Meet the Hospitality Pros Running India’s Elite Households

For generations, Indian homes have been held together mothers. Whether they were homemakers or working women, running a household was never framed as a task — it was a way of being. A choreography of meals, school schedules, repairs, relatives, rituals, and relentless emotional labour. It was unpaid, unquestioned, and largely unseen. But what happens when the same home is managed a professional? Not a house help. Not a maid. Not a nanny. But a trained lifestyle manager. Someone whose job is to organise your house more meticulously.That question gained traction after a social media post Aman Goel, an IIT graduate, who shared that he and his wife hired a full-time home manager to run the house. He wrote on X, “Harshita (my wife) and I both run business so we have limited time to manage household. My parents stay with us and are both senior citizens so I don’t want to burden them. It’s a task to manage the house – cooking, cleaning, groceries, maintenance, repair, etc. We felt that we can delegate this work.”
Goel’s now-viral post has left netizens fixated on the home manager’s monthly salary of ₹1 lakh, prompting discussion of the quiet transformation of domestic labour in urban India and the people behind this demanding role.
‘Every home has a rhythm’
The lifestyle manager (her official designation) at the centre of the online chatter, Sheetal Sharma, who earns a handsome salary at Goel’s house, tells , “No one understands what it takes to run a house.”
Every home has a rhythm, she explains. “As a lifestyle manager, I don’t just run the house; I read it. Once you understand how people live, what stresses them, and what they care about, things become easier than people think.” With a background in hospitality and corporate events, Sharma spent years managing vendors, people, and high-pressure situations. Home management, she says, is simply a more intimate version of the same skill set.
“You’re not just managing a space. You’re managing people — security guards, chefs, housekeepers, and drivers. Everyone comes from different backgrounds, and you have to speak their language.”
For the past 1.5 years, Sharma has worked with multiple clients through Pinch, a lifestyle management company founded in 2021. Her workday runs from 9 am to 6 pm, Monday to Saturday. But like most roles built on responsibility rather than clock-in-clock-out rules, it stretches when life demands it. “If there’s an event, guests, or something unexpected, I stay back. But on most days, I go home like anyone else.”Story continues below this ad
Screen grab of Aman Goel’s post (Photo: X/@amangoeliitb)
What does a lifestyle manager actually do?
On any given day, Sharma might:

Plan meals and grocery schedules
Coordinate staff and vendors
Track household expenses
Oversee cleaning and maintenance
Manage wardrobes and inventories
Book travel and plan itineraries
Supervise renovations
Handle appointments and recommendations

And sometimes, chores appear without notice. “If the fridge stops working, it’s my responsibility to get it fixed,” she says. “If my patron wants fresh groceries daily and the store is near, I’ll go down multiple times.”
Once, a client asked her to help buy a car. “He told me his budget and requirements. I shortled options, arranged test drives, and even did the pre-delivery inspection,” she says, laughing. “I’d never done a PDI before—I spent hours on YouTube.”
Now, as a multitasker, Sharma proudly vouches for her skill set. “I’ve procured milk. I’ve procured a car. Anything in between, I can do.”Story continues below this ad
How much do lifestyle/home managers earn?
According to Elite Butlers, founded in 2020 Shiv Kumar Yadav and Vipul Chauhan, entry-level home managers earn ₹9–12 lakh annually; experienced professionals earn ₹12–18 lakh; and senior managers overseeing multiple properties or large estates command up to ₹40–60 lakh.
Having worked with high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) in India and overseas during their hospitality days, Yadav and Chauhan sensed a shift. “India’s wealthy were travelling more, hosting globally, and expecting hotel-level service inside private residences.”
“Home management has always exed in India, but it was never professionalised,” says Yadav, pointing to a gap between global service standards and Indian homes that widened after Covid, when “managing a large home with multiple staff, properties and guests” became far more complex.
“Today, these professionals function like CEOs of private homes, handling finances, staff payrolls, travel, vendors, events and privacy,” the duo explains. They added, “Underpaying them is a risk. Clients see this role as an investment in peace, efficiency and discretion, reflecting why India’s ultra-rich are willing to pay a premium to remove decision fatigue, ensure trust and bring five-star efficiency into their private lives.”Story continues below this ad
Saying that “salary mattered” when she switched professions, Sharma explains, “One of the reasons why I became a full-time lifestyle manager is the monetary satisfaction and comfort.”
How is the concept of home managers panning out in India (Photo: Freepik)
Not a maid, not a PA
The biggest misconception around lifestyle or home managers is that they replace domestic help. Both Sharma and Pinch’s founder, Nitin Mohan Srivastava, dismiss this notion.
“Instead, my job is to supervise the household staff, which is challenging at times. If someone has worked in a home for 15–20 years, it’s their territory. That’s why we ask patrons to introduce us as the point of contact. Once that happens, things become smoother.”
Managing patrons is a task, but managing their long-time associates is often a bigger one, Sharma adds with a sigh.Story continues below this ad
“Pinch was born in the aftermath of COVID, when homes became offices, schools, and social spaces overnight. We realised there’s a growing segment in India that’s money-rich but time-poor,” Srivastava explains. “People were trying to solve life through multiple vertical services — cooks, apps, assants. But nothing addressed life as a whole.”
Instead of tackling fragments, Pinch positioned itself as a horizontal layer between individuals and the world, a service that filters decisions, tasks, and daily noise. “Our job is to mirror how someone would live if they actually had the time,” he says.
The friction nobody talks about
Perhaps the most sensitive part of this shift plays out between generations. “We do feel friction sometimes — especially with parents, particularly mothers,” says Sharma. “They’ve run the house for decades. So when someone new comes in and starts managing things, it can feel intrusive.”
That tension, she explains, is not about ego. It’s about identity. “Mothers have managed homes without ever calling it work. Now suddenly it has a title, a salary, and a system.” That transition can be uncomfortable.Story continues below this ad
“Telling a cook what to cook sounds trivial,” she explains. “But it’s a micro-stress. These micro-stresses accumulate over time. If I had to sum up lifestyle management in one line, it’s removing micro-stresses that could even compel me to hire a manager for my own home one day.”
Who becomes a lifestyle manager?
Around 70 per cent of Pinch’s lifestyle managers come from luxury hospitality brands like Taj, Oberoi, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, and Leela. Cabin crew are increasingly part of the talent pool. “They’re trained in anticipation, discretion, and patience,” Srivastava says. The rest come from diverse backgrounds, including MBAs, engineers, and theraps, to ensure depth in problem-solving.
Unlike app-based home services or subscription concierge models—where one manager may oversee multiple households remotely—Elite Butlers’ model is “deeply personal.”
“This role requires physical presence and emotional intelligence,” Chauhan explains. “Homes are not offices. You can’t run them with rigid rulebooks.” Many placements last five years or more. The firm deliberately avoids frequent job-hoppers, prioritising professionals with 5–10 years of experience in five-star hospitality or estate management.