all its guests, while Shangri-La Hotel Singapore offers it to guests of its premier Valley Wing.

Some 15 other hotels offer some form of butler or personal concierge service.

It is not known how many butlers work in homes here.

An experienced butler can earn up to $6,000 a month, working in a household.

The demand for such exclusive personalised services started growing about three years ago, with the opening of more luxury hotels here, such as St Regis and the hosting of more high-profile events, such as the Formula One night race, said Shatec Institutes' acting chief executive Margaret Heng.

Ms Heng, who is also SHA's executive director, expects it to grow further in the coming years, when the integrated resorts throw open their doors, and more international events that attract the rich and famous are held.

Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) said in May that it was looking to hire 20 butlers for its premier hotel, Maxims Tower, which will offer 24-hour butler services for its guests, most of whom will be there by invitation only. The 120-room hotel will be launched in the first quarter of next year.

A good number of butler positions are still available, said RWS spokesman Robin Goh.

Marina Bay Sands is also hiring butlers.

Ms Anthea Tan, vice-principal and chef butler of Shatec's Institute of Lodging, has already received calls from interested parties about her first cohort of students.

The nine of them were handpicked from 25 applicants pursuing a diploma in hotel management in Shatec Institutes.

One of them, Mr Abdul Shahir, 20, said: "I thought a butler was an old and grumpy chambermaid.

But after undergoing training so far, I've learnt that being a butler requires a lot of knowledge - he has to know practically everything.

"If I were to become a butler, I would love to work for a household."

rachchan@sph.com.sg

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