1. Chapter 9 Housekeeping

2. The Role of the Housekeeping Department: Public Spaces
Lobby areas / public restrooms / front desk areas / management offices / game rooms / exercise areas / pool and spa areas / employee break rooms and locker rooms / selected meeting and food service areas
Major executive housekeeper responsibilities:
Decisions about required number of cleaning employees
Frequency of cleaning
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

3. The Role of the Housekeeping Department: Guest Rooms
Guest Room Areas
Elevators / corridors / stairwells / guest rooms
Communication role in relaying room status information to front-desk staff and room-maintenance issues to engineering and maintenance department
Room will be assigned when:
Properly cleaned by the housekeeping department
Verified as clean by a second member of housekeeping
Room’s status has been reported to the front desk
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

4. The Role of the Housekeeping Department: Guest Rooms (cont.)
Room Status Terminology
Clean and Vacant
Room is vacant, has been cleaned, and can be assigned to a guest
Occupied
Room is registered to a current guest
On-Change
Room is vacant but not yet cleaned
Do Not Disturb
Room is occupied but not yet cleaned due to guest’s request not to be disturbed
Sleep-out
Room is 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, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

5. The Role of the Housekeeping Department: Guest Rooms (cont.)
Room Status Terminology (cont.)
Due Out
Guest has indicated this is last day he or she will use the room
Check Out
Guest has departed
Out of Order
Room is unrentable and thus unassignable at this time
Lock Out
Guest left personal items in the room but will be denied access until approved to reenter by management
Late Check Out
Guest has requested and been given an extension of regular check-out time
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

6. The Role of the Housekeeping Department: 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 department and executive housekeeper’s role:
Managing on-premise laundry (OPL) and its effective operation
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

7. Staffing the Department
Executive housekeeper should:
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 and uniforms, room cleaning chemicals, and routines
Be guest-oriented
Room inspector’s major responsibilities:
Assess quality of room cleanliness
Point out deficiencies to room attendants, get those deficiencies corrected, and report revision of room status to executive housekeeper or front desk
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

8. Staffing the Department (cont.)
Ways to build highly motivated, dedicated room attendants:
Treat them with respect at all times
Ensure they are supervised only by excellent supervisors
Have room cleaning assignment policies that are perceived 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
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

9. Managing Housekeeping: Safety Equipment and Supplies
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 and Supplies
Rule
Housekeeping employees should handle only those machinery items and supplies they are properly trained to handle.
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

10. Managing Housekeeping: Safety (cont.)
Areas of training concern:
Chemical handling
Cleaning procedures
Correct lifting techniques
Properly entering guest rooms
Contending with guest rooms containing:
Firearms / uncaged animals / individuals perceived as threatening / ill or unconscious guests / drugs and drug paraphernalia / blood and potential blood-borne pathogens
Guest service
Guest room security
Lost and found procedures
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

11. Managing Housekeeping: Employee Scheduling
Scheduling the number of room attendants depends on:
Size of guest rooms / amenities in rooms / actual number of rooms to be cleaned / amount, if any, of deep cleaning
How to establish room attendant schedules:
Inexperienced executive housekeeper relies exclusively on minutes per room
Total # of minutes worked by room attendants / Total # of guest rooms cleaned = Minutes per room
Experienced executive housekeeper relies on both minutes per room and knowledge of guests and sales patterns
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 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 cleaners/ furniture polish / acid-based cleaners / glassware / cups / coffee and 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 computes monthly product usage reports
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

13. Managing Housekeeping: Inventory Management (cont.)
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
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

14. Managing Housekeeping: Lost and Found
Three types of unclaimed property:
Mislaid Property
Owner has unintentionally left item(s) behind
Lost Property
Owner has unintentionally left item(s) behind, then forgotten them
Abandoned Property
Owner has intentionally 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, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

15. Managing Housekeeping: Lost and Found (cont.)
When item is found:
When returned to rightful owner or disposed of:
Date item was found
Description of item
Location where item was found (room number, if applicable)
Name of finder
Supervisor who received item
Date item was returned
Owner’s name/address/ telephone number
Housekeeping manager returning item
Method of return
Date property was declared to be abandoned
Name of hotel employee receiving abandoned property
Written Report
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

16. Facility Care and Cleaning
Public Space Cleaning
Forms basis for a guest’s initial impression of property
Guest Room Cleaning
Effective guest room 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
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

17. Facility Care and Cleaning (cont.)
GMs’ roles in facility care and cleaning:
GMs should know what to look for when inspecting the hotel
GMs must inspect public space, guest room, and laundry
operation areas regularly
GMs 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!)
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

18. Laundry
Operating an effective on-premise laundry (OPL) is a multi-step process.
Collecting
Sorting/Repairing
Washing
Drying
Finishing/Folding
Delivering
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

19. Operating an effective on-premise laundry (OPL):
Laundry (cont.)
Operating an effective on-premise laundry (OPL):
Collecting
Dirty linen and terry should never be used as guest room cleaning rags.
Bloodstained linen or terry must be placed separately in a biohazard waste bag (pre-sort in guest room).
Biohazard waste bag should be on every housekeeping cart.
Sorting
Once in OPL, laundry is sorted both in terms of fabric type and degree of staining.
Washing
This is the most complex part of the laundering process.
Monitor a) length of washing time, b) wash water temperature, c) chemicals, and d) agitation length and strength.
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

20. Operating an effective on-premise laundry (OPL) (cont.):
Laundry (cont.)
Operating an effective on-premise laundry (OPL) (cont.):
Drying
Drying is simply a process of moving hot air (140–145 degrees F) through fabrics to vaporize and remove moisture.
Fabrics that are dried must go through a cool-down period in the dryer before they are removed from it.
Finishing/
Folding
Space required for finishing laundry must be adequate.
Storing
Many fabrics must “rest” after washing and drying.
24-hour rest time needed for cleaned laundry.
Housekeeping department should maintain laundry par levels of three times normal use.
Delivering
Storage areas containing these items should be locked.
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed. ©2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458