Dear Marc and Stewart,

Aloha and warm greetings from Honolulu!

We cannot thank Heilbron Hospitality enough for the wonderful training that the two of you along with Willemien provided to our staff and management last week.  I can’t think of any other training received by our staff at the hotel where the team was so excited about using what they learned. They really cannot wait and have started pressing me to hurry up and sell our premier suites so that they can!  Of all the different trainers that we have had come to Halekulani, Heilbron Hospitality is the only one to have received the type of send-off the three of you received Friday night. All of the butlers stayed back on their own time and did so without hesitation. Again my heartfelt thanks for another superb butler training and thank you for sharing all of your knowledge, skills and experience with our team! I look forward to when our paths cross again.  Please take care and best wishes until then.

Sincerely,

Mark (Honolulu)

Dear Marc,

I have met with the butlers and they cannot stop raving about the training and how much they have learnt! Thank you for an amazing week and we cannot wait to have you and Rika here back.

Vanda Swart (Training Manager – The Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa)

To Mr. Marc and Mr. Stewart,

During the training, I had a chance to feel myself as a highly professional butler. Those things that were strange to me before are now clearer opportunities for me to show my talent. Interesting, professionally collected material, your way of explanation, the atmosphere you created all made these days of training unforgettable. Thank you so very much.

Maria (Dubai)

Dear Mr. van Bergen and Mr. Kaplan,

On behalf of Raffles Jakarta I would like to sincerely express my appreciation for your excellent pre-opening training to our Raffles Butler Team. Your inspirational training along with the materials shared will enhance the capabilities of our butler team and will definitely be instrumental for our colleagues to live the brand promise by bringing ’emotional luxury’ to our guests. The Raffles Butler will be a key icon of our hotel and setting the foundation can only be achieved via meticulous pre-opeing training which you clearly provided to us in a superb manner. Once again, I would like to thank you for your presence and support and look forward to welcoming you back to the soon to be opened Raffles Jakarta.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Schestak (General Manager, Raffles Jakarta)

Good day  Mr. van Bergen and the Heilbron team, I would like to thank you for the opportunity and knowledge you gave me in the past 4 weeks. You have given me confidence in how things should be done and it was worth every thing. I thank you.

Sincerely, Ben (butler student)

Aloha Marc, Stewart and Rika,

I just wanted to share with you my first table setting for my first guest after the completion of your wonderful training. A box of tissues and tabasco sauce on the the table were requested by the guest. I set these two tables for dinner in buffet style, from polishing to finishing. This took me over an hour but it was guest ready and I was happy. It gave me energy as I was thinking of the completion moment. I hope this message finds you all in a great moment of the day.

KM (Honolulu)

Dear Marc,

We just came back from Hermanus and are so very pleased with the results of your training our staff. It allowed me to actually relax and not worry at all. It was a great pleasure for me to be there and watch the staff at work. I would like to sit down with you and discuss further training options and my responsibilities toward my staff. I see the enormous difference in attitude, graciousness and overall quality of workmanship. Thank you so much again and kind regards.

Petra V. E. (Cape Town)

Hello Sir Marc,

My employers were here this last weekend from Friday to Monday. I want to thank you so much for the training it helped me through a lot.  Yes, I made some mistakes but I managed to repair them and my employers were very happy. Thank you for being patient with me. Once again Thank You.

G. (Cape Town)

I attended earlier this month a workshop at Heilbron Hospitality. They designed a programme for professional butlers that is a must for every butler. It was all about reaching the right standard again, polishing up lost skills and learning many new things. It was a pleasure to be trained by such experienced trainers. Knowing that they are training butlers all over the world, it is a privilege to spend time under their wings. Each of us is already working as a butler in a private house or a hotel. This was a specific condition to join the workshop. Being together with other colleague butlers for 6 days, we learnt so much from each other as well and made new friends. Heilbron Hospitality is the right place to gain the right knowledge. These guys know what they’re doing. If you have a chance to attend one of their workshops, I would say you have to do it.

Simon (Head Butler at 5* hotel, Western Cape)

Dear Heilbron Hospitality,

How are you all doing? Yesterday one of my managers informed me that my name received a special mention on a survey which the company conducts on guests who visit the hotel. One guest said ”Reuben was amazing!” This is a big achievement for me because management sees this and to have your name mentioned is an honour! I am grateful everyday to you guys for grooming and training me. I may not be a butler yet but the job I’m doing most certainly needs me to think and serve like a butler. Everyday is a challenge and I am learning more and more. I am eternally grateful to you for everything. I’m going to make you proud! Be Blessed!

Reuben

To Heilbron Hospitality, our butler is still shining and is doing so well. The breakfasts are beautiful, he creates wonderful settings for lunches, sundowners and dinners, without even asking, and he always carries his tray! The guests are so happy with everything, the Turndowns are going great and the Housekeeping is coping very well with the Villa and the set-up standards. Thank you so much for training our staff.

Le Jardin Privately Hosted Villa Stellenbosch in cooperation with IconVillas Travel Cape Town

We would like to take this opportunity to recommend Mr. Marc van Bergen and Heilbron Hospitality. From the initial contact to the completion of the on-site Butler Training, we were impressed by the professionalism with which each of these steps were executed. We engaged Marc to build from scratch a Butler Department comprising five individuals from various departments in the hotel. He spent time prior to the assignment familiarizing himself with their respective backgrounds and tailored his training to ensure that each and everybody achieved the various training objectives. He also did research on the local culture which could be felt in the way he approached the task and the tremendously positive feedback from the participants. Marc is an ambassador of true hospitality and his passion for the butler profession and creating special touches is omnipresent. We are looking forward to deepening our professional relationship with Heilbron Hospitality beyond the Butler Training in the future.

Maximilian von Reden (GM, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Tokyo)

My four weeks at the Graduate School of Butlers in Cape Town has gone above my expectations. I never knew service could reach such a standard. I have learned that butlers are called to serve with passion and a positive attitude. Always seeking to make the guest happy and to be ahead of his/her game. Being a butler means more than just giving service. It means first class fine service at all times and always going the extra mile. I am very excited to join and to be part of this exciting world. My 28 days of butler training was an amazing and wonderful journey. The trainers at the Heilbron Graduate School of Butlers are indeed world class. They shared their knowledge and did not stop till each of us had gotten the picture. Thanks to this training programme, I am ready to step into a whole new world. A world that I can with pride call my new future.

Reuben (Student Class)

Dear Marc and team. Allow us to give you guys a big smile on a tray! The butlers enjoyed the hotel butler programme. They have said that they are now aware of the necessary changes if they want to get somewhere. Thank you for opening their eyes. We are looking forward to seeing you at the next training.

(Acting Executive Floor Manager,  5 star Hotel/Resort SA)

Wow! A big thank you to all the butlers for your extra care and attention and for making our stay in Cape Town so great. We couldn’t have been made more welcome. You all worked so hard behind the scenes to make it all seem so effortless. Your warm and welcoming hospitality has left us with wonderful memories.

Richard and Michael

It is a true pleasure for us to write this letter of recommendation for Heilbron Hospitality, who we have been working with since 2011. Heilbron Hospitality is a reliable, dedicated partner for us in South Africa. Flexible, modest, discreet and with a superb eye for detail. They know how to add that extra special touch that makes an outstanding contribution to our travel packages in South Africa. We heartly endorse Heilbron Hospitality to any luxury travel agent worldwide.

Anne-Marie van Helden (Van Helden Travel, The Netherlands)

Dear Marc, Thank you for your professional touch and for imparting your knowledge. It is much appreciated.

Kind regards, Debbie & Fredrick

We had a wonderful day trip with Marc. We wanted to see more of the Western Cape. After a nice conversation with Marc, sharing our ideas with him, we left everything up to him. He picked us up in the morning and we had a great day. All was taken care of. We saw the most beautiful places in the Western Cape. Marc is a very professional driver, he new exactly when we wanted some time for ourselves and we were able to shop. It was the Western Cape what we wanted to see and that is what we did! Marc, thank you very much.

Myra & Erica

Je was zo geweldig voor ons, dat wij nu allemaal een butler wensen in Nederland; 1000x dank voor alles en een gelukkig 2012 toegewenst.

Familie van Meeuwen

Hi Marc, heel veel dank voor alle goede zorgen!! Heb veel van je communicatie geleerd. Zag dat iedereen steeds een ‘goede uitweg’ tot zijn beschikking had…..

Kees en Fleur

Beste Marc, onvergetelijk! Nog nooit zo verwend geweest op een vakantie. Dank voor je support. Het was erg gezellig om je erbij te hebben. Ook als ‘super nanny’!! Veel dank voor alles en tot een volgende keer in Cape Town.

Puck & Willem

Ere Marc, wie ere toekomt! De regie van het afscheid van Emile heb jij van begin tot eind in de hand weten te houden. Je was overal (op een gegeven moment leken er wel drie marc-en rond te lopen) en je was nergens, bescheiden gastheer op de achtergrond. In een woord, je bent een vakman. Ook onze dank voor je grote inzet.

Mieke

Thank you for giving me the inspiration to pursue a new career and for helping me to open a completely new chapter in my life. I will always consider you my mentor and I will always have a very special place for you. Thank you for your unending patience and enthusiasm and showing us all how to have style and grace. You are an inspiration to us all.

Josh