Maranan, Rhealyn M.

HRA4
CLOHS 2A
REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Housekeeping may be defined as the provision of a clean, comfortable, and safe
environment. It is aiming for providing their customers with clean, attractive, and welcoming
surrounding that offer value for money. It plays a vital role as they are exerting much effort in
giving a guest a desirable room. The general cleanliness and hygiene of a facility are vital to the
health and safety of guests, staffs, and visitors. The goals are to maintain high standards of
housekeeping practice so that you will meet the satisfaction of your guests.
Upon having the general knowledge about Housekeeping Management, I realized that
this has a wider scope of work responsibilities since they are the “heart” of the lodging
department. That includes the executives, supervisors, attendants, down to landscape men. The
Housekeeping Department not only prepares clean guestroom for the arrival of the guest, but
also maintains everything in the hotel so that the surroundings are still pleasant and attractive as
the day starts. I learned many things even though it is our first virtual discussion. I learned the
roles of Housekeeping Department such that: 1) they are responsible for the daily and periodic
cleaning of guest’s rooms and in most cases public areas 2) they maintain high standards of
housekeeping practice. I also learned the different classifications of hotel when it comes to its
sizes as well as their facilities and service. I gained knowledge about the organizational chart for
small hotel and a large hotel. Lastly, I learned a lot of things about the duties and responsibilities
of each staff who run the Housekeeping Department. The thing that stuck the most in my mind is
that when my professor told us that an establishment is nothing without the housekeeping
department. It is actually true though the workers are sometimes being underestimated by those
who are higher than them. They are seen as mere janitorial staff, but housekeeping staffs are
much more than their job as they have the most direct impact on hotel guest comfort and
satisfaction.
As we go further a deeper understanding about this course, I figure out a lot of
advantages of it: as a person, as a student, and as a future professional. As a person, I will be able
to start applying what I have learned in our house. Just a simple bedmaking can do a lot of more
because in that way, I can train myself to hone my skills in keeping our house clean. I can start to
work in simplest housekeeping for that is the number one step to master it. As a student, I
consider this as an advantage because not all hospitality students are able to train by a
professional who has the entire experience when it comes to housekeeping. It is very useful for
me because what I will learn in this course can be applicable to my future career. As a future
professional, I need to have a full knowledge about housekeeping so that I can achieve
housekeeping success with the benefit of quality skills training. The only disadvantage that I can
give is we are in the midst of the pandemic, we may not be able to learn the actuals through face
to face. I think it would be better to learn when we can see the actual person demonstrating
something to you but I am hoping that through this virtual, we can still be proficient in this
course.
 Housekeeping is not just about cleanliness but is in fact about the standard. It is one of
the most important services a hotel can offer and therefore time should be dedicated to training
staff correctly to ensure an enjoyable and pleasurable experience for their guests. As for
additional information, there is a short story I got from the Cengage entitled “Housekeeping.” In
the story, the guest has complaints regarding the cleaner and she is not pleased the way the
cleaner cleans the room. So, the guest had a talk with the housekeeping manager over the phone.
The manager fired the cleaner because he reasoned out that the cleaner should not supposed to
use the same brush in the toilet and in the sink and besides, she is well-trained. This situation
shows that a housekeeping staff needs to be careful in terms of his/her actions because some
guests are sensitive in some things. Maybe the guest in the story should have tell her complain
first to the cleaner so they will not be misunderstood each other and for the cleaner to not do the
same thing with the other guest rooms.

References:
Atta, Sefi. "Housekeeping." World Literature Today, vol. 84, no. 6, 2010, p. 24+. Gale
Literature: LitFinder,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A242379586/LITF?u=lyceumph&sid=LITF&xid=58ae01b9. Accessed 3
Feb. 2021.