Butler

The Butler is an Non-Player Character. You can hire him from the phone. He is like the maid but has the potential to replace all basic services.

He does various chores like:
 * cleaning the house.
 * watering plants.
 * making beds.
 * activating Servo.
 * serving food.
 * caring for babies.
 * fending off obsessed Fans.
 * feeding and cleaning up after pets.

The Sims
The Butler is introduced in the expansion pack Superstar of The Sims. His name is Alfred. He charges 500 Simoleons for one day. His dress consists of a black tuxedo, gray pants and white gloves. He is a gray-haired white old man. We can give the following commands if we select him:
 * Dismiss
 * Fire
 * Ask to Leave (when there are guests in the house)

Trivia

 * Alfred may be taken from the DC comics character, Batman's butler, Alfred Pennyworth.
 * In The Sims, if the player has bought a bar then Alfred may be seen taking a swig from it, when he has nothing else to do.

The Sims 2
The butler is back, and the peasants rejoice! You can hire a butler to do all those nasty chores you don't want to do yourself. That description alone makes him sound no more interesting than the maid, but the butler is so much more than that. First of all, he'll stick around from 9am to about 8pm regardless of whether there's anything to do. This way, he'll immediately respond to any little dirty dish or moldy bathtub that pops up.

Also, the butler is more than just a super-maid. He replaces the gardener and repairman as well, so you won't have to worry about any of that nonsense. In fact, when initially hired, the butler blatantly tells you he's better than them and asks your permission to just fire them all to be done with it. Talk about arrogant! But you know what they say: it ain't bragging if you can back it up.

Work that a butler can do includes that he can clean your dishes, makes those beds, scrub those toilets and bathtubs, showers as well.He will wash the dishes, take out the trash, clean those fishtanks.He also does the gardening. He will go and pluck out those weeds, water those plants, trim the hedges. It is quite useful since the garden, especially in Seasons, requires daily attention, and the normal gardener turns up once every three days. His last job is the repair services. He will be able to repair any items, be it the clogged up toilet, to the broken plasma TV, he will do all of that.

However, he cannot exterminate bugs. He will not be able to stomp on them roaches because that would dirty his nice shoes, and you don't want them to be dirty as well. Also, any other jobs that he can't do, he'll outsource them to private contractors. Be a little wary of this, as you may randomly see a pop-up from the grocery delivery man asking how much food you want when your family Sim, clearly, is nowhere near a phone. This is just the butler going the extra mile to make sure the house is fully stocked. The butler has a couple of other perks as well. He'll cook light meals, but he'll do so smartly: he only does it if the Sims on the lot are all hungry and there's no current food served somewhere.That means that food with green whiff clouds hanging over it aren't going to be accepted as food. At least he is sensible as well.

Also, you can give him one of three door policies. He can either greet all visitors so they immediately make themselves at home, deny all visitors so your family maintains privacy, or not answer the door at all and leave the decision to you. Changing his door policy is an immediate command, so your Sim won't have to walk all the way over to him to give him his orders.

All this comes at a price, as he is far more expensive than the maid, gardener, and repairman combined. A new family with a small house is practically wasting cash on him, but rich families with large houses or busy houses will greatly benefit from his presence. Honestly, once you get your entire house established object-wise (once you have enough to afford the best bed and oven, for example), a butler makes plenty of sense to hire and you'll be able to afford him easily.

Some butlers are very annoying. They have an obsession with food even when everyone is sleeping and well-fed. This can get annoying. If you make him selectable, and cross it out, he will cry.