Housekeeping

The Role of the Housekeeping Department:

Public Spaces
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.

Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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
Rooms status has been reported to the front desk
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed.
Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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
Do Not Disturb
Sleep-out
Stay-over

Room is vacant but not yet cleaned

Room is occupied but not yet cleaned due to
guests request not to be disturbed
Room is reported as occupied, but room was not
used and guest may have left
Guest will stay in room at least one more night

Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed.

Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

The Role of the Housekeeping Department:

Guest Rooms (cont.)
Room Status Terminology (cont.)
Due Out
Check Out

Guest has indicated this is last day he or she will use

the room
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.

Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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 hotels largest expenses.

Housekeeping department and executive housekeepers role:
Managing on-premise laundry (OPL) and its effective
operation

Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed.

Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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 inspectors 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.
Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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.
Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Managing Housekeeping: Safety

Housekeeping employees are
one of the hotels largest groups
thus
Physical nature of jobs

This groups accident

rates generally the
highest in the hotel

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.

Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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.
Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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.
Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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.

Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Managing Housekeeping:
Inventory Management (cont.)
Waldo Hotel Product Usage Report
Housekeeping
King-sized sheets
Department:_____________________
Item:__________________________
Prepared by: ____________________
For Period:
______________________

January 1
Count on: __________________

Date:
__________________________
______________________________
850 units
Plus

Purchased in month

144 unitis

Total in service

994 unitis

February 1
Count on: __________________
Total Monthly Usage
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed.
Hayes/Ninemeier

Less
877 unitis
117

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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 propertys 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.
Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Managing Housekeeping:
Lost and Found (cont.)
When item is found:

When returned to rightful

owner or disposed of:

Date item was returned

Date item was found
Owners name/address/
telephone number
Description of item
Housekeeping manager
Location where item was
returning item
found (room number, if Written
Report
applicable)
Method of return
Name of finder
Date property was
declared to be abandoned
Supervisor who received
item
Name of hotel employee
receiving abandoned
property
Hotel Operations Management, 2nd ed.
2007 Pearson Education
Hayes/Ninemeier

Pearson Prentice Hall

Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Facility Care and Cleaning

Public Space Cleaning
Forms basis for a guests 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.

Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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.

Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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.
Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

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.

Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Laundry (cont.)
Operating an effective on-premise laundry (OPL) (cont.):

Drying

Drying is simply a process of moving hot air (140145

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.

Hayes/Ninemeier

2007 Pearson Education

Pearson Prentice Hall
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458