The hotel room attendant - unseen, unappreciated and unrewarded
The work of the room attendant is central to the re-instatement of guest rooms, a major profitable product in most hotels. However, by and large, room attendant work remains, both academically and empirically unseen and unrecognized.
The job of a room attendant quite often goes unnoticed as their job is performed when the guest is not in the room. That said, the services they provide are experienced by every guest who stays in the hotel. Every guest will use several aspects of the room. They will sleep in the bed, brush their teeth and wash at the basin, use the toilet and walk on the floor.
The number of rooms a room attendant is expected to clean is dependent on the type of hotel (city / resort), its standard (rating), the room size and its fixtures, fittings and amenities (furniture, flooring, toilet with/without bathtub, etc).
Room cleaning is done daily and there are two main types of cleaning that room attendants carry out, namely: occupied rooms that need to be tidied up before the guest returns to the room and rooms that need a thorough cleaning after the guests have checked out.
Both types of cleaning involve a ‘fast and controlled’ balancing act. Rooms where the guests have checked out require being cleaned and readied for incoming guests. Rooms that are occupied may have the guests in the room until 10 or 11 am. Notwithstanding the room status, hotels push towards having the rooms cleaned or serviced before 2 pm to enable guests to enter a clean room.
In most hotels, a room attendant is expected to spend between 15 - 20 minutes per room during guest occupancy. Cleaning a room after the guest has checked out takes longer (30 -45 minutes). Towels that have been used / moved from where they were placed, are replaced, all bed sheets are replaced, the bathroom cleaned, surfaces wiped, supplies and toiletries replenished and the room thoroughly vacuumed, before attending to the finer details in order to meet the hotel service quality standards.
Cleaning hotel rooms is hard work which typically involves a checklist of 48 or more tasks to be completed - plugs washed; vents dusted; coffee-table legs cleaned; including pushing a trolley, which when fully stocked can weigh over 60 kg - all of which can result in exhaustion and life -long injury.
Studies have indicated that the quality of a room attendant’s ability to clean quickly and efficiently will go down exponentially after 10 to 12 rooms. In short, they will get tired and start overlooking things. In a standardized hotel, a room attendant is expected to at least clean 12 to 16 rooms per day, but this could vary depending on the level of occupancy and the number of housekeeping staffs employed.
The tasks of a room attendant when cleaning a room, incorporates the key categories of hard work; such as bed making and bathroom cleaning, as well as meeting time pressures, unexpected guest requests and ensuring compliance with standard of operations. There are also other intervening conditions that further intensify the hard work, such as room layout, the functionality and efficiency of cleaning equipment, and the behaviour of some hotel guests.
These hard working conditions are accompanied by what many attendants consider as an inequitable reward of low wages, lack of recognition and staff who are least appreciated - undeniably so!
Ilzaf Keefahs – writes on hospitality-related matters that he is passionate about and likes to share with hoteliers and customers alike.
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