Hiring Household Staff in the Hamptons

A market that runs on one season, and the staffing that follows it.

The Hamptons are organized around a single season. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day the East End's population swells several times over, and Bain & Company has noted that the summer accounts for a disproportionate share of the Northeast's luxury spending. For households, that rhythm dictates nearly everything about staffing.

Most placements here are seasonal, and most are tied to a primary home elsewhere, usually New York. A family opening a Hamptons house for the summer often wants to bring its nanny or household manager east, or to hire someone for the season who can hold the standard of the city home in a very different setting. The professionals who do this well are mobile and adaptable, comfortable relocating for a few months and running a busy summer household that entertains constantly.

The seasonal pattern also creates a quieter, year-round need. The grandest houses are not staffed only in July. They require property and household management through the off-season, when a home sits largely empty and still has to be maintained, secured, and made ready for the family's return. Opening and closing a house well is a real skill, and one the best estate managers here are valued for.

Demand concentrates on summer nannies and household managers, estate and property managers for the off-season, and formal service for a calendar of entertaining. Discretion matters as much as anywhere, given how concentrated the clientele becomes each summer.

We maintain a presence serving the Hamptons, and because so many placements here are tied to a home in the city or beyond, our ability to recruit to a brief and place across more than one residence is exactly what the market needs. That conviction is the heart of how Nannies + more…® works.

Source: Bain & Company luxury market analysis, on the Hamptons summer season.