What roles and duties did spa workers perform at Mar-a-Lago estate?
Executive summary
Mar-a-Lago’s spa staff wore multiple hats typical of private-club hospitality: cleaning and maintaining spa and club spaces, assisting guests and reservation/check-in tasks, and serving as part of a larger seasonal-service workforce that included servers and housekeepers (job listings and H-2B orders describe duties such as cleaning guest rooms and restrooms, serving food and beverages, and front‑desk/ reservation tasks) [1] [2] [3]. Federal seasonal‑worker filings and reporting also show Mar‑a‑Lago hired large numbers of temporary workers for roles across the club — including spa, housekeeping and food service — under H‑2B requests in recent years [4] [3].
1. Spa attendants as multi‑task hospitality workers, not just masseurs
Job postings and employee descriptions for Mar‑a‑Lago show “spa attendant” and related positions encompass cleaning and maintenance of the spa and other club areas, restocking supplies, and general housekeeping tasks — responsibilities that extend beyond delivering treatments to include vacuuming, mopping, dusting and replenishing supplies in locker rooms and restrooms [1] [2]. Indeed reviews and internal listings portray these roles as part of the club’s overall facilities upkeep and member service apparatus [5] [6].
2. Guest interaction and front‑of‑house coordination
Seasonal Labor Department job orders for Mar‑a‑Lago illustrate that many club roles require direct guest service: reservation/ information clerks answer member calls, manage bookings and coordinate arrivals; servers handle food, water, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages [7] [3]. Spa workers at an upscale private club typically operate within that guest‑service ecosystem — greeting members, assisting with appointments and communicating with housekeeping or front desk when needed — though explicit front‑desk duties for spa attendants are not detailed in every listing [7] [1].
3. Seasonal hiring and the heavier use of H‑2B workers
Reporting and federal records indicate Mar‑a‑Lago has increasingly relied on temporary foreign labor under the H‑2B program, hiring dozens to hundreds of workers across seasons; Mar‑a‑Lago brought in 170 H‑2B workers for the 2024–25 fiscal year and has requested large numbers through the program for food, hospitality and related roles [4] [8]. Those filings and news coverage suggest many spa, housekeeping and service roles at the club are filled seasonally and sometimes via visa programs rather than long‑term local hires [4] [3].
4. Historical controversy around “spa” hires — competing accounts
Several news outlets and public statements have tied Mar‑a‑Lago spa hires to controversies involving Jeffrey Epstein and others; President Trump has claimed he “kicked Epstein out” for hiring away spa workers, and reporters have noted legal filings in which accusers said they were recruited from Mar‑a‑Lago in the early 2000s [9] [10]. The Guardian and NPR report Trump’s recent public comments linking Epstein’s recruitment to spa employees, and prior lawsuits have alleged that at least one woman was hired from Mar‑a‑Lago in 2000 when she was a minor — an allegation that complicates timelines and has driven scrutiny [10] [9].
5. What sources do and do not show about spa duties and abuses
Available job orders, site pages and employee reviews clearly document cleaning, maintenance, guest assistance and reservation coordination as part of spa and club worker duties; they do not provide granular, day‑by‑day task lists for every spa worker or confirm any specific illicit conduct [1] [2] [5]. Reporting links some historical personnel movements to later criminal cases and public allegations, but the materials in the provided set do not prove or disprove individual criminal acts beyond the cited lawsuits and statements [10] [9].
6. Why role descriptions matter in broader debates
The mix of routine hospitality duties (cleaning, restocking, guest service) and seasonal/temporary hiring matters for policy and public scrutiny: labor filings that list spa, housekeeping and service roles help explain why Mar‑a‑Lago sought many H‑2B workers and why critics and defenders frame the issue differently (economic need vs. labor practices) [4] [8]. Sources show a clear administrative record of roles and visa requests [3] [4]; interpretations of those records feed competing narratives about staffing choices and accountability.
Limitations and sourcing note: this account relies solely on Mar‑a‑Lago job postings, Department of Labor seasonal job orders, employee review excerpts and contemporary news reporting in the provided sources; available sources do not mention a complete, official internal spa duty manual or itemized daily task lists for every spa worker [1] [3] [5].