House Keeping - the sacred cow of hotel keepingThe ‘numero uno’ expectation that hoteliers and hotel employees need to deliver is cleanliness. This is an absolute must. Never mind the ‘out of this’ world design or the fabulous amenities one discovers in some of the most innovative hotels. Never mind whether it is a >>>>>Inn or a Four Season’s property, offering clean public spaces, bathrooms, bedrooms, and amenities is non-negotiable. The housekeeping department is one of the toughest in the hotel industry and a well-run housekeeping department is integral to the success of any lodging operation. Effective housekeeping in the hospitality industry is an ongoing operation: it is not a regular hit-and-miss cleanup or a periodic “inspection" cleanup as observed in most other sectors.
Clean guestrooms and public spaces go a long way toward boosting guest satisfaction and much of a hotel’s success can be traced back to the housekeeping department. Management of a housekeeping operation entails scheduling staff, deliveries, services and maintenance, budget analysis, cost-controls and compliance with regulations. With the highest staff attrition rates, hoteliers need to address staff retention and constantly motivate housekeepers. Leading hotel managers suggest that executive housekeepers be hired on attitude than on talent!
Amidst a labyrinth of rooms with guests perpetually entering or leaving, with staff having to navigate through their daily chores, housekeeping is, arguably, one of the most complex operations in any hotel. It is rightly said that housekeeping is a 24 x 7 x 365 operation. Imagine the stacks of linen needed to make up all the beds in a hotel, the miles of carpeting, floor, walls, surfaces and mirrors to be cleaned and maintained. The trend over the last couple of years has been to significantly increase the amenities in the rooms. The luxury mattresses are harder to lift, and some hotels have quadrupled the number of pillows on each bed to as many as 6 pillows or more per room. Taking 14, as the average number of rooms that are cleaned during a shift – the single activity of changing pillow cases adds up to a staggering 84 pillows. Phew!
According to an article on the Hotel Business website, a study conducted in 2017 found that more than 60 percent of hotel guests read reviews on TripAdvisor, Yelp, AAA and elsewhere before booking rooms, and 71 percent of guests expect "above average" cleanliness ratings when choosing hotels,.“The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail” said Charles Swindoll. Absolutely true! What often appears to be clean may not always be the case. No hotel likes to read a review on TripAdvisor that goes like this “Found several water and beer containers under the bed and obviously the floor and baseboards had not been swept in a long time. While examining linens after an ant bite found several stains on sheets…”
When the hotel premises are spic and span it is usually the General Manager who gets all the bouquets and whenever there are complaints about cleanliness it is the Housekeeping department that receives the bricks. General Managers might get all the glory, but much of a hotel’s success can be traced back to the housekeeping department. So, take a ‘bow’ all you housekeepers for leading a platoon of foot soldiers who do an invisibly tough job. When Steve Jobs said, “Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people”…perhaps he had all of you in mind.
Shafeek Wahab - Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier. |
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