There's no denying that the private service industry has changed over the past couple years. First the flood of freshly minted millionaires all around the globe meant that there was a dearth of qualified personnel to work as private service professionals. Butler schools sprung up and many people began planning career changes. Then the economy shifted and the amount of millionaires shrank and a global correction in regards to all luxury goods and services began.

But just as there will always be people to pay for fine whisky and beachside estates, there will always be people in need of good, qualified help. These days with the advances in communication, finding good help is no longer just a question of word of mouth. I recently chatted with David M. Bertnick, the president of IAPSP, a non-profit, trade association for the aggregate private service community, about the changing face of private service. The IAPSP is holding the 2009 IAPSP Inaugural Conference for Private Service next month, October 9-11 in Dallas Texas. Mr. Bertnick has served as a household manager, estate manager and personal assistant and has trained many others in the art of private service.

1. What exactly does your organization, the International Association for Private Service Professionals, do?

Established in 2006, the IAPSP is a non-profit, member-based, trade association for private service. It provides a platform for developing professionalism and leadership skills in the delivery of estate service. The IAPSP works to increase confidence, competency and skill by engaging its members in leadership opportunities, providing peer-to-peer networking, and sharing service knowledge within its ranks. Much of this work is done over the telephone and via the internet; however, our local chapters in Los Angeles and San Francisco meet monthly to learn from experts who provide products or services to the Luxury Market. Once a year, we produce a conference and invite the community to join us for the weekend event.


2. As you and I discussed earlier, the private service industry has changed a lot since Robert Frank wrote about it as the industry everyone was trying to get into back in 2007 as part of the research for his book "Richistan." How would you characterize the industry now?

One thing that hasn't seemed to change is the desire to break into our industry. Unfortunately, in the past, many have seen Private Service as a "fall-back" career, expecting that if worse came to worse they could "always be a domestic." This time, it hasn't worked out that way for individuals who are inexperienced or untrained in the art of private service. It seems a large portion of the wealth class has experienced the benefits of professional-level service in their homes and now has higher expectations. Even though many of them have scaled back the size of their estates - and the support staff required to operate them - they have kept the bar high in terms of who they will accept as service staff. A focus on quality, experience and expertise is now being applied to the search for estate staff as with any other type of expenditure.

Concierge service is rewarding, but common; let's face it, Best Western has concierges. Butler service, on the other hand -- the round-the-clock ask-and-it's-done white-glove kind, that's still something special. The Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Holistic Retreat & Spa in Los Cabos, Baja California has just added butlers to its list of amenities, and they're free... well, whenever you book an ocean view suite.

Your attendant clocks in the moment you arrive and tends to the minutiae of any resort stay like dinner reservations, spa appointment, and dry cleaning. Yet the role of steward entails more than that: he will unpack your luggage, run your bubble bath, coordinate in-suite dining, plan an entire day trip and make sure your bed is turned down and your shoes are shined when you return. If there are enough of you for a cocktail party, he can arrange that as well. And anything else in between, so we're told.

Although Pueblo Bonito says "no request is too large or too small," there is one thing you can't ask your butler to do: take care of your children -- the Los Cabos property has been designed exclusively for adults. With your own butler, though, it will give you chance to be kids. Arthur would be proud...

Was it really just eight months ago that I sat at the Luxury Summit listening to Robert Frank, author of Richistan, speak about wealth and spending. .Frank's adventures in Richistan, his name for the parallel universe the wealthy inhabit, have taken him to some pretty interesting places including Starkey International Institute in Denver, Colorado, the "butler bootcamp" that teaches people how to cater to those at the far end of the wealth spectrum. Frank said then that a good butler can earn as much as $150,000. But those butlers may find themselves out of a job or taking a pay cut now. Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have pieces on people firing their domestic help. Agencies which once struggled to find enough qualified nannies and household staff are now finding their offices flooded with those who have recently lost their jobs.

While a recession was being discussed all those months ago, it hadn't quite eaten into the upper tier. People saw having help as an investment, a way to maximize their own time available for recreation, family time and work. As their own income and wealth has started to fall the time equal money equation has tipped in favor of money. Nannies and domestic help are finding their salaries cut or are being let go. Nanny sharing is on the rise as people find ways to get by with less help but not lose a person who in many cases is practically a member of the family. Some people have decided to gradually cut back in an effort to mitigate the damage to the housekeeper or nanny's income. People are doing their own housework and even outdoor chores, dispensing in some cases with the lawn service companies which are so ubiquitous in California. Even dog walkers are finding it harder to make a living. And those butlers, whose jobs were more administrative than hands-on may find themselves running the same large households with less and less staff.

In some cases it becomes a question of what people are interested in giving up, the help or other creature comforts. The WSJ article quotes a woman who decided to lay off the nanny rather than give up her Botox treatments. Whereas in the NYT article a woman cut back on her gym membership and lunches out before she decided to make the decision of giving up her housekeeper.

If a trip to Tibet is in your future you're not alone -- due to recent upgrades the area is currently experiencing a dramatic increase in international interest and tourism. As a result, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide is planning to open a St. Regis Resort in Lhasa, which will be the first of its kind to open in the area in over a decade. Scheduled to start hosting guests in 2010, the 169 bed luxury hotel will offer the same services guests of the St. Regis New York have become accustomed to, including the famous English-trained butlers who will quietly and efficiently anticipate your every need and personalize your experience around the clock.