Household staffing, properly done.

The problem with how this is usually handled

Most villa owners in the Ionian inherit their staff. The housekeeper came with the house, the gardener was recommended by the previous owner, and nobody has ever formally agreed what the standard is or what happens when it slips. It works until it doesn’t — and by then the relationship is a decade old and awkward to correct.

The alternative most owners are offered is a management company that employs the staff itself and charges you for their time. That sounds simpler and is generally worse: you lose the direct relationship, the company’s incentive is to bill hours rather than resolve problems, and the people in your home answer to somebody else.

How Pelagos Estate does it

Every member of your household staff works for you directly. Pelagos is never the employer of record. We recruit, we vet, we set the standard in writing, we handle the awkward conversations, and we hold the relationship together year-round — but the contract, and therefore the loyalty, sits between the household and the owner where it belongs.

This is not a technicality. It keeps liability, insurance and employment obligations exactly where an owner’s lawyer and accountant would expect them, and it means that if you ever stopped working with us, your household would remain intact.

What this covers

• HousekeepingDaily, weekly or arrival-based, to an agreed written standard rather than an assumed one.
• Grounds & gardensGroundskeepers and seasonal gardening teams, with irrigation and planting schedules that survive your absence.
• Villa managerResident or visiting, depending on the size of the property and how often you use it.
• Recruitment & vettingBackground checks, references verified in person, and Greek employment paperwork handled correctly.
• Standards & reviewA written household standard, reviewed with you annually and enforced quietly in between.
• Cover & contingencyNamed replacements for illness, holiday and departure, so a resignation is never your emergency.

What it costs

Household staffing is scoped and priced individually. A three-bedroom villa used four weeks a year and a waterfront estate with permanent staff are not the same undertaking, and a published rate card would misrepresent both. We set out the full cost in writing — ours and your household’s — before anything is agreed.