How to Staff Across Multiple Residences

Several homes mean several households to run. The art is in the coordination.

Families who maintain more than one residence, a primary home and a country house, homes in two cities, a portfolio of properties across the world, face a staffing challenge that single-home families do not: not just staffing each home, but coordinating across all of them so the whole functions as one. Done well, a family moves seamlessly between residences, each ready and running to the same standard. Done poorly, each home becomes its own island of problems.

The first decision is how to staff each home given how it is used. A primary residence typically warrants full, permanent staff. A frequently used second home may need a small permanent local staff plus people brought as needed. A seasonal home calls for seasonal staffing plus off-season property care. A rarely used residence may need only a caretaker or property manager to keep it ready. Matching the staffing model to each home's actual use prevents both under-staffing the homes you use and over-staffing the ones you do not.

The second, and the real art, is coordination. Multiple residences benefit enormously from a senior professional, usually an estate manager, who oversees the whole: setting consistent standards across homes, coordinating the staff at each, ensuring the family's preferences travel with them, managing the logistics of moving between residences, and serving as the single point of accountability so the family is not personally managing several separate households. Without this coordinating role, each home drifts toward its own standard and the gaps between them multiply.

The third is continuity for the family across homes. Some roles travel with the family, a personal nanny, a chef, a personal assistant, providing consistency wherever the family is, while others are tied to a location. Deciding which is which, and arranging the travel, accommodation, and pay that traveling roles require, is part of staffing a multi-residence life well. Many families keep certain trusted people who move with them and a stable local staff at each home.

The fourth is the consistency of standard and trust everywhere. Every home, even one rarely visited, should be staffed by people vetted to the same rigorous standard, since staff at less-frequented residences often operate with the most autonomy. The standard cannot vary by how often you are there.

We staff and coordinate multi-residence households, placing the estate managers who run them, the staff at each home, and the trusted professionals who travel with the family, all to a single high standard. For a family living across several homes, the goal is that each feels like the one you never left, and thoughtful, coordinated staffing is what achieves it. This is the standard Nannies + more…® brings to every family we serve.