Functions and roles in housekeeping

CHAPTER 1 – HOUSEKEEPING (INTRODUCTION)

1-1: An unfortunate truth-

• It is unfortunately true that housekeeping department being the largest department is the least admired and appreciated department in a hotel, which is maybe because of its ‘back of the house’ identity, its limited contact with guests and its only job of cleaning and maintaining the hotel. Housekeepers are the unsung heroes of the hotel.
• But today housekeeping department is no more a back of the house department, rather it is an important and integral department in a hotel. In accordance with the modernization and advancement in technology, housekeeping department has changed itself in a better way according to the present day scenario in the hotel industry.

1-2: What does Housekeeping department ensure?

• An effective and efficient housekeeping department essentially ensures the cleanliness, secures the safeguard, maintains an aesthetic upkeep in the hotel and deals with all the ancillary services provided by the hotel.
• The functions performed by hotel housekeeping department determines all the day to day operations of the hotel. Its main significance is to ensure cleanliness, comfort and safeguard in the hotel and to professionally upkeep a higher level of quality service at all times.
• In today’s tough and competitive scenario, maintaining exquisiteness in the hotel is hard and satisfying guest with that exquisiteness is even harder.

1-3: Changes in the job of Housekeeping department-

In past times, the job of Housekeeping department was limited to the only responsibility of ensuring cleanliness and maintenance of the hotel on a timely basis, but today various and enormous changes have been made to the job of Housekeeping department ranging from the dealing with diverse cleaning chemicals, managing ‘lost and found’ and avoiding theft in the hotel.

CHAPTER 2 – HOUSEKEEPING MANAGERS AND HOUSEKEEPING

2-1: Latest trends going on in Housekeeping-

• As the hotel industry is focusing more on recycling inventory, waste composition and environment conservation, housekeeping department needs to make some habitual changes and in order to meet the primary challenges it necessarily needs to follow the latest trends going on in the hotel industry, some of which are given down below:

2-1-1: Recycling and utilizing inventory – Using old linens as towels and aprons, purchasing cleaning and guest supplies in bulk to save money, exchanging old furniture and equipment’s with scrap dealer for money or donating them to institutions or charities are some of the emerging inventory trends going on in hotel housekeeping scenario.

2-1-2: Technology savvy – Nowadays hotels are largely depended upon the use of technology to save time, bring personalization in service and ensure quality service. The use of i-pads and i-pad minis in in-room service as an e-butler which allows the guest to access the options like remote control lighting and door locking system, entertainment services like music and camera and other options. This use of technology also helps the hotel to work efficiently in day to day jobs as it enables the optimal utilization of time at one click.

2-1-3: Housekeeping software – Hotel housekeeping software is a web based system that helps to cut the cost, save the time and reduce the human effort for efficient and effective management of housekeeping jobs. It enables the hotel management system to link with all the departments through web, it makes online reservations and booking features in order for hotel to increase the occupancy, it keeps the expense and usage records of the inventory and generates the reports within seconds.2-1-4: Eco-friendly practices – Hotel industry is increasingly focusing towards environmental awareness, becoming eco-friendly and moving towards reliable tourism. Hotel housekeepers emphasize eco-friendly policies in their daily briefings, creatively use local crafts in guestroom amenities and turn down services to promote and profit local trade, ensure that all the guestroom amenities are eco-friendly and no plastic and chemicals are used, encourage guests to participate in linen and towel re-use programs.

2-2: General challenges and problems in Housekeeping-

• Some of the general challenges and problems faced by Housekeeping managers includes managing back to back situations, mismanagement of jobs, pest controlling, cleaning linen and towels and laundry, replenishing guestroom amenities and bathroom toiletries, bed making challenges, seasonal challenges, dealing with cleaning chemicals and equipment’s, security of guest’s belongings, etc., some of which are detailed down below:

2-2-1: Pest Controlling – The challenge of Housekeeping managers in pest controlling service is to deal with different kind of pests such as mosquitoes, cockroaches, insects and flies, lizards and rats. Save the hotel building from birds and their doing feces is also a difficult task. Housekeeping managers should coordinate with pest control vendor to ensure measures taken regarding all the pest control tasks and treatments such as timely spraying, fogging, fumigation, gel treatment, keeping gum boards for lizards and rats, using lemon grass oil spread to resist mosquitoes, birds gel and spikes and netting to resist the hotel building from birds.

2-2-2: Seasonal Challenges – Housekeeping managers encounter cleaning challenges mostly during rainy season. Cleanliness and maintenance of guest areas during rainy season becomes challenging because rainwater as flows down in guest areas along with soil leads to the algae growth and other issues in guest areas. Rainy season can also cause infestation in the hotel premises as it brings insects and flies along with it, so Housekeeping managers should ensure that there is no water logging and there is no possibility of insect infestation throughout the hotel premises. Keeping foot prints off the floor during rainy season is also a difficult challenge for housekeeping managers.

2-2-3: Security of guest’s belongings – There is always a certain extent of fear in guest’s mind when leaving their valuable items in hotel’s room. As this is a genuine fear of items getting lost or stolen. Housekeeping managers should always take some serious measures regarding guest’s valuables. Housekeeping managers need to create and circulate some strict rules to safeguard the guest’s valuable items being lost or stolen by the housekeepers. Nothing other than missing of guest’s valuables weakens the guest’s trust.

CHAPTER 3 – LINEN CHALLENGES IN REGARD TO CURRENT TRENDS

3-1: Change in linen trends –

• There has been a scenario in hotel industry a few years ago wherein every hotel housekeeping used to repeat the same linens every year. This scenario was same for both bed and bath linens as well. Every guest could probably find the same white, plain and striped linens and same plain terry towels across every hotel they would visit. Despite this scenario has been changed as the trends has been changed as well.
• Previously, hotel housekeeping used to have a maximum thread count of 400 but presently it has been lengthened to 1500 which ranges from 550 GSM to 700 GSM. Whereas, previously linens were made from 100% cotton but presently hotel housekeeping use linen made from the mixture of cotton and polyester and sometimes even 100% polyester made linen is also used. Mixing polyester and several other fabrics like organic cotton, Egyptian cotton, microfiber, nylon, etc., in linen increases the strength and durability of linen.
• Housekeeping managers of many hotels even provide their guest with a linen menu which consists of a choice of pillows ranging from microfiber, cervical, soya, horse hair, memory foam, bamboo pillows and even a pillow concierge for assistance to ensure guests a happy sleep.
• Housekeeping managers of many hotels are adopting the technique of RFID or Radio Frequency Identification that acts as a linen management system which enables the housekeeping managers to tackle the challenges and problems faced by them regarding the management of the linen and linen related issues.
• Another upcoming trend in hotel housekeeping is the use linens made from organic products like bamboo, coir, jute, paper, wool, etc., and the use of linens which take less time in drying.
• Ranging from energy saver lighting and water saver bathroom amenities to eco-friendly linens, hotel housekeeping are adopting various techniques to cut linen cost and long term operational cost to initiate more efficient and effective practices.

3-2: Linen challenges and problems –

• The use of RFID technique by the hotel housekeeping for linen management like linen inventory control, linen purchase, etc., cannot be adopted by many hotels because it is a costly system that requires a high cost involvement.
• The adaptation of energy efficient, environment friendly and organic products like eco-friendly linen, eco-friendly chemicals such as Eco booster, Eco soft, Eco tide, etc., by the hotel housekeeping is also reducing because it also requires a high cost involvement.
• Cross contamination of clean linens is one of the major challenge faced by housekeeping managers. They face major problems in keeping clean linens fresh and keeping them away from dirty and contaminated linens.
• Selecting appropriate and proper materials from which the linens are made up of is also a major challenge faced by housekeeping managers. They face major problem when selecting the materials like cotton, polyester, microfiber, nylon, wool, etc.
• Linen is mostly damaged due to excess of chemicals during washing and excess of heat during drying. Regulating chemicals during washing linens and reducing heat during drying, can increase the life of linen. Increasing the life of linen for budgeting costs and managing linen inventory is an adequate and crucial factor in hotel housekeeping. Changing and replacement of linen can be a costly operation.

CHAPTER 4 – LAUNDRY CHALLENGES IN REGARD TO CURRENT TRENDS

4-1: Current laundry trends –

• Housekeeping managers are adopting RFID or Radio Frequency Identification technique for laundry management as it oversees it by increasing productivity, preventing loss during linen exchange, budgeting costs, tracking and recording laundry activities, monitoring laundry functions, reducing labor costs and lowering operating expenses.
• Housekeeping managers are adopting Ozone laundry system to reduce costs and implement environment efficient practices. The major advantage of Ozone laundry system is that it has an on premise installation and does not disrupt any other housekeeping operations. Ozone laundry system evaluates hotel laundry operations and enables the housekeeping managers for cost and energy savings.
• Housekeeping managers are adopting the use of special detergents with color protection technology formulated to keep dark fabric dark and the original color retained, use of bleach pens for effective upkeep of fabrics with a fine point applier technology, use of fabric softeners and whiteners, spa like treatment with laundry detergents that care fabrics with aromatic therapeutic scents and wrinkle free sprays that softens and crisps the fabric without using an iron.
• Housekeeping managers are adopting waterless laundry system with polymer bead technology which provides a solution to the problem of water, detergent and electricity usage and wastage. This system replaces 80% of water, uses 50% less detergent and electricity in contrast to the traditional used methods. This technology has outperformed the traditional laundry methods with today’s laundry methods used by the hotels.
• Another trend followed by housekeeping managers is the transformation of in-house laundry operations into polymer bead laundry system which helps to cut laundry operational costs by 50% and enables efficiency in usage of water, detergent and electricity. This technology allows the tough stains on linen to remove and linen gets cleaned in betterment for extending the life of linen, so as to provide the guests with cleaner linens and keep the linen inventory in use for a long time.

4-2: Laundry challenges and problems –

• A challenge faced by housekeeping managers is to wash anything and everything ranging from shoes, microfiber cloths, garments and mop heads. Washing all the laundry fabrics all together causes problems, damages the fabrics and even the machines. But at the same time, it can be expensive and excessive to wash them separately or wash them by hands.
• In hotels, the stains of coffee, tea and chocolates can be washed, but washing the stains of blood and some permanent stains is a challenge for housekeeping managers. Nothing can be resolved other than discarding the linens with such stains, and replacing them can involve high cost.
• A major challenge faced by housekeeping managers is that the removal of stains from fabrics takes time and needs patience, that housekeeping managers during laundry operations don’t have. The challenge housekeeping manager’s face is to identify and treat the stain based on the type of stain it is. Is it an oil based stain, an organic stain or a nonorganic water based stain.
• Another challenge which housekeeping managers face is the smelly and dirty washing machines. After washing hundreds or thousands of fabrics in laundry in a week, washing machines needs to be washed once in a week too.
• Housekeeping managers face a major challenge of labor intensiveness, which is the most expensive component in laundry operations. It is a cost factor which requires a high cost of involvement. The challenge is to cut labor costs by utilizing the laundry standards with efficiency and effectiveness.

CHAPTER 5 – GUEST SUPPLIES CHALLENGES IN REGARD TO CURRENT TRENDS

5-1: Change in guest supplies trends –

• Other than providing friendly and personalized services, what interests and fantasizes the guests are the in-room guest supplies and amenities. Ranging from grooming products to cosmetic products or techno savvy products, in-room hotel guest supplies or amenities have been advanced as hotels all over the world are accepting and appreciating the latest guest’s trends.
• The standard old trends in hotel guest supplies of keeping a chocolate on the pillow or other food amenities during turn down service, offering a welcome drink on check-in and providing complimentary Wi-Fi, no longer interests the guests now. In the world of high-end guests who expect high-end amenities look for extravagant facilities and services.
• The new trends in in–room guest supplies that are emerging in hotel nowadays is providing whole minibar as complimentary amenity and offering the guests an amenity menu to choose the amenity of their choice.
• The standard hotel bathroom with tiled floors and shower curtains no longer fantasize the guests now. Guests of today want the bathroom trending such as distinctive faucets and sinks, extravagant lighting systems, illuminated mirrors, glass paneled doors, which boosts the bathroom design.

• Housekeeping managers have understood the change in trends of guest supplies and are shifting towards providing exclusive branded amenities to their guests. Accor’s luxury hotel segment Sofitel provides its guests an elegant refinement of products from exquisite brands such as Hermes, Lanvin, Cinq Mondes and Carita.

5-2: Guest supplies challenges and problems –

• The major challenge faced by housekeeping managers in guest supplies is the cost-factor. Housekeeping managers face a cost-cutting problem which diversely affects the quality and quantity of the guest supplies and amenities provided to the guests.
• Another challenge faced by housekeeping managers is the keeping minibar stocked or re-stocking of minibar amenities. Guests often complaint about the inflated price of the minibar amenities. So it is also a major challenge for the housekeeping managers.
• The challenge which housekeeping managers face regarding minibar guest supplies is to use costly branded products and make it a complimentary amenity. Instead they can use local or less expensive products in minibar and make it complimentary.
• Wi-Fi has been a standard amenity in the hotel guest’s supplies. Housekeeping managers regarding hotel Wi-Fi face cellular challenges of weak signal strength and network capacity issue.
• Customizing and personalizing hotel guests supplies according to the specific preferences and demands of the guests and providing the best of quality services and facilities in guest’s supplies is another major challenge faced by housekeeping managers.

CHAPTER 6 – CONCLUSION

6-1: Critical Analysis –

All the hotels around the world are pursuing to look for efficient and effective ways of meeting the needs and demands of the guests and providing the best of quality services, in which hotel housekeeping department plays a vital and crucial role.

Hotel housekeeping department ensures to provide an all new element in the luxury to guests and guestrooms in the terms of linens, laundry, guest supplies and other ancillary amenities. The emerging trends of linens, laundry and guests supplies in hotel scenario directly collide with challenges faced by the housekeeping managers regarding these three aspects.

Changes in linen operations due to cost and other factors such as using single bed sheets instead of two bed sheets, mixing polyester and several other fabric materials with cotton to make linens, are some of the changes that are taking place.

Laundry operations where new washing techniques such as steam laundry, waterless laundry and ozone laundry are taking place because water is a perishable resource and need to be saved and for more environment efficient techniques.

In today’s hotel scenario of high-end guests who expect high-end amenities and look for extravagant facilities and services, demand for more due to the rise in their disposable income. And by providing exquisite guest supplies hotels can rise up to the expectation mark of the guests.

In the end I’d like to conclude that the housekeeping department is an important and initial part of the hotel which is not going to change anytime soon or later.

Anchit Garg

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