SUBJECT: HOUSEKEEPING PRACTICE

COURSE CODE: HTHD1014

LECTURER NAME: MR. MUHAMMAD NORISAIFULRUDDIN

COMPLETED BY:

NUR IZZ LINA BATRISYIA BINTI IZNAN SYAHMI (MC200410690)

DHRUV DEVAR A/L ARUMUGAM (MC200410826)

MUHAMMAD HAZIQ ILMAN BIN RAGMI (MC200410703)

ASSIGNMENT NAME:

“PANDEMIC; IMPACT AND ACTION TAKEN BY HOUSEKEEPING”

TABLE OF CONTENT

NUM CONTENT PAGE

1. Introduction 1
2. Impacts towards Housekeeping Department 1
3. Action Taken 2
4. Solution 3-4
5. Opinion 5
6. Conclusion 6
7. Acknowledgement 7
8. References 8
 1. INTRODUCTION

As we know, coronavirus has grown into a global pandemic and has spread across
many countries. Corona virus is a highly transmissible disease. it can be transmitted
through contact with other infected individuals or close contact between infected and
non-infected individuals. The government has taken steps to curb this virus from getting
worse by introduced the movement control order which is travel restriction, wearing face
mask and social distancing orders. Most countries around the world have imposed
partial or complete border closures, with travel bans affecting most of the world’s
population. With millions suddenly unemployed, uncertainty over economic recovery,
and global fears of continuing COVID-19 spread, the hospitality and hotel industry were
among the first industries severely affected by the disease. Not just that, all
departments in the hotel are severely affected by this problem including the
housekeeping department.

2. IMPACTS TOWARDS HOUSEKEEPING DEPARTMENT

The impacts of the COVID19 pandemic towards housekeeping industry is bad because
there are many things to work on because housekeeping is one of the main sectors in
the hotel line. Firstly, it caused the housekeeping industry to have a financial crisis this
is because the high costs that are inherent to an integral department such as
housekeeping, are expected to rise as additional precautions must be taken for the
safety of the staff and the guests. Next, the housekeeping management will have to
practice a new training method which is a rise of additional precautions must be taken
for the safety of the staff and the guests to ensure their safety. Thirdly, having a lot of
rules to be followed by the housekeeping sector and even the whole hotel line should
follow them as well like social distancing, hand sanitizing and even regular room
sanitizing to ensure there isn’t spread of the virus to the guests and staffs as well.
Lastly, introduction of new AI technology in some hotels to reduce guests to touch
things.

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 3. ACTION TAKEN BY THE HOTEL AND HOUSEKEEPING DEPARTMENT

The reopening of hotels on this current COVID-19 pandemic situation is very

challenging. It takes strict safety measures to reduce to a minimum exposure of workers
and clients to the COVID-19 through their products and services.

Important biosafety protocols have been implemented by the hotel to guarantee the
safety of everyone in the hotel and create trust. These protocols have changed the
operational standards and procedures of all the departments in a hotel, mainly in
Housekeeping, for it is the one in charge of the room and the cleanliness of the hotel.

ACTION TAKEN BY THE HOTEL

The action taken by the hotel is first, the hotel provides hand sanitizer in all areas of the
hotel. Next, the hotel makes a temperature screening or temperature check to guest
and employees before entering the hotel. This to ensure guest safety and be able to
curb COVID 19 in advance.

ACTION TAKEN BY THE HOUSEKEEPING DEPARTMENT

As we know, the housekeeping department plays important role when the hotel opened
on the current COVID 19 pandemic situations. The action taken by the Housekeeping
Department is the employee must be prepared, skilled and meticulous in cleaning hotel
and room areas. This is because the virus is highly transmissible to people. Next, the
housekeeping department has taken an action which is they sanitizing the hotel areas,
elevator, room, and places that exposed to people so often. Moreover, the staff must
wear the Personal Protective Equipment such as face mask, face shield and Gloves to
avoid the spread of COVID 19 and to give confident to the guest.

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 4. SOLUTION

A traditional outlook on room attendants was that they would be invisible to guests,
working clandestinely to clean rooms and finish turndown service, and leaving the
interaction side of things to other frontline staff. As the demand for mobile check-in
increases, however, the front desk is losing some of its power to deepen the customer
rapport, meaning that housekeepers are now acting as one of the only points of contact
between visitors and the hotel. The effects of this trend play out in a few ways. Firstly,
there is an increased need for the training of interaction skills so that room attendants
can properly communicate with guests, especially in the country’s native language for
which members of this department may not be fluent. In tandem with this is the follow-
up. One proposed solution was to institute a rotational program whereby members of
the housekeeping department would have the opportunity to shift to other operations
after a certain number of months. This would give increased exposure to a variety of
dynamic work environments while also ensuring that everyone understands the
fundamental crucial role that housekeeping plays in any property. Even though it is
already well-established for other aspects of a hotel, empowering room attendants is a
great motivational tool to keep them engaged. And this does not need to be anything
grandiose. Instead, empowerment is best deployed for the small touches that can mean
all the difference for a guest.

Lastly, to attack the career question head on, if you want to have a committed team,
they need to know that there are opportunities to move up, both with increased
responsibility and increased salary. When this subject was approached during the
conference, one question that was posed was how many general managers started in
housekeeping. After a consensus was reached with the answer being close to zero, the
follow-up pertained to how could we ever hope to attract top talent if their career options
are limited. Your organizational culture must support vertical advancement from within
the housekeeping department – and all operations for that matter – if you are ever going
to solve your staffing issues. Towel and linen recycling programs mean that
housekeepers may not have to change the bed or give fresh towels every day, while
transitioning from mini bottles to dispensers likewise reduces the workload. Moreover,

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switching to organic cleaners often means using more versatile products thereby
allowing you to cut the number of cleaners required, satisfying the fragrance-free crowd
and decreasing what housekeepers have to carry around with them. Such little activities
are significant because guests do not see all the large-scale back-of-end environmental
improvements that you have made to your water or electrical systems.

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 5. OPINION

The first thing the housekeeping industry should do is spot opportunities to increase the
bottom line by eliminating wasted resources and going beyond having rooms cleaned in
record time. Online checklists, location-based room assignments, accurately predicted
room cleaning times and automated reporting are examples of technologies that will
prove extremely useful in the reopening. Planning for increased room cleaning times to
account for additional sanitation measures will be necessary. Next, ensure that the hotel
is cleaned a minimum of once a week; best practices include allocating one attendant
per floor to reduce cross-contamination. Housekeeping managers should stay in touch
with room attendants and use online platforms to begin retraining. This will allow the
team to get ahead of the crisis and be ready for the next step. The housekeeping
industry are the ones who are most responsible of the health of guests because they
deal more time with the guests then others so they should always be equipped with
hand sanitizers when they are on their housekeeping duties and also they should
prepare a schedule on when the rooms will be sanitized and leave a copy in every room
so that the guests will be aware on the sanitation timings. Lastly, this is a good
technique because the virus can spread due to touching as well and this technology is
based more towards to switching on/off lights and commanding things in the hotels so
there will be less contact made by the guests and much more safer for all who are
present at the hotel as well this would also reduce the work for housekeeping personnel
because they wouldn’t have to work frequently on cleaning and sanitizing the rooms.

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 6. CONCLUSION

Today, this unpredictable public health crisis which is COVID 19 has become the worst
economic crisis to the entire globe moreover to hotel sector. Combatting and recovery
from this outbreak takes time and joint effort. Therefore, Housekeeping Department
plays the most important role in ensuring the safety of the guest and staff.

The importance of this assignment is to see the impacts towards housekeeping

department due to COVID 19 and pandemic situations. It is also to see how
Housekeeping Department manage to handle this situation.

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 7. ACKNOWNLEDGEMENT

The success and outcome of this assignment required a lot of guidance and assistance
from many people and we are extremely fortunate to have got this along the completion
of our assignment work. Whatever we have done is only to such guidance and
assistance and we would not forget to thank them. We respect and thank Sir
Norisafulruddin for giving us an opportunity to do this assignment work and providing us
all support and guidance which made us complete the assignment on time, we
extremely grateful to sir for providing such a nice support and guidance and also
teaching us in this course.

This assignment cannot be complete without effort and co-operation from our team
members. Team members Dhruv, Haziq and Izz lina

In addition, my greatest respects to all the workers of Housekeeping department,

Hotelier and to their role in creating feelings of physical and emotional safety in hotel
guests. I do hope this will help improving the recognition and support for housekeeping
and hotelier work in times of great challenges for those of us who love working in
Hospitality.

Thanks.

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8. REFERENCES

 https://hospitality.economictimes.indiatimes.com/blog/impact-of-covid-19-
on-the-hotel-industry-and-suggestions-for-post-pandemic-recovery/4214

 https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/crisis-management-framework-
housekeeping-covid19

 https://www.amadeus-hospitality.com/insight/enhance-hotel-cleaning-
covid-19/