1. Chapter 7: Housekeeping

2. Roles of Housekeeping Dept.: Guestrooms
Public spaces
lobby areas / public restrooms / front desk areas / management offices / game rooms / exercise areas / pool & spa areas / employee break rooms & locker rooms / selected meeting & food service areas
Major Executive Housekeeper responsibilities:
Decisions about required number of cleaning employees
Frequency of cleaning
The text addresses management judgments regarding areas of cleaning responsibility specific to each department, and notes that many hotels have implemented color-coded maps of their properties to facilitate this; the first case study provides the scenario of possible conflicts - in responsibilities for cleaning areas - between Housekeeping Department and other departments (e.g. Food & Beverage / Maintenance Department).
Decisions about the required number of room attendants is a major responsibility of the Executive Housekeeper. In the section “Employee Scheduling” later, the text discusses differences in how the inexperienced and the experienced Executive Housekeepers establish Room Attendants’ schedules in terms of numbers.
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

3. Roles of Housekeeping Dept.: Guestrooms Room will be assigned, when:
Guestroom areas
Elevators/ corridors/ stairwells/ guestrooms
Communication role to Front Desk staff (room status info) & Engineering / Maintenance Department ( room maintenance issues)
Room will be assigned, when:
Properly cleaned by Housekeeping
Verified as clean by second member of Housekeeping
Room’s status has been reported to Front Desk
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

4. Roles of Housekeeping Dept.: Guestrooms (continued…)
Room status terminology
Clean & Vacant
Room vacant, has been cleaned and can be assigned to guest
Occupied
Room registered to a current guest
On-Change
Room vacant but not yet cleaned
Do not disturb
Room is occupied but not yet cleaned, due to guest request not to be disturbed
Sleep-out
Room reported as occupied, but room was not used, and guest may have left
Stay-over
Guest will stay in room at least one more night
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

5. Roles of Housekeeping Dept.: Guestrooms (continued…)
Room status terminology (continued…)
Due-out
Guest has indicated that is last day he/she will use room
Check-out
Guest has departed
Out-of-order
Room is not rentable, thus not assignable
Lock-out
Guest’s items still in room, but guest will be denied access until management approval of re-entry
Late check-out
Guest has requested and has been allowed an extension of regular check out time
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

6. Roles of Housekeeping Dept: Laundry
Laundry areas
laundry preparation areas/ laundry supply closets/ guest linen, terry and supplies storage areas
Laundry often represents one of the hotel’s largest expenses.
Housekeeping Dept. & Executive Housekeeper’s role
Managing “On Premise Laundry (OPL)” and its effective operation
Linen is a generic term for guestroom sheets, pillowcases, tablecloths and napkins washed and dried in the laundry area.
Terry is a generic term for bath towels, hand towels and wash cloths washed and dried in the laundry area.
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

7. Staffing the Department
have management skills (planning, organizing, directing and controlling departmental activities).
have commitment to cleanliness and impeccable cleaning standard.
create an appropriate inspection checklist and revise it as necessary.
know about personal administration, budgeting, laundry sanitation, fabrics & uniforms, room cleaning chemicals and routines.
be guest oriented.
Executive Housekeeper should:
Room Inspector’s major responsibilities:
Assess quality of room cleanliness
Point out deficiencies to room attendants, get those deficiencies corrected, & report revision of room status to Executive Housekeeper or Front Desk
Note that principle of management is also applied to run an effective Housekeeping Department. Thus, the Executive Housekeeper needs to understand management process such as planning, organizing, directing & controlling) specific to the Housekeeping Department. Revisit Chapter 2 (The Hotel General Manager) and Chapter 3 (Management Skills for the G.M.) to review how each management process step works and what specific things should be done, in detail.
Inspector (inspectress) is the individual responsible for physically checking guestroom status, as well as other tasks assigned by the Executive Housekeeper.
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

8. Staffing the Department (Continued…)
Approaches to build highly motivated, dedicated Room Attendants:
Treat them at all times with respect
Ensure they are supervised by excellent supervisors
Have room cleaning assignment policies perceived by them as fair
Provide excellent, ongoing training
Provide a realistic career ladder for room attendants
Enforce Housekeeping Department policies consistently and without favoritism
Ensure room attendant safety through training and appropriate hotel policies
Provide benefit packages that are competitive for the area
Pay fair wages
The text discusses that recruiting and retaining quality room attendants is a challenge, and that the G.M. in conjunction with the Executive Housekeeper needs to develop / design strategies to attract and retain the best room attendants; what specific activities / strategies can be applied so that room attendants regard the G.M., and the property, as the employer of choice.
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

9. Managing Housekeeping: Safety
this group’s accident rates generally the highest in the hotel.
thus
Housekeeping employees are one of the hotel’s largest groups
Physical nature of jobs
Equipment & supplies
Rule
Housekeeping employees should handle only those machinery items and supplies they are properly trained to handle.
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

10. Managing Housekeeping: Safety
Areas of training concern
Chemical handling
Cleaning procedures
Correct lifting techniques
Properly entering guestrooms
Contending with guestrooms containing:
firearms/ uncaged animals/ individuals perceived as
threatening/ ill or unconscious guests/ drugs and drug
paraphernalia / blood and potential bloodborne pathogens
Guest service
Guestroom security
Lost & Found procedures
Bloodborne pathogen is any microorganism or virus, carried by blood, which can cause a disease. The text emphasizes that the G.M. particularly needs to pay attention to the matter of blood pathogens. Similarly, attention is necessary to lost and found training; in the section “Lost and Found” later, three types of unclaimed property are discussed in detail, in terms of law and policy requirements.
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

11. Managing Housekeeping: Employee Scheduling
size of guestrooms / amenities in rooms / actual number of rooms to be cleaned / amount, if any, of deep cleaning
Scheduling the number of room attendants depends on:
How to establish room attendant schedules
Inexperienced Executive Housekeeper relies exclusively on minutes per room
Total # of minutes worked by room attendants / total # of guestrooms cleaned = Minutes per room
Experienced Executive Housekeeper relies on both minutes per room and knowledge of guests and sales patterns
Actual number of rooms to be cleaned is the most critical variable (factor) to effective scheduling.
Deep cleaning means the intensive cleaning of a guestroom, typically including the thorough cleaning of items such as drapes, lamp shades, carpets, furniture, walls and the like.
“Minutes per room” is the average number of minutes required to clean a guestroom.
Explain different factors used between experienced and inexperienced housekeepers to establish room attendant schedules.
Question 2 in Issues at Work in Chapter 7 asks students to design a scheduling system that fairly assigns holidays to the employees.
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

12. Managing Housekeeping: Inventory Management
Inventory items maintained by Executive Housekeeper:
sheets (all sizes)/ pillowcases/ bedspreads/ bath towels/ hand towels/ washcloths/ soaps/ shampoos/ conditioners/ sewing kits/ glass cleansers/ furniture polish/ acid-based cleansers/ glassware/ cups/ coffee & filters/ in-room literature/ telephone books/ pens/ paper pads
Values of monthly inventories
Check how much of each item is in use, in storage, on order
Executive Housekeeper to compute monthly “product usage reports”
“Product usage report” is a report detailing the amount of an inventoried item used by a hotel in a specified time period (i.e. week, month, quarter, year)
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

13. Managing Housekeeping: Inventory Management (continued…)
Waldo hotel product usage report
117
Total Monthly usage
877 unitis
Count on: __________________
850 units
Plus
144 unitis
Purchased in month
994 unitis
Total in service
Less
______________________________
Date: __________________________
Item:__________________________
For Period: ______________________
Prepared by: ____________________
Department:_____________________
January 1
February 1
Housekeeping
King-sized Sheets
The Executive Housekeeper, assisted by the housekeeping staff, should compute monthly usage rates on all significant housekeeping items.
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

14. Managing Housekeeping: Lost & Found
Three types of unclaimed property
Mislaid property
Owner unintentionally has left item(s) behind
Lost property
Owner unintentionally has left item(s) behind, then forgotten it/them
Abandoned property
Owner intentionally has left item(s) behind
Law and/or policy requirements:
Hotel must safeguard mislaid property until rightful owner returns
Hotel must hold lost property until rightful owner claims it
Hotel not required to find abandoned property’s owner
Property left behind in room or found in lobby to be treated as mislaid or lost
Establish how long any mislaid/lost property to be held before disposing it
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

15. Managing Housekeeping: Lost & Found (continued…)
When item is found
When returned to rightful owner, or disposed of
Date item is found
Description of item
Location where item is found (room #, if applicable)
Name of finder
Supervisor who receives item
Date item is returned
Owner’s name/ address/ phone
Housekeeping Manager returning item
Method of return
Date property is declared as abandoned
Name of hotel employee receiving abandoned property
Written report
The text emphasizes that Housekeeping Department must have specific, written “Lost and Found” procedures in place; it is one of the Executive Housekeeper’s important jobs to have pre-printed forms, namely, written lost and found procedures, in place to protect guest property until it is declared abandoned.
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

16. Facility Care & Cleansing
Public space cleaning
Forms basis for a guest’s initial impression of property
Guestroom cleaning
Effective guestroom cleaning is heart of Housekeeping
Department
Determines long-term success or failure of property
Sleeping area: the first part seen by guest when entering room
Bathroom area: closely inspected by guests for cleanliness
Review Figure 7.3 (Sample Public Space Inspection Sheet), 7.4 (Sample Guestroom Sleeping Area Inspection Sheet), and 7.5 (Sample Guestroom Bath Area Inspection Sheet) in the text. The text discusses the usefulness of inspection sheets to identify areas to be evaluated during routine inspections of public spaces, guest bathroom and sleeping room areas, and laundry.
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

17. Facility Care & Cleansing (continued…)
G.M.s’ roles in facility care and cleaning
G.M.s should know what to look for when inspecting the hotel
G.M.s must inspect public space, guestroom and laundry
operation areas regularly
G.M.s should not evaluate effectiveness of their
housekeeping departments based only on lower costs per
occupied room or fewer minutes per room cleaning
(these factors are not always better!)
“cost per occupied room” is total cost incurred for items or area, divided by the number of rooms occupied in the hotel for the time period examined.
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

18. Laundry
Operating an effective “on-premises laundry” is a multi-step process
Collecting
Sorting
Watching
Drying
Finishing / Folding
Delivering
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

19. Laundry: Operating an Effective OPL (continued…)
Collecting
Dirty linen and terry should never be used as guestroom cleaning rags.
Bloodstained linen or terry must be placed separately in a biohazard waste bag (pre-sort in guestroom).
Biohazard waste bag should be on every housekeeping cart.
Sorting
Once in OPL, laundry is sorted both in terms of fabric type & degree of staining.
Emphasize that use of the biohazard waste bag is necessary to avoid needless exposure to bloodborne pathogens, when room attendant notices linen or terry is bloodstained.
Agitation is movement of the washing machine resulting in friction as fabrics rub against each other.
Executive Housekeeper must teach laundry workers to monitor washing times, washing temperatures, chemicals and agitation during the washing process.
Washing
This step is the most complex part.
Monitor a: washing times, b: wash temperatures, c: chemicals, d: agitation length and strength
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

20. Laundry: Operating an Effective OPL (continued…)
Drying
Drying is simply a process of moving hot air ( degrees F.) through fabrics to vaporize & remove moisture.
Fabrics that are dried must have cool-down period in the dryer before they are removed from it
Finishing/
Folding
Space for finishing laundry must be adequate
Storing
Many fabrics must “rest” after washing & drying
24-hr rest time for cleaned laundry
Housekeeping Dept. should maintain laundry par levels of three times normal usage
Laundry par level is the amount of laundry in use, in process and in storage.
Delivering
Storage areas containing these items should be locked
Hotel Operations Management, 1/e ©2004 Pearson Education Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458