Hotel’s 2013 Inauguration Package Includes a Social Media Butler

We weren’t aware that butlers are a DC thing—but this inauguration is showing us new
dimensions to the city, and that excess has no bounds.

It’s not news that Washington hotels are going overboard to outdo one another in offering
extravagant and expensive inauguration packages that, so far, have the distinction
of not selling. Maybe they were never meant to. Maybe from the get-go it was a ploy
for publicity, and for the most part it has worked. All the packages include over-the-top
perks—jewelry for some, shopping sprees for others—but the Madison Hotel may have
won the battle of the most outrageous butler.

We thought that accolade belonged to the Park Hyatt, whose $57,000, four-night package
includes a “bath butler.” But the Madison has come up with this: Its $47,000, four-night
package includes a social media butler. What that means, according to a press release
from the hotel, is that you will have a social media professional with you at all
times during the inauguration weekend to preserve and promote the occasion on all
your favorite platforms. “The Social Media Butler will post on all of your accounts
so you don’t have to fumble for your phone to catch that perfect Facebook profile
picture!,” reads the release. We assume that also includes Instagram, Pinterest, and,
we hope, e-mailing the bank for more money.

Carol Ross Joynt