For families who maintain multiple residences, household staffing can become significantly more complex than managing one primary home. A family may spend winter in Palm Beach, summer in the Hamptons, travel frequently to New York or Aspen, and maintain additional properties that still require year-round attention.
The challenge is not simply hiring more household employees. Successful multiple residence staffing requires a clear management structure, thoughtful communication, consistent household standards, and experienced private service professionals who understand how to coordinate several properties.
For high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families, the goal should be to create one connected household operation rather than several residences functioning independently.
The most effective staffing structure typically combines centralized leadership with property-specific support.
An experienced estate manager, director of residences, chief of staff, or senior household professional may oversee operations across several properties. Individual residences may then have their own housekeepers, executive housekeepers, private chefs, housemen, property professionals, or other household staff depending on the size and use of each home.
The correct structure depends on factors such as:
There is no universal formula for staffing multiple homes.
A family occupying three residences throughout the year may need permanent staff at each location. Another household may maintain one core traveling team while smaller local teams care for individual properties.
The staffing structure should reflect how the family actually lives.
One of the most important elements of managing multiple residences is establishing clear leadership.
Without a defined chain of command, employees at different properties may begin making decisions independently, communicating directly with principals about routine matters, or receiving conflicting instructions.
For larger households, an estate manager may serve as the central point of coordination.
An experienced estate manager may oversee:
The estate manager does not necessarily complete every task personally. Their value lies in overseeing the overall operation and making sure each property is prepared.
For example, when a family leaves its Palm Beach residence and travels to another home, the next residence should already be ready for arrival. Groceries may need to be stocked, vehicles prepared, linens changed, wardrobes transferred, maintenance issues resolved, and staff schedules adjusted.
The principals should not have to coordinate those details themselves.
Lorraine Lee Estate Staffing helps families recruit experienced professionals for these types of complex household operations through its private estate staffing services.
Not necessarily.
Whether a residence needs permanent staff should depend on how often the property is used and how much work is required when the family is away.
An executive housekeeper, housekeeper, houseman, property manager, private chef, or house manager may remain primarily assigned to that property.
Some household professionals are more closely connected to the principals than to one residence.
Examples can include:
These professionals may travel between residences because their knowledge of the family’s personal routines and preferences helps maintain continuity.
Many sophisticated households therefore use a hybrid staffing model: permanent employees maintain individual properties while selected members of the core household team travel with the family.
One of the greatest challenges in multi-property household management is inconsistency.
One residence may have detailed systems for housekeeping and inventory management while another relies on informal communication. Different teams may handle laundry, pantry stocking, guest preparation, or household organization in completely different ways.
Over time, these inconsistencies can create confusion.
Multi-residence households benefit from documented operating procedures covering areas such as:
These systems do not need to create unnecessary bureaucracy.
Their purpose is to make important household knowledge transferable between teams and locations.
If a senior housekeeper from Palm Beach needs to assist temporarily at another residence, that employee should be able to understand the household’s expectations without rebuilding the system from the beginning.
Managing multiple residences requires more than knowing where the principals are today.
Household leadership should know where they are going next.
An estate manager or other senior professional may maintain a rolling calendar that includes:
Before the family moves from one residence to another, both household teams should communicate.
The departing residence may need to send clothing, personal belongings, children’s equipment, pet supplies, specialty foods, medications, or other items ahead.
The receiving property should know what is arriving and when.
Strong communication allows each residence to prepare proactively instead of reacting once the family arrives.
Experience working in one private residence does not automatically mean a candidate is prepared to manage several.
Multi-residence households often require professionals who can adapt quickly, communicate across teams, travel when necessary, and prioritize issues occurring in different locations.
When interviewing an estate manager or senior household professional, ask about direct experience with:
Avoid simply asking whether someone has “multi-estate experience.”
Ask what that experience actually involved.
How many properties did the candidate oversee?
Did they supervise staff at each property?
Were they responsible for budgets?
Did they travel ahead of the principals?
Did they remotely manage employees?
How were household standards communicated between homes?
What happened when two properties required attention at the same time?
Specific questions help determine whether the candidate’s previous responsibilities match the complexity of your household.
Families considering this position may also find Lorraine Lee Estate Staffing’s guide to hiring the right estate manager helpful when developing interview questions.
Travel expectations should be clearly defined before a candidate accepts a household position.
If an employee may regularly travel between Palm Beach, Miami, New York, Aspen, Europe, or other destinations, that requirement should be explained during the recruiting process.
Discuss:
Some private service professionals specifically enjoy travel positions.
Others may have extensive household experience but prefer a consistent local schedule.
Neither preference makes someone a better or worse candidate. The important factor is whether the employee’s availability matches the family’s lifestyle.
Clarifying travel expectations early can prevent turnover later.
Families employing household professionals across several residences should also consider wage, hour, tax, insurance, and employment requirements.
Domestic service employees may be covered by federal employment protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The U.S. Department of Labor explains that domestic service workers can include housekeepers, nannies, cooks, gardeners, caretakers, chauffeurs, and other workers performing household services in private homes. The Department also notes that a private home can include certain temporary dwellings used by a family while traveling.
For additional guidance, review the U.S. Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #79 on Private Homes and Domestic Service Employment.
Employment considerations can become more complicated when an employee regularly performs work in more than one state.
Families should consult qualified payroll, tax, legal, and insurance professionals regarding the rules that apply to their specific circumstances.
A household staffing agency can help define and recruit for the position, but legal and tax professionals should advise on compliance matters.
Families with a family office should determine how the household operation and family-office team communicate.
The two may need to coordinate around:
However, responsibilities should remain clearly defined.
A family-office executive who manages finances should not automatically become the day-to-day supervisor of household employees.
Likewise, the estate manager should understand which expenses or decisions require approval from the family office.
Clear boundaries help prevent duplicated work and confusion.
Lorraine Lee Estate Staffing provides family office support and private household staffing for families requiring professionals who understand these interconnected environments.
A professionally managed secondary residence should not feel neglected simply because it has been vacant.
Before the principals arrive, household staff may need to coordinate:
The goal is for the residence to feel immediately ready.
Principals should not arrive and become project managers for their own household.
Owning several residences does not mean every property needs a duplicate household team.
Overstaffing can increase expenses while creating additional management complexity.
Instead, evaluate the actual workload at each residence.
Consider:
The objective is not to build the largest household staff.
It is to build the right staff structure for the family’s lifestyle.
Seasonal households require particularly careful planning.
Families may spend winter in Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Miami, Naples, or another South Florida residence and relocate elsewhere for the summer.
Before that transition happens, determine:
Lorraine Lee Estate Staffing’s current information specifically notes experience staffing multiple residences, including international properties, with an emphasis on maintaining consistent service standards across locations.
Advance planning can make the transition from one property to another considerably smoother.
Multiple residences create more opportunities for schedule conflicts and unexpected staffing needs.
An estate manager may be required at one property while a renovation issue develops at another. A housekeeper may become ill days before the family’s arrival. A private chef traveling with the principals may leave another residence without culinary coverage.
Households should have backup plans before these situations arise.
That may include:
A strong household operation is not one where problems never occur.
It is one where staff know exactly how to respond when they do.
The more complex the household, the more important it becomes to hire according to the actual responsibilities of the role rather than the title alone.
An estate manager who has successfully supervised one large residence may not necessarily have experience coordinating five properties.
A housekeeper accustomed to working in one fixed location may not want seasonal travel.
A private chef with extensive destination experience may be particularly well suited to a family that moves frequently.
Professional recruiting can help identify these distinctions before a placement is made.
A comprehensive private household staffing process should consider:
For families with multiple homes, successful estate staffing is not simply about filling individual openings.
It is about creating a coordinated household operation that follows the family wherever they go.
Most multi-residence households benefit from centralized leadership with employees assigned according to the requirements of each property. An estate manager or similar senior professional may oversee the overall operation while residence-specific employees maintain individual homes and selected members of the household staff travel with the principals.
No. Permanent staff may make sense for frequently occupied or highly complex properties. Residences used only occasionally may operate effectively with a smaller local team, trusted vendors, seasonal staff, and traveling employees who arrive with the family.
An estate manager may coordinate household employees, vendors, maintenance, household projects, inventories, vehicles, budgets, events, residence preparation, travel transitions, and communication between properties. The position often provides centralized leadership across the family’s entire residential portfolio.
It depends on the position. Employees whose work is closely connected to the principals, such as personal assistants, private chefs, nannies, estate managers, or certain housekeepers, may travel frequently. Other staff may remain dedicated to a particular residence.
Clear leadership, documented household preferences, operating procedures, communication systems, shared calendars, inventory processes, and residence-opening checklists can help maintain consistent expectations across properties.
Look for private-residence experience that matches the actual responsibilities of the position. For leadership roles, multi-residence management, staff supervision, travel coordination, vendor management, discretion, strong communication, and the ability to prioritize competing demands can be particularly important.
They can. Federal requirements may apply to domestic employment, and state-level wage, tax, insurance, workers’ compensation, and other employment rules may vary. Families should consult qualified legal, payroll, tax, and insurance professionals regarding their specific household arrangements.
Managing multiple homes successfully requires more than talented individual employees.
It requires a staffing structure designed around the family’s lifestyle, properties, travel patterns, service expectations, and management needs.
For one family, that might mean an experienced estate manager overseeing permanent teams at several residences. For another, it may mean maintaining small local teams while a core group of trusted household professionals travels with the principals.
There is no single model that works for every household.
Lorraine Lee Estate Staffing helps HNW and UHNW families recruit experienced estate managers, house managers, executive housekeepers, private chefs, personal assistants, family-office professionals, nannies, and other private service professionals for primary residences, seasonal properties, and multi-residence households.
The goal is not simply to staff each property.
It is to build a coordinated household team capable of delivering consistent, discreet, professional service wherever the family calls home.
Learn more about Lorraine Lee Estate Staffing’s private estate staffing services or contact the agency to begin building a household team suited to your residences and lifestyle.
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