The motor is attached to a fan which has angled blades like an aeroplane propeller.
As the fan blades turn they force the air towards the exhaust port or outlet
Thus, a partial vacuum is created in the vaccum cleaner.
This causes the air pressure to decrease inside the vaccum cleaner as compared to the outside
The partial vaccum or the lower pressure causes a suction action.
Air from outside the vaccum cleaner rushes in through the intake port or inlet, risks up direct and dust from the surface being cleaned.
This durst & dirt is picked by the air stream rushing
The dirt filled air stream makes its way to the exhaust port passing the vaccum cleaner bag of the way.
The bags are made or woven materials like cloth or paper which acts as an air filter.
Most of the air passes out of the bag but the dirt particulars are trapped within.
The relatively clean air passes out of the exhaust port to the outside while the bag collects t he dirt from the surface being cleaned.
• TYPES OF VACUUM CLEANER :
DRY VACCUM CLEANER : Removes dust and small pieces of debris, paper, etc. It is used on floors, ceiling soft furnishing. It comes with different attachment like floor cleaning, a crevice head, upholstery head, power head and extension tubes.
(a) Electric brooms :
They are light weight, portable, used for light vaccum eg. Light dist. It does not have a motor beat brush.
(b) Back Vaccum Cleaners :
Also called piggy back vaccum cleaners. Often strapped at the back of the cleaner. It is very efficient for cleaning high hand reach areas. Have hand held extension tubes with various attachments. It does not have a motor driven beater brush. Ideal for curtains ceiling, upholstery, staircase, edges of carpets.
(c) Dustelle : A J
A hand held vaccum cleaner. It is small and light weight came into use in the 1920’s. It is an electrical equipment replacement for cloth or father dusters cleans by brushing and suction. It is easy to handle usually hand held but larger may even be strap at the back of operator. Basically, used is duster which can be used for above floor level.
(d) File Lifter Vaccums :
It is used for carpets and rugs only. It removers deeply embedded try particle matter. It groomers the nap, i.e lifts the carpet pile that has got flatten and restores their vertical orientation. It eliminates traffic pattering and used weekly on traffic planes and monthly on all carpets. This various according to the hotel occupancy rate. It is useful before shampooing the carpet especially if the roiling is heavy. It lengthens the life of carpet and rugs.
(e) Upright Vaccum :
These are the vaccum cleaners most frequently seen in hotels,, main body lios horizontal to the floor. The dust bag ties outside the machines main body. The dust bag is usually large and so less number are used. The vaccum cleaner is driven by a single motor. A belt driven beater brush helps to remove the dust from thick pile carpets. In an improved variation, there is a dual motor system. One motor drives the beater brush and the other provides the suction force.
They also have filers (HEPA), High efficiency particular air have excellent filtration qualities. It also has a built in hose with attachments which gives it more flexibility to clean hard to reach areas like corners ceiling and under furniture etc long cords of 30 fect or more and long hose pipes of 7 feet or more is desirable to clean large are on without having to plug the machine to another electrical outlet. Generally hese machines are difficult to use on bare floors. The revolving brush that digs direct out of a carpet after spits the dust from hard surfaces back out of the machine before it can suck up. It is most suited for use on large carpeted areas.
(f) Cylindrical Vaccum Cleaner :
They have no rotating brushes. It works by ruction alone. Hence, it is often called suctions cleaner. A filter cum diffuser is fitted at the outlet which removes fine dusts and micro-originations from the floor of air passing through the outlet. It also reduces air disturbance and noise. The dust bags lies inside the cylindrical body of the vaccum cleaner. A flexible base along with different attachments is used to clean a variety of surfaces. This type of vaccum cleaners is used by GRA to clean the guests room.
(g) Centralized Vaccum cleaner :
In this type suction is generated at one paint in the building soiling can be removed at vacuum point in different rooms in the building by suitable nozzles linked to detachable flexible hoses. The cones collected dust is conveyed by a network of pipes to a central container which is usually located at the lowest level of the building installation charges are high and are required to be done during the building construction stage maintenance costs are lower individual machines, dust bags are not necessary to be brought. Repair of individual machines flexes are not present. It is extremely hygienic as all dust is immediately conveyed to one area of collection from all the rooms. Thus fine dust particulars are not recalculated into living places as they are with portable vaccum cleaner. Noise is completely out of your shot operator fatigue is low.
RDC/apg/dx-11
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
PLACEMENT OF GUEST SUPPLIES
Guest supply includes all items that are conductive to the guest’s material comfort and convinience.They are subdivided into guest amenities,essentials,expendables and loan items. Many hotels follow common pattern in placement of guest supplies in their guestrooms.
IN THE BEDROOM:
The guest supplies placed in various areas of the guest bedrooms are discussed in this section.
BEHIND THE DOOR: The following are placed here:
• A DND card, the reverse of which may be ‘please make up my room card’ on the door knob on the inside of the door.
• Room’s rates for different kinds of rooms offered, in the frame or plastic holder behind every door.
• A detailed map fire exists is ideally affixed behind the door.
A notice reminding the guests of the safe-deposit facilities at the cashier’s desk.
Most hotels now have an electronic safe in the guestroom, however, in which case this notice is not required.
AT WRITING TABLE: These are usual supplies on and around the guest desk.
• A guest stationary folder with monogrammed note papers, envelopes, and post cards with hotel pictures, telegraph forms and guest comment forms are placed on the table. A pen and a pencil are also placed alongside.
• Tent cards (publicity cards placed in the shape of a tent) giving information about special events and shows in the hotel are also placed on this desk.
• An ashtray.
• A candle, a candle holder and a matchbox.
• The hotel brochure.
• A waste paper basket next to the writing table, on the floor.
• A chair with a backrest placed in front of the writing table.
ON THE BEDSIDE TABLE: Any variety of supplies may be found on or in the nightstand.
• The telephone and the service dictionary are placed on the bedside table.
• A notepad and a pencil are placed beside the phone.
• An ashtray and a matchbox. In twin rooms two ashtrays along with matchboxes are kept on the two bedside tables.
• A breakfast shelf knob card is usually kept on the first shelf or in the drawer of the bedside table. This card is kept on the pillow during evening service in many hotels.
• The local telephone directory is usually kept on the lowermost shelf on the bedside table.
• In the same location, a Bible, a Gita or Quran may also be placed. In Buddhist countries, “THE LIFE AND THOUGHT OF LORD BUDDHA” may be placed.
• A channel music panel may be affixed to the bed side table.
• A bedside lamp is placed at the bedside table. If there are two tables’ two bedside lamps maybe placed.
• A flask on the tray with two glasses may be kept beside the bed at the bedside table.
ON THE COFFEE TABLE: These are the usual supplies here:
• An ashtray and a matchbox are placed on the coffee table.
• The house magazine or some tourist magazines and a newspaper are also neatly arranged on the coffee table.
• The room service menu is placed on the coffee table.
• A letter of greeting signed by the general manager, wishing guests in special holidays and feasts, may be placed on the coffee table.
IN THE DRAWER AND THE CUPBOARD: These are usually found in the wardrobe or chest of the drawers or else sometimes in the nightstand drawer.
• A sewing mending kit (a Dutch wife) is placed in the drawer.
• Laundry bag and a list of laundry facilities and charges.
• A few plastic utility bags may also be placed in the wardrobe for guests to keep their shoes or wet swimming suits in, or to use for other purposes.
• Cloth hangers are hung on hooks or a hanging rod inside the cupboard.
• The guestroom safe is usually affixed inside the cupboard.
BELOW THE LUGGAGE RACK: The luggage rack usually has a lower shelf for guests to keep their shoes on. The shoe mitt or a shoe kit may be placed on this shelf.
AT THE DRESSING TABLE: These supplies may be on or near the dressing table where there is one else they will be a part of the vanity kit in the bathroom:
• An upholstered stool is placed under the dressing table and it can be pulled out when required.
• A mirror is mounted on the wall with appropriate lighting facilities.
• Combs and brushes are placed in the dressing table drawer.
ON THE BED: Ideally , there would be nothing on the bed except the bedclothes listed below , but sometimes a small gift box or a box of chocolates may be placed on the pillow as the part of the turn-down service.
• A mattress, with a mattress protector on it.
• Bed sheets, night spread, pillows with pillow cases, blankets and a bed spread.
IN THE TELEVISION CABINET: This, of course, is fairly obvious-this is where you’d find the television, usually, one equipped with satellite network and a remote control.
IN THE MINI BAR: All, some, or none of these may be include, depending on the type of hotel and the type of guestroom, as well as sometimes the profile of the guest.
• Mineral water bottles.
• Beverages such as liquor and soft drinks.
• Ice trays.
• Lemon wedges.
• Some snacks.
ON THE MINI-BAR CABINET OR DRESSER OR CONSOLE TABLE: These supplies may be on a small side table near the guestroom entrance, by the bed or on the mini bar.
• A tray with tea bags and sachets of coffee powder, milk powder and sugar.
• On the same tray a couple cups, saucers and spoons.
• A kettle and/or coffee maker.
• An ice bucket.
IN THE SITTING AREA: The following items are usually found in the sitting area:
• A sofa and two easy chairs.
• An occasional table.
• A lampshade.
IN THE BATHROOM: A bathroom usually has the following fixtures and guest supplies:
• A full length mirror at the entrance.
• A bath tub and a bath mat.
• A water closet.
• A tissue holder with a tissue roll, affixed on the wall near the WC.
ON OR NEAR THE VANITY UNIT: Supplies near the vanity unit are as follows:
• Monogrammed soaps, shampoo bottles, moisturizers, cologne, aftershave lotion and shower gels.
• Shower caps, gargle glasses, tissue box, razor blades, dental kit and shaving kit.
• A mirror mounted on the wall with appropriate lighting facility.
• A sani-bin beside the WC or under the vanity counter.
ON THE TOWEL: The towel rack consists of the following supplies:
• Bath towels and bath sheets on the towel rack.
• Hand towels and face towels (these may also be near or on the vanity unit).
• Wash cloth.
• A bath mat.
Guest supply includes all items that are conductive to the guest’s material comfort and convinience.They are subdivided into guest amenities,essentials,expendables and loan items. Many hotels follow common pattern in placement of guest supplies in their guestrooms.
IN THE BEDROOM:
The guest supplies placed in various areas of the guest bedrooms are discussed in this section.
BEHIND THE DOOR: The following are placed here:
• A DND card, the reverse of which may be ‘please make up my room card’ on the door knob on the inside of the door.
• Room’s rates for different kinds of rooms offered, in the frame or plastic holder behind every door.
• A detailed map fire exists is ideally affixed behind the door.
A notice reminding the guests of the safe-deposit facilities at the cashier’s desk.
Most hotels now have an electronic safe in the guestroom, however, in which case this notice is not required.
AT WRITING TABLE: These are usual supplies on and around the guest desk.
• A guest stationary folder with monogrammed note papers, envelopes, and post cards with hotel pictures, telegraph forms and guest comment forms are placed on the table. A pen and a pencil are also placed alongside.
• Tent cards (publicity cards placed in the shape of a tent) giving information about special events and shows in the hotel are also placed on this desk.
• An ashtray.
• A candle, a candle holder and a matchbox.
• The hotel brochure.
• A waste paper basket next to the writing table, on the floor.
• A chair with a backrest placed in front of the writing table.
ON THE BEDSIDE TABLE: Any variety of supplies may be found on or in the nightstand.
• The telephone and the service dictionary are placed on the bedside table.
• A notepad and a pencil are placed beside the phone.
• An ashtray and a matchbox. In twin rooms two ashtrays along with matchboxes are kept on the two bedside tables.
• A breakfast shelf knob card is usually kept on the first shelf or in the drawer of the bedside table. This card is kept on the pillow during evening service in many hotels.
• The local telephone directory is usually kept on the lowermost shelf on the bedside table.
• In the same location, a Bible, a Gita or Quran may also be placed. In Buddhist countries, “THE LIFE AND THOUGHT OF LORD BUDDHA” may be placed.
• A channel music panel may be affixed to the bed side table.
• A bedside lamp is placed at the bedside table. If there are two tables’ two bedside lamps maybe placed.
• A flask on the tray with two glasses may be kept beside the bed at the bedside table.
ON THE COFFEE TABLE: These are the usual supplies here:
• An ashtray and a matchbox are placed on the coffee table.
• The house magazine or some tourist magazines and a newspaper are also neatly arranged on the coffee table.
• The room service menu is placed on the coffee table.
• A letter of greeting signed by the general manager, wishing guests in special holidays and feasts, may be placed on the coffee table.
IN THE DRAWER AND THE CUPBOARD: These are usually found in the wardrobe or chest of the drawers or else sometimes in the nightstand drawer.
• A sewing mending kit (a Dutch wife) is placed in the drawer.
• Laundry bag and a list of laundry facilities and charges.
• A few plastic utility bags may also be placed in the wardrobe for guests to keep their shoes or wet swimming suits in, or to use for other purposes.
• Cloth hangers are hung on hooks or a hanging rod inside the cupboard.
• The guestroom safe is usually affixed inside the cupboard.
BELOW THE LUGGAGE RACK: The luggage rack usually has a lower shelf for guests to keep their shoes on. The shoe mitt or a shoe kit may be placed on this shelf.
AT THE DRESSING TABLE: These supplies may be on or near the dressing table where there is one else they will be a part of the vanity kit in the bathroom:
• An upholstered stool is placed under the dressing table and it can be pulled out when required.
• A mirror is mounted on the wall with appropriate lighting facilities.
• Combs and brushes are placed in the dressing table drawer.
ON THE BED: Ideally , there would be nothing on the bed except the bedclothes listed below , but sometimes a small gift box or a box of chocolates may be placed on the pillow as the part of the turn-down service.
• A mattress, with a mattress protector on it.
• Bed sheets, night spread, pillows with pillow cases, blankets and a bed spread.
IN THE TELEVISION CABINET: This, of course, is fairly obvious-this is where you’d find the television, usually, one equipped with satellite network and a remote control.
IN THE MINI BAR: All, some, or none of these may be include, depending on the type of hotel and the type of guestroom, as well as sometimes the profile of the guest.
• Mineral water bottles.
• Beverages such as liquor and soft drinks.
• Ice trays.
• Lemon wedges.
• Some snacks.
ON THE MINI-BAR CABINET OR DRESSER OR CONSOLE TABLE: These supplies may be on a small side table near the guestroom entrance, by the bed or on the mini bar.
• A tray with tea bags and sachets of coffee powder, milk powder and sugar.
• On the same tray a couple cups, saucers and spoons.
• A kettle and/or coffee maker.
• An ice bucket.
IN THE SITTING AREA: The following items are usually found in the sitting area:
• A sofa and two easy chairs.
• An occasional table.
• A lampshade.
IN THE BATHROOM: A bathroom usually has the following fixtures and guest supplies:
• A full length mirror at the entrance.
• A bath tub and a bath mat.
• A water closet.
• A tissue holder with a tissue roll, affixed on the wall near the WC.
ON OR NEAR THE VANITY UNIT: Supplies near the vanity unit are as follows:
• Monogrammed soaps, shampoo bottles, moisturizers, cologne, aftershave lotion and shower gels.
• Shower caps, gargle glasses, tissue box, razor blades, dental kit and shaving kit.
• A mirror mounted on the wall with appropriate lighting facility.
• A sani-bin beside the WC or under the vanity counter.
ON THE TOWEL: The towel rack consists of the following supplies:
• Bath towels and bath sheets on the towel rack.
• Hand towels and face towels (these may also be near or on the vanity unit).
• Wash cloth.
• A bath mat.
HOTEL GUESTROOMS
Introduction
The guestroom is the main product of a hotel, as it contributes to more than 50 per cent of the total sales, making the profit percentage from room sales very high. The ‘sale’ of a room means leasing the room for occupation for 24 hours at a pre-determined cost. Thus, a room sold on a particular day earns revenue for that day, and then it can be sold again, and again. Rooms are sometimes referred to as ‘highly perishable commodities’ as rooms not sold for the day lose out on the revenue for that day. In addition to earning revenues, guestrooms also have a role in the image-building of the hotel.
Guests may stay in a hotel for pleasure, convenience, or from necessity. Whatever the reason for the stay, the will always expect a certain standard of service and comfort. It is hence essential for each and every hotel employee to understand the importance of a guestroom for a guest. The housekeeping staff, in particular, has the responsibility of making the guestroom ‘a home away from home’ for the guest.
Importance of the guestrooms to a guest
It is extremely important to understand the expectations of a guest when he/she pays to stay in a room. People nowadays travel a lot more than they did earlier, and the expectations from hotels are constantly on the rise. In such a scenario, continuous analysis of guest expectations becomes necessary. Given that a hotel is often referred to as ‘a home away from home’, there would be similarities in a guest’s expectations from a hotel and from a home. These similarities would dictate that the guestrooms be neat, hygienic, comfortable, private, and above all, safe. The most important consideration here is staff needs to understand and respect the guest’s expectations from the guestroom and the hotel staff.
Primarily, a neat room is the basic minimum expectation of any guest, and the staff needs to ensure this by laying out fresh linen and presenting a clean room on a daily basis. The room should not only be attractive, but also comfortable and functional. Hotel guests expect a high degree of cleanliness, leading to a hygienic environment to stay in. For instance, guest that the hotel has provided them a sanitized toilet when they see a disinfected paper strip on the toilet seat.
The ‘basic necessities’ in a guestroom are constantly varying. Nowadays these may include Internet and Wi-Fi connectivity, channel music, television, temperature control, and so on. Guests also expect that they will not be disturbed often and that the location of the rooms would be such that they have a good view. Safety, as we have already mentioned, is a key factor with regard to guestrooms - guest would like the guestroom location to be safe and not accessible to one and all. The doors of a guestroom should have a double locking system operable from inside, along with strict control measures in the hotel with regard to the handling of guestroom keys and master keys. Fire-exit layouts being placed in the rooms is a necessity as well.
Irrespective of its location, a guestroom should also offer easy access to other guest service areas, such as restaurants, gymnasiums, swimming pools, and so on, with clear directions to and from the room or elevator being posted in corridors.
The guest would also expect to be able to get in touch with ancillary departments providing other services to guests from the room itself. The various services- such as room service, restaurants, housekeeping, valet, and so on- should be clearly indicated with explanation and intercom numbers in the literature on the house rules and in the information kits placed in each guestroom.
TYPES OF GUESTROOMS
It used to e customary in many hotels to have rooms of more or less the same standard throughout a property, but the trend is changing now. Guests are now being offered a choice of more expensive rooms with upgraded facilities, as well as the establishment’s standard options. Hotels now offer a wide variety of rooms catering to the needs of different types of travelers. They are as following:
Single room- A room assigned to one person, having one bed.
Twin room- A room with two beds meant for one person each.
Hollywood twin room- A with two twin beds but a common headboard, meant for two people. If so desired, the beds can be bridged together to make it appear single bed.
Double room- A room with a double bed for two persons.
Triple room- A room assigned to three people, which may have two or more beds.
Quad room- A room assigned to four people, which may have two or more beds.
Queen room- A room with a queen-size bed.
King room- A room with a king-size bed.
Double double room/Twin double family room- A room with two double beds, meant for four people.
Studio room/Extension room- A room with a studio bed.
Sico room- A room which has a Murphy or Sico bed or similar (a pull-out or convertible or foldaway bed)
Mini suite/Junior suite- A single large room with a bed and a sitting area.
Suite room- A combination of one or more bedrooms and a parlour. It may also contain a bar, a small kitchenette, and other facilities.
Connecting rooms- Rooms with individual entrance doors from the outside and a connecting door between, so that the guests can move between rooms without going through the hallway.
Adjoining rooms- Rooms with a common wall but no connecting door.
Adjacent rooms- Rooms close to each other, but not necessarily adjoining- perhaps across the hall or corridor from each other.
Cabana- A room adjacent to the pool area, with or without sleeping facilities, but with provision for relaxing in a sofa. These re mainly used for changing.
Duplex/Bi-level suite- A two-storey suite, with parlour and bedrooms connected by a stairway.
Efficiency room- A room containing some kitchen facilities.
Hospitality suite- A parlour with a connecting bedroom, to be used by guests to entertain his own guests or for companies offering cocktails during conventions, entertaining, and trade shows. A hospitality room usually contains a bar and occasional tables as well. This type of room is let out and charged on an hourly basis.
Lanai- A room overlooking a landscaped area, a scenic view, a waterbody, or a garden. It may have a balcony, a patio, or both. This type of room is commonly found in resorts.
Parlour/Saloon- A living or sitting room; a room not used as a bedroom.
Sample Room- A display room that is used for showing merchandise. It may or may not be provided with sleeping facilities.
Family room- A room with two double beds, meant for two, three or four persons.
Penthouse- A room that opens onto the roof and may be accompanied by a swimming pool, patio, a tennis court, and other facilities and amenities.
Executive room- A room that has a large bedroom with a sitting area provided with chairs and usually a sofa and coffee table. This type of room typically has a workstation/lounge near the window. This is really a combination bedroom-cum-sitting room.
Introduction
The guestroom is the main product of a hotel, as it contributes to more than 50 per cent of the total sales, making the profit percentage from room sales very high. The ‘sale’ of a room means leasing the room for occupation for 24 hours at a pre-determined cost. Thus, a room sold on a particular day earns revenue for that day, and then it can be sold again, and again. Rooms are sometimes referred to as ‘highly perishable commodities’ as rooms not sold for the day lose out on the revenue for that day. In addition to earning revenues, guestrooms also have a role in the image-building of the hotel.
Guests may stay in a hotel for pleasure, convenience, or from necessity. Whatever the reason for the stay, the will always expect a certain standard of service and comfort. It is hence essential for each and every hotel employee to understand the importance of a guestroom for a guest. The housekeeping staff, in particular, has the responsibility of making the guestroom ‘a home away from home’ for the guest.
Importance of the guestrooms to a guest
It is extremely important to understand the expectations of a guest when he/she pays to stay in a room. People nowadays travel a lot more than they did earlier, and the expectations from hotels are constantly on the rise. In such a scenario, continuous analysis of guest expectations becomes necessary. Given that a hotel is often referred to as ‘a home away from home’, there would be similarities in a guest’s expectations from a hotel and from a home. These similarities would dictate that the guestrooms be neat, hygienic, comfortable, private, and above all, safe. The most important consideration here is staff needs to understand and respect the guest’s expectations from the guestroom and the hotel staff.
Primarily, a neat room is the basic minimum expectation of any guest, and the staff needs to ensure this by laying out fresh linen and presenting a clean room on a daily basis. The room should not only be attractive, but also comfortable and functional. Hotel guests expect a high degree of cleanliness, leading to a hygienic environment to stay in. For instance, guest that the hotel has provided them a sanitized toilet when they see a disinfected paper strip on the toilet seat.
The ‘basic necessities’ in a guestroom are constantly varying. Nowadays these may include Internet and Wi-Fi connectivity, channel music, television, temperature control, and so on. Guests also expect that they will not be disturbed often and that the location of the rooms would be such that they have a good view. Safety, as we have already mentioned, is a key factor with regard to guestrooms - guest would like the guestroom location to be safe and not accessible to one and all. The doors of a guestroom should have a double locking system operable from inside, along with strict control measures in the hotel with regard to the handling of guestroom keys and master keys. Fire-exit layouts being placed in the rooms is a necessity as well.
Irrespective of its location, a guestroom should also offer easy access to other guest service areas, such as restaurants, gymnasiums, swimming pools, and so on, with clear directions to and from the room or elevator being posted in corridors.
The guest would also expect to be able to get in touch with ancillary departments providing other services to guests from the room itself. The various services- such as room service, restaurants, housekeeping, valet, and so on- should be clearly indicated with explanation and intercom numbers in the literature on the house rules and in the information kits placed in each guestroom.
TYPES OF GUESTROOMS
It used to e customary in many hotels to have rooms of more or less the same standard throughout a property, but the trend is changing now. Guests are now being offered a choice of more expensive rooms with upgraded facilities, as well as the establishment’s standard options. Hotels now offer a wide variety of rooms catering to the needs of different types of travelers. They are as following:
Single room- A room assigned to one person, having one bed.
Twin room- A room with two beds meant for one person each.
Hollywood twin room- A with two twin beds but a common headboard, meant for two people. If so desired, the beds can be bridged together to make it appear single bed.
Double room- A room with a double bed for two persons.
Triple room- A room assigned to three people, which may have two or more beds.
Quad room- A room assigned to four people, which may have two or more beds.
Queen room- A room with a queen-size bed.
King room- A room with a king-size bed.
Double double room/Twin double family room- A room with two double beds, meant for four people.
Studio room/Extension room- A room with a studio bed.
Sico room- A room which has a Murphy or Sico bed or similar (a pull-out or convertible or foldaway bed)
Mini suite/Junior suite- A single large room with a bed and a sitting area.
Suite room- A combination of one or more bedrooms and a parlour. It may also contain a bar, a small kitchenette, and other facilities.
Connecting rooms- Rooms with individual entrance doors from the outside and a connecting door between, so that the guests can move between rooms without going through the hallway.
Adjoining rooms- Rooms with a common wall but no connecting door.
Adjacent rooms- Rooms close to each other, but not necessarily adjoining- perhaps across the hall or corridor from each other.
Cabana- A room adjacent to the pool area, with or without sleeping facilities, but with provision for relaxing in a sofa. These re mainly used for changing.
Duplex/Bi-level suite- A two-storey suite, with parlour and bedrooms connected by a stairway.
Efficiency room- A room containing some kitchen facilities.
Hospitality suite- A parlour with a connecting bedroom, to be used by guests to entertain his own guests or for companies offering cocktails during conventions, entertaining, and trade shows. A hospitality room usually contains a bar and occasional tables as well. This type of room is let out and charged on an hourly basis.
Lanai- A room overlooking a landscaped area, a scenic view, a waterbody, or a garden. It may have a balcony, a patio, or both. This type of room is commonly found in resorts.
Parlour/Saloon- A living or sitting room; a room not used as a bedroom.
Sample Room- A display room that is used for showing merchandise. It may or may not be provided with sleeping facilities.
Family room- A room with two double beds, meant for two, three or four persons.
Penthouse- A room that opens onto the roof and may be accompanied by a swimming pool, patio, a tennis court, and other facilities and amenities.
Executive room- A room that has a large bedroom with a sitting area provided with chairs and usually a sofa and coffee table. This type of room typically has a workstation/lounge near the window. This is really a combination bedroom-cum-sitting room.
Other Mechanical Equipments
General purpose floor machine :
1. SCRUBBING MACHINES: The bristle tips of brushes or surface of abrasive pads cut into the dirt and remove it.
2. BUFFING MACHINES: Bristles or brushes or surface abrasive pads create a high gloss finish to the floor. The heat generated by the revolving brushes help in the absorption of wax polishes and fixes or hardens the waxes and resins.
3. VURNISHING MACHINES: The brush/bristles cut the floor surface to create a smooth surface with a glossy finish.
4. SPRAY CLEANING/SPRAY VURNISHING MACHINE: These machines have one large or several small brushes/bristles/abrasive pads that revolve or scrub the floor. The water and detergent are released from a tank attached to the spray cleaning machine. They are used on the floors where buffable polish can be applied. It can be used for shampooing carpets, polishing floors and spray maintenance. If the no suction capacity to pick up dirty water, a wet vacuum cleaner must be used in conjunction with/along with the scrubbing machine. Usual attachments are brushes, colour abrasive pads, a water yank, a shampoo tank and a sprayer. Coloured abrasive [ads show different abrasive strength. Beige pads are used for buffing, green for scrubbing and black for striping the floor. The lighter the colour, the less abrasive the action.
5. SCARIFYING MACHINE: The bristle tips or the edge of a cutting tool cuts into impacted soilage, removing it by the means of chisel like action.
6. CARPET SHAMPOOING MACHINE:
a. Steam Extracting.
b. Cylindrical dry foam machine.
c. Rotary brush.
d. Wet shampoo machine.
e. Small rotary wet shampoo machine.
7. HIGH PRESSURE JET CLEANERS: The dirt or soil is removed for subjecting the surface to water, steam/sand under pressure.
8. ROAD SWEEPERS: Single two three brush machines are present on road streets. It can have a weight of 65 kg or more. It is used along with a scarifying machine, where the dirt impacted. The loosened dirt is removed by the sweeping action of brushes. They are ride on machines.
Points to be considered while purchasing a vacuum cleaner :
1. QUALITY OF EQUIPMENT: Ascertain the history of their use in other establishment. Test for its performance and ease of use. The suction power should be sufficient to dislodge/loosen the dirt as well as remove the dust and small debris. The suction power must be directed where required. Vacuum cleaners used between 3.5-12 Amps. This is usually displayed on the vacuum cleaner. However, some 12 amp vacuum cleaner. This is because the power does not indicate the effectiveness of the vacuum cleaner; only how much electricity is consumed. How much of the power generated is converted to air flow, determines the effectiveness of the vacuum cleaner. Thus, in addition to power, effectiveness also depends upon the design of the motor, the manner in which the system filters dirt. The height adjustment on carpet and floors and how the vacuum cleaner is maintained. Some surfaces like curtains, upholstery and other delicate fabrics require less suction power. Some vacuum cleaner can be switched to a lower suction power and other have a device on the wand or hose pipe to reduce the suction power.
2. DUST BAG: Efficiency of the dust bag. It must trap the dust as the stream of air passes through it. An HEPA can remove the majority of harmful particles including mould, spores, dust, dust mitre, pet dander and other irritating allergens from the air. True or absolute HEPA filters are able to trap at least 99.9% of the particles. They are more expensive than other HEPA filters. Check on the lifetime easy availability of dust bags. Dust bags are part of the ongoing part of the vacuum cleaner and should not be too expensive as the bags have to be changed frequently. Dust buckets may be used instead of dust bags. However cleaning dust buckets causes the dust to fall on the operator and the area around. If the dust bucket is not closed or sealed properly when the vacuum cleaner is in use, the dust can be blown out of the bucket and into the room through the outlet vent. A dust bag full indicator does not directly affect the effectiveness of the vacuum cleaner, but helps in reminding the operator to clean out the bags. Sanyo vacuum cleaners have a dust press system that compresses the dust, thus enabling it to store twice the amount of dust as other vacuum cleaner.
3. NOISE: It is environmental pollution that can affect the quality and well-being of life. Noise is measured in decibels (dB) sounds higher than 80dB is considered potentially dangerous. Tyson vacuum cleaner has noise as one of its disadvantages as some models reach above 90dB. Current models of vacuum cleaners have an installation around the motor for reducing the noise generated by the exhaust air-flow of the vacuum cleaner. It thus, acts like a silencer. Sounds louder than 80dB and length off time of exposure determine the amount of damage.
4. PRODUCTIVITY: In terms of square feet the vacuum cleaner in an hour. Air flow is measured in litres/sec or cubic feet/min (CFM). The air flow is what carries the dirt along and the better vacuum cleaners have higher l/s ratings. A poorly engineered and constructed vacuum cleaner will not have much air flow, no matter how powerful the motor is. A turbo brush is air driven while a power brush (electro brush) is driven by an electric motor. Turbo brushes work well for low to medium pile carpets, but high pile or wall-to-wall carpets probably require power brush for deeper cleaning. Washing efficiency of extractors and wet vacuum cleaners in terms of the pressure with which they inject the cleaning fluid. They come in pressure of 11PSI (pounds/square inch) to 100PSI. Similarly, the solution recovery is equally important in terms of time taken to lift the dirt and solution and to complete the task.
5. ATTACHMENTS: The most common vacuum cleaner attachments that come with the cleaner are:
a) Extensions wands or telescopic tubes: They increase the reach of vacuum cleaner to ceilings and under furniture with greater ease.
b) Crevice tools: It is narrowed at one end to clean along baseboards or skirting boards, in corners and other small areas that are missed by the normal path of vacuum cleaners.
c) Upholstery brush: The bristles are loosened hair, crumbs, etc. that get lodged between the fibres of the upholstered furniture.
d) Stair cleaning tool: Makes cleaning of the rise and treads of the carpeted stairs easier.
Others attachments may be available but may not be included with the cost of the vacuum cleaner.
E.g. 1) Blind attachment: It is slotted allowing for both sides for each slots or vein to be vacuumed at the same time.
2) Ceiling fan attachment: They are bent allowing for easy access to the top of the fan blades.
Acquiring useless attachment for the establishment is a wasteful expense and also takes up storage space. E.g. buying blind attachments when the establishment does not use blinds.
6. APPEARANCE: As the vacuum cleaner is often used in areas frequented by guests, it should have a good appearance.
7. STURDINESS OF EQUIPMENT: Vacuum cleaner with a hard shell outer case is sturdy and is protected knocks and careless handling by operators. Chrome handles for durability with venal grip for comfort and sealed needle bearings.
a) Anti-swallow guard & belt guard helps to prevent broken belts.
b) If the technology used in the vacuum cleaner is sophisticated and complex then trained skilled personnel are required for its operation. Some hotels do not put equipments like wet and dry vacuum cleaner to multiple users. You need to change ports or reset the machine to change from dry vacuuming to wet vacuuming. In case of an error, most often the motor gets burnt out incurring a cost of almost 40% of the original cost of the vacuum cleaner.
8. EASE OF USE:
a) Telescopic wands/ extension tubes
b) Variable suction indicator
c) Dust bag status indicator
d) Power head v/s Turbo head
e) Blower
f) Retractable cord
g) Lighted head to see small sharp area on the floor
h) Easy access power switch on the handle or on the main unit which can be conveniently operated by your foot.
9. WEIGHT/SIZE: The size matters. The vacuum cleaner should be light enough to carry or push from room to room. In spite of the wheels the vacuum cleaner may need to be carried. E.g. Upstairs ways/when storing it away, if the wheels have a smooth motion and the centre gravity of vacuum cleaner is nearer to the floor then it will be easy to push around. A slim body vacuum cleaner with a casing large enough to cover the dust bags and a motor compartment is a good choice.
10. PORTABILITY: Provision of wheels and detachable parts make it easier to transfer the vacuum cleaner from room to room and between floors. It is especially useful when the hotel is spread out over a large area. E.g. Motels. It reduces operator fatigue.
11. MAINTENANCE: Routine cleaning of attachments and casing and storage in specific containers or books makes for maintenance.
12. ESTABLISHMENTS SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS: Type of floor – tiles, carpeted outside pebble roads.
a) Dry vacuum cleaners used for cleaning different types of hard floors (calister type).
b) Upright vacuum cleaners used for cleaning mainly carpeted floors.
c) Back packs are useful for vertical surfaces, stairs, soft furnishing and hard to reach areas like airline seats, car interiors, etc.
d) Ride-on sweepers for sweeping road and open premises of the establishment. They operate on petrol, diesel batteries. Their productivity is 10 times more than manual sweeping. They come fitted with vacuum attachments.
e) Foot fall or traffic. For example: Airport hotels or resort hotels.
f) Client’s cleanliness requirements.
g) Budget
h) Level of automation required.
13. AFTER SALES SERVICE: It is of great importance. Terms and conditions for after sales service and availability of spare parts should be checked before selecting an equipment or company. It is important to deal with suppliers who understood the kind of problems faced by Housekeeping department when machinery breakdown, rather than deal with suppliers who may after a 5% discount but also not respond to calls regarding the effective working of the machinery once the sale has been completed. Thus, the kind of security the contract offers and the equipment distributor’s willingness to support in case of eventuality is important. Most equipment dealers do not spend enough time training the actual users. An arrangement with the machinery dealers with regard to this matter would be beneficial.
14. USER FRIENDLY EQUIPMENT: The biggest problem faced is the lack of trained personnel as cleaning is considered a menial job in India. Most of the employees take it as stop-gap arrangements. Turnover rate of cleaning personnel is very high and very often people without any experience or knowledge of this job are employed. Because of this situation the machines are badly operated which results in malfunction & damage to the equipment. The usual complaint is that nobody cleans the equipment after use. School drop outs working on these machines look on these equipments as tedious and time consuming. E.g. A broom requires no cleaning after used while these machines need cleaning and need to store it. The machines are high heavy, making it more uninviting to the workers.
15. WARRANTY: It is a promise either written or implied that the material or workman ship of a product is defect free or will meet a specified level of performances over a specified period of time. Thus, it is a protection plan that protects the buyer against major repairs & breakdown for a given period. Warranties are assigned to specific items and do not include breakages or malfunction due to operator negligence. The warranty must bear the rubber stamp, the date of purchase and sign of the authorised dealer or else the warranty is not valid. It is valid on the date mentioned on the card for the time specified by the company.
16. CARE & STORAGE OF VACUUM CLEANER:
i. Change the dust bag whenever required preferably after the indicator shows. In wet vacuum cleaner, empty out the dust bucket after use.
ii. Clean the attachments in soap & water whenever required. Clean bristles after every use. Remove hair, any particles lodged between them after every use.
iii. Check the hose pipes for cut or break to reduce the suction power of vacuum cleaner.
iv. Check the electric cords for frayed edges and untangle knots.
v. Telescopic tubes/wands should be checked for rusting (if metal) which will prevent it to be used effectively.
vi. Remove any fibres/hair from the wheels. Oil the wheels to keep it moving smoothly.
vii. Store the vacuum cleaner and attachments in dry and clean area. The attachments should be stored in boxes/compartments if provided. The pores and hose-pipes are hung on hooks. The casing should be wiped with a damp duster after use. It should be regularly serviced. Free servicing offered during the warranty period should be utilised.
Areas of Responsibility of Housekeeping Department
Baby Sitting: If a guest makes a request for this facility, room maids may undertake to do babysitting after their regular shift or professional baby sitters are arranged for by the H.K department. The guest is charged for this facility by the hour.
Lost & Found: Any guest article found in the guestrooms or public areas is kept in the possession of the H.K department till a guest makes a claim for it. Perishables are kept for 6 months to a year.
Contract Services: Laundry, landscaping pest control, cleaning from outside of the hotel building, car washing, painting, of the building, shampooing of carpets, dry-cleaning of upholstery, are some of the cleaning and maintenance services that are outsourced by the H.K department.
Refurbishment and Decoration: Refurbishments implies complete renovation when soft and hard furnishings are changed, colour scheme and decor may be changed. Sometimes even structural changes are brought about. It is undertaken every 3-5 years, floor wise. Redecoration, on the other hand is done on a basis as and when required.
Any Special Decoration: Parties hosted by the hotel for e.g. Independence Day party, Christmas party, New York party, anniversaries of the hotel, food festivals, etc. all require special decor. This decor is looked after by the H.K department in co-ordination with food service department and maintenance department.
Purchase: The executive housekeeper is responsible for the purchase of cleaning agents, cleaning equipments, linen, guestroom essentials, complimentaries, uniforms, etc. All large chain hotels may have a central purchase department through which room supplies are obtained on monthly or quarterly basis.
Budgeting: Annual budget is presented by the executive H.K in January for the forthcoming financial year. The factors to be considered while drawing up of a budget are: Previous year’s budget+10% inflation+ refurbishment plans+any other capital expenditure+expected occupancy for the year.
Duty rotas/Roasters: Shift timings and weekly day-off of all housekeeping employees is decided by the executive housekeeping.
Interview, Selection, Induction, Training and Performance Appraisals: The executive housekeeper is responsible for the final selection and training of all the H.K staff. Performance appraisals are drawn up annually for permanent employees, quarterly on probation and monthly for industrial training.
General purpose floor machine :
1. SCRUBBING MACHINES: The bristle tips of brushes or surface of abrasive pads cut into the dirt and remove it.
2. BUFFING MACHINES: Bristles or brushes or surface abrasive pads create a high gloss finish to the floor. The heat generated by the revolving brushes help in the absorption of wax polishes and fixes or hardens the waxes and resins.
3. VURNISHING MACHINES: The brush/bristles cut the floor surface to create a smooth surface with a glossy finish.
4. SPRAY CLEANING/SPRAY VURNISHING MACHINE: These machines have one large or several small brushes/bristles/abrasive pads that revolve or scrub the floor. The water and detergent are released from a tank attached to the spray cleaning machine. They are used on the floors where buffable polish can be applied. It can be used for shampooing carpets, polishing floors and spray maintenance. If the no suction capacity to pick up dirty water, a wet vacuum cleaner must be used in conjunction with/along with the scrubbing machine. Usual attachments are brushes, colour abrasive pads, a water yank, a shampoo tank and a sprayer. Coloured abrasive [ads show different abrasive strength. Beige pads are used for buffing, green for scrubbing and black for striping the floor. The lighter the colour, the less abrasive the action.
5. SCARIFYING MACHINE: The bristle tips or the edge of a cutting tool cuts into impacted soilage, removing it by the means of chisel like action.
6. CARPET SHAMPOOING MACHINE:
a. Steam Extracting.
b. Cylindrical dry foam machine.
c. Rotary brush.
d. Wet shampoo machine.
e. Small rotary wet shampoo machine.
7. HIGH PRESSURE JET CLEANERS: The dirt or soil is removed for subjecting the surface to water, steam/sand under pressure.
8. ROAD SWEEPERS: Single two three brush machines are present on road streets. It can have a weight of 65 kg or more. It is used along with a scarifying machine, where the dirt impacted. The loosened dirt is removed by the sweeping action of brushes. They are ride on machines.
Points to be considered while purchasing a vacuum cleaner :
1. QUALITY OF EQUIPMENT: Ascertain the history of their use in other establishment. Test for its performance and ease of use. The suction power should be sufficient to dislodge/loosen the dirt as well as remove the dust and small debris. The suction power must be directed where required. Vacuum cleaners used between 3.5-12 Amps. This is usually displayed on the vacuum cleaner. However, some 12 amp vacuum cleaner. This is because the power does not indicate the effectiveness of the vacuum cleaner; only how much electricity is consumed. How much of the power generated is converted to air flow, determines the effectiveness of the vacuum cleaner. Thus, in addition to power, effectiveness also depends upon the design of the motor, the manner in which the system filters dirt. The height adjustment on carpet and floors and how the vacuum cleaner is maintained. Some surfaces like curtains, upholstery and other delicate fabrics require less suction power. Some vacuum cleaner can be switched to a lower suction power and other have a device on the wand or hose pipe to reduce the suction power.
2. DUST BAG: Efficiency of the dust bag. It must trap the dust as the stream of air passes through it. An HEPA can remove the majority of harmful particles including mould, spores, dust, dust mitre, pet dander and other irritating allergens from the air. True or absolute HEPA filters are able to trap at least 99.9% of the particles. They are more expensive than other HEPA filters. Check on the lifetime easy availability of dust bags. Dust bags are part of the ongoing part of the vacuum cleaner and should not be too expensive as the bags have to be changed frequently. Dust buckets may be used instead of dust bags. However cleaning dust buckets causes the dust to fall on the operator and the area around. If the dust bucket is not closed or sealed properly when the vacuum cleaner is in use, the dust can be blown out of the bucket and into the room through the outlet vent. A dust bag full indicator does not directly affect the effectiveness of the vacuum cleaner, but helps in reminding the operator to clean out the bags. Sanyo vacuum cleaners have a dust press system that compresses the dust, thus enabling it to store twice the amount of dust as other vacuum cleaner.
3. NOISE: It is environmental pollution that can affect the quality and well-being of life. Noise is measured in decibels (dB) sounds higher than 80dB is considered potentially dangerous. Tyson vacuum cleaner has noise as one of its disadvantages as some models reach above 90dB. Current models of vacuum cleaners have an installation around the motor for reducing the noise generated by the exhaust air-flow of the vacuum cleaner. It thus, acts like a silencer. Sounds louder than 80dB and length off time of exposure determine the amount of damage.
4. PRODUCTIVITY: In terms of square feet the vacuum cleaner in an hour. Air flow is measured in litres/sec or cubic feet/min (CFM). The air flow is what carries the dirt along and the better vacuum cleaners have higher l/s ratings. A poorly engineered and constructed vacuum cleaner will not have much air flow, no matter how powerful the motor is. A turbo brush is air driven while a power brush (electro brush) is driven by an electric motor. Turbo brushes work well for low to medium pile carpets, but high pile or wall-to-wall carpets probably require power brush for deeper cleaning. Washing efficiency of extractors and wet vacuum cleaners in terms of the pressure with which they inject the cleaning fluid. They come in pressure of 11PSI (pounds/square inch) to 100PSI. Similarly, the solution recovery is equally important in terms of time taken to lift the dirt and solution and to complete the task.
5. ATTACHMENTS: The most common vacuum cleaner attachments that come with the cleaner are:
a) Extensions wands or telescopic tubes: They increase the reach of vacuum cleaner to ceilings and under furniture with greater ease.
b) Crevice tools: It is narrowed at one end to clean along baseboards or skirting boards, in corners and other small areas that are missed by the normal path of vacuum cleaners.
c) Upholstery brush: The bristles are loosened hair, crumbs, etc. that get lodged between the fibres of the upholstered furniture.
d) Stair cleaning tool: Makes cleaning of the rise and treads of the carpeted stairs easier.
Others attachments may be available but may not be included with the cost of the vacuum cleaner.
E.g. 1) Blind attachment: It is slotted allowing for both sides for each slots or vein to be vacuumed at the same time.
2) Ceiling fan attachment: They are bent allowing for easy access to the top of the fan blades.
Acquiring useless attachment for the establishment is a wasteful expense and also takes up storage space. E.g. buying blind attachments when the establishment does not use blinds.
6. APPEARANCE: As the vacuum cleaner is often used in areas frequented by guests, it should have a good appearance.
7. STURDINESS OF EQUIPMENT: Vacuum cleaner with a hard shell outer case is sturdy and is protected knocks and careless handling by operators. Chrome handles for durability with venal grip for comfort and sealed needle bearings.
a) Anti-swallow guard & belt guard helps to prevent broken belts.
b) If the technology used in the vacuum cleaner is sophisticated and complex then trained skilled personnel are required for its operation. Some hotels do not put equipments like wet and dry vacuum cleaner to multiple users. You need to change ports or reset the machine to change from dry vacuuming to wet vacuuming. In case of an error, most often the motor gets burnt out incurring a cost of almost 40% of the original cost of the vacuum cleaner.
8. EASE OF USE:
a) Telescopic wands/ extension tubes
b) Variable suction indicator
c) Dust bag status indicator
d) Power head v/s Turbo head
e) Blower
f) Retractable cord
g) Lighted head to see small sharp area on the floor
h) Easy access power switch on the handle or on the main unit which can be conveniently operated by your foot.
9. WEIGHT/SIZE: The size matters. The vacuum cleaner should be light enough to carry or push from room to room. In spite of the wheels the vacuum cleaner may need to be carried. E.g. Upstairs ways/when storing it away, if the wheels have a smooth motion and the centre gravity of vacuum cleaner is nearer to the floor then it will be easy to push around. A slim body vacuum cleaner with a casing large enough to cover the dust bags and a motor compartment is a good choice.
10. PORTABILITY: Provision of wheels and detachable parts make it easier to transfer the vacuum cleaner from room to room and between floors. It is especially useful when the hotel is spread out over a large area. E.g. Motels. It reduces operator fatigue.
11. MAINTENANCE: Routine cleaning of attachments and casing and storage in specific containers or books makes for maintenance.
12. ESTABLISHMENTS SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS: Type of floor – tiles, carpeted outside pebble roads.
a) Dry vacuum cleaners used for cleaning different types of hard floors (calister type).
b) Upright vacuum cleaners used for cleaning mainly carpeted floors.
c) Back packs are useful for vertical surfaces, stairs, soft furnishing and hard to reach areas like airline seats, car interiors, etc.
d) Ride-on sweepers for sweeping road and open premises of the establishment. They operate on petrol, diesel batteries. Their productivity is 10 times more than manual sweeping. They come fitted with vacuum attachments.
e) Foot fall or traffic. For example: Airport hotels or resort hotels.
f) Client’s cleanliness requirements.
g) Budget
h) Level of automation required.
13. AFTER SALES SERVICE: It is of great importance. Terms and conditions for after sales service and availability of spare parts should be checked before selecting an equipment or company. It is important to deal with suppliers who understood the kind of problems faced by Housekeeping department when machinery breakdown, rather than deal with suppliers who may after a 5% discount but also not respond to calls regarding the effective working of the machinery once the sale has been completed. Thus, the kind of security the contract offers and the equipment distributor’s willingness to support in case of eventuality is important. Most equipment dealers do not spend enough time training the actual users. An arrangement with the machinery dealers with regard to this matter would be beneficial.
14. USER FRIENDLY EQUIPMENT: The biggest problem faced is the lack of trained personnel as cleaning is considered a menial job in India. Most of the employees take it as stop-gap arrangements. Turnover rate of cleaning personnel is very high and very often people without any experience or knowledge of this job are employed. Because of this situation the machines are badly operated which results in malfunction & damage to the equipment. The usual complaint is that nobody cleans the equipment after use. School drop outs working on these machines look on these equipments as tedious and time consuming. E.g. A broom requires no cleaning after used while these machines need cleaning and need to store it. The machines are high heavy, making it more uninviting to the workers.
15. WARRANTY: It is a promise either written or implied that the material or workman ship of a product is defect free or will meet a specified level of performances over a specified period of time. Thus, it is a protection plan that protects the buyer against major repairs & breakdown for a given period. Warranties are assigned to specific items and do not include breakages or malfunction due to operator negligence. The warranty must bear the rubber stamp, the date of purchase and sign of the authorised dealer or else the warranty is not valid. It is valid on the date mentioned on the card for the time specified by the company.
16. CARE & STORAGE OF VACUUM CLEANER:
i. Change the dust bag whenever required preferably after the indicator shows. In wet vacuum cleaner, empty out the dust bucket after use.
ii. Clean the attachments in soap & water whenever required. Clean bristles after every use. Remove hair, any particles lodged between them after every use.
iii. Check the hose pipes for cut or break to reduce the suction power of vacuum cleaner.
iv. Check the electric cords for frayed edges and untangle knots.
v. Telescopic tubes/wands should be checked for rusting (if metal) which will prevent it to be used effectively.
vi. Remove any fibres/hair from the wheels. Oil the wheels to keep it moving smoothly.
vii. Store the vacuum cleaner and attachments in dry and clean area. The attachments should be stored in boxes/compartments if provided. The pores and hose-pipes are hung on hooks. The casing should be wiped with a damp duster after use. It should be regularly serviced. Free servicing offered during the warranty period should be utilised.
Areas of Responsibility of Housekeeping Department
Baby Sitting: If a guest makes a request for this facility, room maids may undertake to do babysitting after their regular shift or professional baby sitters are arranged for by the H.K department. The guest is charged for this facility by the hour.
Lost & Found: Any guest article found in the guestrooms or public areas is kept in the possession of the H.K department till a guest makes a claim for it. Perishables are kept for 6 months to a year.
Contract Services: Laundry, landscaping pest control, cleaning from outside of the hotel building, car washing, painting, of the building, shampooing of carpets, dry-cleaning of upholstery, are some of the cleaning and maintenance services that are outsourced by the H.K department.
Refurbishment and Decoration: Refurbishments implies complete renovation when soft and hard furnishings are changed, colour scheme and decor may be changed. Sometimes even structural changes are brought about. It is undertaken every 3-5 years, floor wise. Redecoration, on the other hand is done on a basis as and when required.
Any Special Decoration: Parties hosted by the hotel for e.g. Independence Day party, Christmas party, New York party, anniversaries of the hotel, food festivals, etc. all require special decor. This decor is looked after by the H.K department in co-ordination with food service department and maintenance department.
Purchase: The executive housekeeper is responsible for the purchase of cleaning agents, cleaning equipments, linen, guestroom essentials, complimentaries, uniforms, etc. All large chain hotels may have a central purchase department through which room supplies are obtained on monthly or quarterly basis.
Budgeting: Annual budget is presented by the executive H.K in January for the forthcoming financial year. The factors to be considered while drawing up of a budget are: Previous year’s budget+10% inflation+ refurbishment plans+any other capital expenditure+expected occupancy for the year.
Duty rotas/Roasters: Shift timings and weekly day-off of all housekeeping employees is decided by the executive housekeeping.
Interview, Selection, Induction, Training and Performance Appraisals: The executive housekeeper is responsible for the final selection and training of all the H.K staff. Performance appraisals are drawn up annually for permanent employees, quarterly on probation and monthly for industrial training.
Organizational Structure of the Housekeeping Department
Organization is the process of identifying and grouping the work to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority, and establishing relationships for the purpose of enabling people to work more effectively in accomplishing objectives. If the whole establishment has to work as one unit, it is important that there are clear lines of authority and good lines of communication. The organizational structure of a housekeeping department – whether in a small, medium, or large hotel – is depicted using an organization chart. An organization chart is a schematic representation of the relationships between positions within an establishment, showing where each position fits into the overall organization and illustrating the divisions of responsibility and lines of authority.
The housekeeping department in a hotel is headed by the executive housekeeper. She/he reports to the general manager, or to the resident manager, or the rooms division manager in a larger hotel. In the case of a chain of hotels, the executive housekeeper also reports to the director of housekeeping, who heads the housekeeping departments in all the hotels of that chain. The deputy housekeeper assists the executive housekeeper and, depending on the size of the property, there can also be assistant housekeepers who look after the various areas of responsibility in the hotel, that is, floors, public areas, the linen room, and desk control.
Then there are supervisors in each of these sections, who report to the respective assistant housekeepers. The floor and public area supervisors are responsible for getting the guestrooms and public areas, the linen room, and desk control.
Then there are supervisors in each of these sections, who report to the respective assistant housekeepers. The floor and public area supervisors are responsible for getting the guestrooms and public areas cleaned. The linen room supervisor is responsible for coordinating all the housekeeping activities and liaising with the other departments of the hotel. Attendants and housepersons (also referred to as housemen) departments of the hotel. Attendants and housepersons (also referred to as housemen) report to the supervisors.
The horticulturist has gardeners reporting to him/her. He/she reports to the executive housekeeper. Normally, this area is framed out on contract.
Fig. 2.1 (a) Organization chart of housekeeping department in a small hotel
The laundry manager also reports to the executive housekeeper. He has laundry workers reporting to him. Laundry may also be given out on contract.
The organizational structure varies to some extent with different hotels. Therefore, organization charts are presented here for small (Figure 2.1), medium-sized (Figure 2.2), and large (Figure 2.3) hotels.
Fig. 2.1 (a) Organization chart of a housekeeping department in a small-sized hotel
Fig 2.2 (a) Organization chart of a housekeeping department in a medium-sized hotel
Fig. 2.2 (b) Organization chart of a housekeeping in a medium-sized hotel
Fig. 2.3 (a) Organization chart of the housekeeping department in a large hotel
Fig. 2.3 (b) Organization chart of a housekeeping department in a large hotel
HOUSEKEEPING PERSONNEL
Housekeeping staff can be divided into three categories:
Managerial Executive housekeeper, head housekeeper.
Supervisor Assistant housekeeper, floor housekeeper, linen room supervisor, public area supervisor, and so on.
Unskilled Room attendants, housepersons, cloakroom attendants etc.
Executive Housekeeper/Director of Housekeeping
The executive housekeepers reports to the general manager, or the resident manager, or the rooms division manager. She is responsible and accountable for the total cleanliness and aesthetic upkeep of the hotel. She supervises all housekeeping employees, has the authority to hire or discharge subordinates, plans and assigns work assignments, informs new employees of property regulations, inspects completed assignments, and requisition supplies.
Duties and responsibilities The executive housekeeper is expected to
• Organize, supervise, and coordinate the work of housekeeping personnel on a day – to – day basis.
• Ensure excellence in housekeeping sanitation, safety, comfort and aesthetics for hotel guests.
• Draw up duty rosters and supervise the discipline and conduct of her staff.
• Assure proper communication within the department by conducting regular meetings with all personnel.
• Hire new employees, warn employees when hotel policies are violated, and discharge employees when necessary.
• Counsel employees on various duties and on work-related issues.
• Motivate her staff and keep their morale high.
• Establish and maintain standard operating procedures for cleaning and to initiate new procedures to increase the efficiency of labour and product use.
• Search constantly for and test new techniques and products.
• Maintain an inventory of the furniture, linen and movable equipment in the rooms and related premises and to ensure they are regularly checked.
• Organize maintenance and repair of guestrooms.
• Deal with articles that a guest may have left behind in a room.
• Ensure the provision of proper uniforms for the hotel staff.
• Ensure observance of hygiene and safety precautions.
• Offer suggestions to human resource department concerning selection recruitment, replacement, duty alterations, upgradation, and so on.
• Evaluate employees in order to upgrade them when openings arise.
• Organize and supervise on-the-job and off-the-job training of staff.
• Liaise between the maintenance and housekeeping departments.
• Inspect and approve all supply requisitions for the housekeeping department, and to maintain par stock, inventory control, and cost-control procedures for all materials.
• Check the reports filed and registers maintained.
• Maintain a time logbook for all employees within the department.
• Be responsible for the redecoration and refurbishing of rooms, lobbies and so on.
• Provide a budget to the management, and undertake budget control and forecasting.
Deputy Housekeeper
The deputy housekeeper reports to the executive housekeeper or the director of housekeeping. Large hotels may have a deputy housekeeper to whom the assistant housekeepers report. In smaller hotels, there may be either an assistant housekeeper or a deputy housekeeper reporting to the executive housekeeper.
Duties and responsibilities The deputy housekeeper is expected to
• Check and ensure that all guestrooms, public areas, and ‘back-of-the-house’ areas are clean and well maintained.
• Inspect the work done by contractors- for example, pest control, laundry, window cleaning, and so on.
• Prepare staff schedules and duty rotas.
• Ensure periodical stock-taking and maintaining of stock records for linen, uniforms and equipment.
• Provide the necessary information to and assist the executive officer in staff appraisal, disciplining, termination and promotion.
• Develop and implement training programmes within the housekeeping department in consultation with the executive housekeeper.
• Assist the executive housekeeper in forecasting and budgeting for operating and capital expenditures.
• Take charge of the housekeeping department in the absence of the executive housekeeper.
Assistant Housekeeper/ Housekeeping Manager
The assistant housekeeper usually reports to the executive housekeeper. In hotels where an additional senior position of deputy housekeeper exists, the assistant housekeepers may report to the deputy housekeeper. Generally hotels employ one assistant housekeeper per 50-60 rooms. There may be just one assistant housekeeper under the executive housekeeper in a medium sized hotel or one for each shift in a large hotel. In large hotels the responsibilities for the floors, public areas, linen room, and control room are divided among assistant housekeepers. Essentially, the assistant housekeep manages the resources provided by the executive housekeeper to achieve the objectives of cleanliness, maintenance, and attractiveness during a given shift. His/her responsibility involves the daily supervision of specific areas within the hotel. In the absence of the deputy housekeeper, all the above- mentioned duties and responsibilities are taken over by the assistant housekeeper.
Duties and responsibilities The assistant housekeeper is expected to
• Be responsible for the efficient and orderly management of cleaning, servicing, and repairing guest rooms.
• Be responsible for the hotel linen and check its movements and its distribution to room attendants.
• Keep an inventory of all housekeeping supplies and check it regularly.
• Assist the room attendants in their work.
• Provide the front office with a list of rooms ready for allotment to guests.
• Organize the flower arrangements.
• Arrange the training of staff and substitute for the executive housekeeper in case of his/her absence.
• Update record books, registers, and files.
• Compile the maids’ roster.
• Check the VIP and OOO ( out-of order) rooms.
Floor Housekeepers/ Floor Supervisors
The floor housekeeper reports to the assistant housekeeper and executive housekeeper. Floor housekeepers have final responsibility for the condition of the guestrooms. Each floor housekeeper is assigned three or more floors. She gives the room attendants their room assignments and floor master keys, which are returned at the end of the day. She checks, supervises, and approves the attendants’ work and makes periodical inspection of the physical condition of all rooms on the floor.
Duties and responsibilities The floor housekeeper is expected to
• Supervise the handing over of soiled linen to the laundry and the requisitioning of
fresh ones from housekeeping
• Ensure supple of equipment and maintenance and cleaning supplies to floors and public areas.
• Issue floor keys to room attendants
• Supervise spring cleaning
• Report on maintenance work on her floor
• Coordinate with room service for cleaning.
• Maintain par stock for the respective floors.
• Coordinate with the front office manager.
• Facilitate the provision of extra services to guests, such as baby sitters, hot water bottles, and so on, on request.
• Immediately report on any safety or security hazard to the security department or to the management.
• Check on scanty baggage.
• Prepare housekeeping status reports.
• Supervise cleaning on the allotted floors and areas – including guestrooms, corridors, staircases, and floor pantries of allotted floors.
• Report on standards of individual staff performance.
Public Area Supervisors
The public area supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. Public areas are the ‘front of the house’ areas such as the entrance, lobby, guest corridors, and so on. Since much of the public-area cleaning is done in the night, good coordination with the night supervisor is essential in this role.
Duties and responsibilities The Public area supervisor is expected to
• Ensure that all public areas and other functional areas are kept clean at all times.
• Organize special cleaning of public areas.
• Ensure that all maintenance jobs are attended to in coordination with the maintenance department.
• Ensure that flower arrangements are placed in appropriate places in public areas.
• Ensure that banquet halls and conference halls are kept ready for functions and conferences.
Night Supervisor
The night supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. He supervises all night staff engaged in the cleaning of public areas and guestrooms in the hotels.
Duties and responsibilities The night supervisor is expected to
• Ensure that all public areas are thoroughly cleaned at night, which is the only time when traffic is low.
• Clear departure rooms to the front office if necessary.
• Plan the order of work according to priority and direct staff accordingly.
• Make sure that departure room s are serviced and made ready as soon as
possible in order that reception may re-let at any time.
• Organize special cleaning of rooms as required.
• Anticipate guests’ requirements at all times, thereby ensuring comfort and
satisfaction.
• See that all lost-and found articles are deposited with the control desk.
• Ensure that submission of room attendants’ reports and the room status reports.
• Help with training of staff.
• Report any safety or security hazards.
Evening Shift Supervisor
Evening Shift Supervisors are required for the floors. Public areas, and control room.
They report to the assistant housekeeper.
Duties and responsibilities An Evening Shift Supervisor is expected to
• Check all log entries and ensure they are followed up.
• Ensure all keys are deposited back before taking over the shift.
• Ensure all cleaning of rooms that were not serviced in the morning – rooms with a ‘do not disturb’ (DND), double locked (DL), or refused service status.
• Ensure all departure rooms are cleaned and released to the front office as soon as possible.
• Ensure that the turned down service is carried out for all rooms.
• Ensure public areas are kept clean at all times.
Linen Room Supervisor/Linen Keeper
The linen room supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. She supervises the work of linen room and may have several linen attendants to assist her in providing clean presentable linen throughout the house.
Duties and responsibilities The linen room supervisor is expected to
• Be responsible for the entire hotel’s linen.
• Send dirty linen to the laundry after checking them piece by piece.
• Check laundered linen before giving it for ironing.
• Put away linen neatly once it has been washed, ironed, and mended.
• Hand out linen to various departments on presentation of vouchers signed by the heads of the respective department.
• Maintain a register of linen movements and check the linen regularly.
• Look after the ironing and laundering of guests’ clothes and the uniforms of the hotel staff.
• Supervise the work of the linen attendants and tailors.
• Make suggestions relating to replacement purchases.
Uniform Room Supervisor
A uniform room supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. He/she is responsible for the
maintenance of hotel staff uniforms.
Duties and responsibilities The Uniform Room Supervisor is expected to
• Be responsible for providing clean, serviceable uniforms to the staff of the hotel.
• Keep an inventory control of various uniforms in various stages of use- such as when sorted ones are handed over, or which are being washed or dry cleaned in the laundry, or those on the person of the staff, or those in store for future issue.
• Set the budget for the procurement of additional material of staff uniform.
Linen Room Attendant / Linen Room Maid
Linen Room Attendant reports to the linen room supervisor.
Duties and responsibilities The linen room attendant is expected to
• Be responsible for sorting all the sheets, pillowcases, towels, table cloths, napkins, and so on into separate stacks.
• Issue clean linen on a clean-for soiled basis.
• Place soiled linen in containers and send these to the laundry.
• Examine and count each item when they are sent to the laundry and again on their return.
• Shelve laundered linen after verifying the number and type of articles.
• Send torn articles to the seamstress for repair.
• Maintain proper records of discards and determine the percentage of discards.
Uniform Room Attendant
A uniform room attendant reports to the uniform room supervisor. He/she is in actual contact
with the staff for issuing uniforms.
Duties and responsibilities The uniform room attendant is expected to
• Issue clean uniforms while receiving soiled ones.
• Send soiled uniforms for laundering.
• Examine the laundered items to ensure cleanliness and serviceability.
• Send torn uniforms to the seamstress for mending
• Keep a count of uniforms.
• Shelve laundered uniforms after verifying the types of articles.
• Count and record linen to fill requisitions.
Storekeeper
A storekeeper reports to the linen room supervisor. In large hotels, a storekeeper may be
appointed to a full-time position.
Duties and responsibilities A storekeeper is expected to
• Control the stock of equipment.
• Store cleaning materials and agents
• Issue equipment and cleaning materials as per demand.
• Prepare requisitions for used-up materials and new products for the approval of the executive housekeeper.
• Liaise with the purchase department for the procurement of approved materials.
Control Desk Supervisor/Control Room Supervisor
The control desk supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. The control room or control desk is the nerve centre of the housekeeping department. The desk is manned 24 hours a day. Since the control desk is the hub of information dissemination in housekeeping, the control desk supervisor is a critical person in housekeeping operations.
Duties and Responsibilities The control desk supervisor is expected to
• Coordinate with the front office for information on departure rooms and handing over of clean rooms
• Coordinate with other departments for smooth functioning and efficiency
• Receive complaints on maintenance and housekeeping
• Maintain registers kept at the control desk
• Receive special requests from guests
• Act as a pivotal person in receiving and disseminating information amongst housekeeping staff
• Maintain the latest reports regarding room occupancy, VIPs, status of rooms and so on, so that work can be delegated to attendants and supervisors accordingly
• Attend to all phone calls received at the control desk
• Be responsible for guestroom keys given to room attendants and to store the keys and maintain a key register
Guestroom Attendants/Room Maids/Chamber Maids
Guest room attendants (GRAs) report to the floor supervisor (or the night supervisor, in case of night room attendants). In small hotels, they may report to the assistant housekeeper directly. Generally hotels employ one room maid per 12-15 rooms. The room attendants’/maids’ work is of great importance because it contributes in a big way to the comfort of guest and hence their impression of the hotel, and this includes making beds, coping with linen supplies, and general cleaning. Nowadays most hotels use the term ‘attendant’ rather than ‘maid’ since men have entered this arena earlier dominated by women.
Duties and responsibilities A room attendant is expected to
• Clean and tidy rooms as per the sanitary regulations assigned
• Change guestroom and bathroom linen
• Make guestroom beds
• Replenish guest supplies
• Answer guests’ summons promptly
Uniform Room Supervisor
A uniform room supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. He/she is responsible for the assistant housekeeper. He/She is responsible for the maintenance of hotel staff uniforms.
Duties and responsibilities The uniform supervisor is expected to
• Be responsible for providing clean, serviceable uniforms to the staff of the hotel.
• Keep an inventory control of various uniforms in various stages of use-such as when sorted ones are handed over, or which are being washed or dry-cleaned in the laundry, or those on the person of the staff, or those in store for future issue
• Set the budget for the procurement of additional material for staff uniforms
Linen Room Attendant/ Linen Room Maid
Linen room attendants report to the linen room supervisor
Duties and responsibilities The linen room attendant is expected to
• be responsible for sorting all the sheets, pillowcases, towels, table cloths, napkins, and so on into separate stacks
• issue clean linen on a clean-for-soiled basis
• placed soiled linen in containers and send these to the laundry
• examine and count each item when they are sent to the laundry and again on their return
• shelve laundered linen after verifying the number and type of articles
• send torn articles to the seamstress for repair
• maintain proper records of discards and determine the percentage of discards
Uniform Room Attendant
A uniform room attendant reports to the uniform room supervisor. He/She is in actual contact with the staff for the issue of uniforms
Duties and responsibilities A uniform room attendant is expected to
• issue clean uniforms while receiving soiled ones
• send soiled uniforms for laundering
• examine the laundered items to ensure cleanliness and serviceability
• send torn uniforms to the seamstress for mending
• keep a count of uniforms
• shelve laundered uniforms after verifying the types of articles
• count and record linen to fill requisitions
Storekeeper
A storekeeper reports to the linen room supervisor. In large hotels, a storekeeper may be appointed to a full-time position
Duties and responsibilities A storekeeper is expected to
• control the stock of equipment
• store cleaning materials and agents
• issue equipment and cleaning material as per demand
• prepare requisitions for used-up materials and new products for the approval of the executive housekeeper
• liaise with the purchase department for the procurement of approved materials
Control Desk Supervisor/Control Room Supervisor
The control desk supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. The control room or control desk is the nerve centre of the housekeeping department. The desk is manned 24 hours a day. Since the control desk is the hub of information dissemination in housekeeping, the control desk supervisor is a critical person in housekeeping operations
Duties and responsibilities The control desk supervisor is expected to
• coordinate with the front office for information on departure rooms and handing over of clean rooms
• coordinate with other departments for smooth functioning and efficiency
• receive complaints on maintenance and housekeeping
• maintain registers kept at the control desk
• receive special request from guests
• act as a pivotal person in receiving and disseminating information amongst housekeeping staff
• Maintain the latest reports regarding room occupancy, VIPs, status of rooms, and so on, so that work can be delegated to attendants and supervisors accordingly.
• Attend to all phone calls received at the control desk
• Be responsible for guestroom keys given to room attendants and to store the keys and maintain a key register
Guestroom Attendants/Room Maids/Chamber Maids
Guest room attendants (GRAs) report to the floor supervisor (or the night supervisor, in case of night room attendants). In small hotels, they may report to the assistant housekeeper directly. Generally hotels employ one room maid per 12-15 rooms. The room attendants’/maids’ work is of great importance because it contributes in a big way to the comfort of guests and hence their impression of the hotel. Their day consists of servicing each room to the required standard of the hotel, and this includes making beds, coping with linen supplies, and general cleaning. Nowadays most hotels use the term ‘attendant’ rather than ‘maid’ since men have entered this arena earlier dominated by women
Duties and responsibilities A room attendant is expected to
• clean and tidy rooms as per sanitary regulations assigned
• change guestroom and bathroom linen
• make guestroom beds
• replenish great supplies
• answer guests’ summons promptly
• be responsible for getting guest laundry processed
• undertake the evening check of rooms and provide the turn-down service
• check and secure rooms
• hand over to the housekeeper any article which a guest might have left behind in a room
• replenish the maid’s cart with guest supplies, cleaning agents, and linen
Head Houseperson
He/She reports to the public area supervisor. In some organizations, he/she may report directly to the executive housekeeper or assistant housekeeper, and is in charge of the housemen/housepersons.
Duties and responsibilities the head houseperson is expected to
• Supervise the work allotted to housepersons, especially those in the public areas.
• Supervise the work of people who clean the carpets, wall washers, and window washers
• Supervise the work of drapery men, heavy vacuum machine operators for general cleaning, chandelier cleaners, and workers responsible for relamping.
• Supervise the work of furniture men, floor en, and warehouse men
Houseporters/Housepersons
The housepersons report to the head houseperson or the public area supervisor. The houseperson’s job involves heavy physical work as assigned, such as carpet cleaning, window cleaning, carrying heavy pieces of furniture, washing public areas, garbage clearance, and also complementing the work of room attendants on guest floors.
Duties and responsibilities A houseperson is expected to
• Clean carpets
• Shift beds, chairs, and other heavy furniture
• Cart linen to and from floors
• Clean the swimming pool
• Clean garden paths and such outdoor surfaces
• Clear out the garbage
• Polish all brasswire
• Help room attendants in their work in guestrooms
• Clean all doors, windows, and ventilators
• Take down and re-hang curtains as needed
• Clean fire-fighting equipment
• Keep the fire buckets filled with sand
• Take on heavy cleaning of areas such as shafts and terraces
• Wash walls, draperies, chandeliers, and other hard-to-reach areas
Tailors, Seamstresses, and Upholsterers
They report to the linen room supervisor. They are responsible for mending and stitching uniforms, linen, and upholstery, respectively. The upholsterers also replenish upholstery that require replacement
Duties and responsibilities This group of staff is expected to
• Mend all damaged linen using methods such as patching
• Mend all damaged uniforms and alter uniforms if required
• Make pads from used mattress pads for the burnishing of silver
• Stitch pillowcases if required
• Refurnish all damaged upholstery
• Repair guests’ clothes if damaged
• Estimate the requirement of materials and request the linen room supervisor to place a requisition at the stores
• Draw material from the stores and take these to the tailoring room.
Cloakroom Attendant/Power Room Attendant
In a hotel that hosts many events and receives many non-resident guests, it is usual to have someone on duty in a ladies’ powder room during lunch and dinner time to attend to the requirements of guests, guard their belongings, and keep the powder room neat and tidy. The cloakroom attendant reports to the public area supervisor
Duties and responsibilities The cloakroom attendant is expected to
• Maintain an adequate stock of soaps, detergents, combs, brushes, powder, and hand towels to meet demands at peak hours
• Take soiled hand towels to the linen room for replacement
• Maintain the shoe-shine kit and clean guest’ shoes if required
• Maintain all cupboards and fixtures installed in the cloakroom
• Brush guests’ jackets if required
Hat Checker
A hat checker provides his services in superior hotels in cold climates. His domain is the hat check room, where hats and heavy overcoats are deposited by guests as soon as they enter the hotel lobby, so as to spare them the inconvenience of carrying these articles around in the hotel. The hat checker carefully labels these guest articles, and hands or stores them correctly so as to return them to the guests when they are leaving the hotel
Horticulturist
Many large hotels have their own horticulturist, who reports to the assistant housekeeper. He/She leads a team of gardeners in maintaining the landscaped gardens of the hotel as well as in supplying flowers from the gardens for flower arrangements in the hotel. Flowers are used largely by the housekeeping department to aesthetically enhance various areas of the hotel. Flower arrangements may be used in banquet functions, guestrooms, restaurants, lobbies, offices, and so on.
Duties and responsibilities The horticulturist is expected to
• Supervise the maintenance of gardens and landscaped areas
• Ensure smooth supply of flowers to the housekeeping department
• Assist the executive housekeeper with flower arrangements in the absence of a florist
Head Gardener
The head gardener reports to the horticulturist. He is require to maintain landscaped areas and gardens in a hotel, keeping in mind their cleanliness, aesthetic appeal and freshness all the year round through a well-motivated team of gardeners
Duties and responsibilities The head gardener is expected to
• Ensure that landscaped areas, gardens, rock gardens, waterways, and so on are maintained as per the original concept
• Brief, schedule, ad allot duties to gardeners
• Take care of fresh seasonal plantings
• Procure quality seeds from reliable sources at reasonable costs
• Procure, control, and supervise the usage of manure and fertilizers
• Maintain the watering schedules and attend to any problems regarding water shortages
• Provide the hotel with flowers, garlands, wreaths, or bouquets as and when required
• Maintain and prepare indoor plants for the hotel
• Supervise the maintenance of lawns, mowing and replanting the grass
• Train gardeners
• Ensure that gardeners handle equipment and tools effectively and correctly
• Oversee the upkeep of the plant nursery and greenhouse
Gardeners
Gardeners (maalis) report to the head gardener or the horticulturist. They keep landscaped areas, lawns, and gardens clean, aesthetically beautiful, and fresh through the daily schedules of tasks assigned to them
Duties and responsibilities The gardener is expected to
• Dig landscaped areas and maintain them as per the original concept and undertake fresh plantings.
• Plant seeds and saplings as per conditions and the landscaping/ horticultural concept.
• Distribute manure and fertilizer appropriately.
• Water all garden areas as scheduled.
• Maintain plant nursery, and the greenhouse.
• Prune and trim hedges and bushes.
• Prepare flowers, potted indoor plants, wreaths, bouquets, and so on, as required by the hotel.
• Utilize garden tools efficiently.
Florists
Many luxury hotels employ their own florists nowadays. Providing attractive flower arrangements for the entire hotel is his/her responsibility. A florist may report to the horticulturist or to the assistant housekeeper. He/she may have an assistant florist to help.
Duties and responsibilities A florist is expected to
• Collect fresh flowers from the gardeners every day
• In case flowers are not available from the hotel gardens, to purchase flowers from dealers
• Make up various types of flower arrangements for different hotel areas- lobbies, front office, restaurants, banquet halls, convention rooms, VIP rooms, and guestrooms
• Provide garlands, wreaths, and bouquets to the hotel for guests, as and when required
• Treat cut flowers so that they last longer
• Maintain flower arrangements-by changing water, pruning, and so on
• Be responsible for the functioning of the flower room in the housekeeping department, which deals with the care of flower arranging equipment, mechanics, accessories
• Train the assistant florist
Laundry Manager
The laundry manager reports to the director of housekeeping. He/she is responsible for the entire functioning of the laundry and dry-cleaning unit. A laundry manager must have organizational ability as well as technical knowledge of chemicals and their effect on fabrics.
Laundry Supervisor
He/she is in charge of the functioning of the laundry in the absence of the laundry manager. A laundry supervisor must have a good understanding of all aspects of the laundry equipment, chemicals, and fabrics.
Dry-cleaner
The dry-cleaner is in charge of the dry-cleaning of hotel linen and guest clothing.
Washer
A washer is the person who actually does the laundering of linen, uniforms, and guest clothing.
Duties and responsibilities The washer is expected to
• Spot stained fabrics before loading them into the washing machines
• Load soiled linen into washing machines, feed in the right of detergent and other laundering chemicals and run the machine.
• Load washed linen into dryers
• Clean all equipment after use.
Laundry Workers
They are the lower rung of staff in the laundry, carrying out a variety of duties. Proper training is essential to ensure they function smoothly and efficiently.
Duties and responsibilities The laundry worker is expected to
• Sort soiled linen according to fabric types, colours, and degree of soiling
• Load soiled linen into washing machines and to load washed linen into dryers.
• Transport soiled linen from the linen room to the laundry and fresh linen from the laundry to the linen room
• Keep the laundry clean
Valets/Runners
‘Valet service’ means that the hotel will take care of guest’s laundry. Valets report to the linen room supervisor. They are responsible for collecting soiled guest laundry and delivery fresh guest laundry. In many hotels, a valet is not charged with the task of delivering guest laundry only. Here the valet shares a service room with the GRAs; the room is complete with iron and ironing board, needle, cotton and string, shoe-cleaning necessities, and so on. He may also perform the less tedious functions of a houseman.
PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES OF HOUSEKEEPING STAFF
The housekeeping department in a hotel may easily have the largest workforce. No matter how luxurious the décor or how aesthetic the guestroom may be, grumpy, poorly trained, and unhelpful staff can destroy any potential customer satisfaction with the hospitality product. Being a service industry, the personal projection of staff to guests enhances the image of the hotel. It is also essential to know the qualities that a housekeeping staff must possess for the purpose of recruitment, induction, training and self-development programmes. These attributes sometimes override the importance of skill, as skills can be taught but these personal traits (Figure 2.4) should be inherent in a member of the staff.
Fig. 2.4 Personal attributes of housekeeping staff
Pleasant Personality A pleasant personality is the result of good grooming and good presentation in front of guests. The way a staff looks is the first impression he/she creates, and this reflects on the quality of service and standards in an establishment. It is good to remember that ‘your last look in the mirror will be the guest’s first look’. All the supervisory housekeeping staff and the guestroom attendants (GRAs) should be especially well groomed, as they come into close contact with the guest. The staff should be turned out in clean and crisp uniforms. Aftershaves and perfumes used shouldn’t be too strong; mild deodorants should be preferred. Most establishments follow a minimum jewellery and light make-up policy for female housekeeping staff. Hair must always be clean and, in case of long hair, tied up or back. Many hotels have a maid’s cap for attendants. Because of the long hours involved, housekeeping staff should wear comfortable, light, low-heeled box shoes and keep them looking clean at all times. Unclean mannerisms such as scratching of the face or scalp and chewing gum in front of guests should be avoided. It should always be remembered that a ready smile on the face wins many a battle.
Physical fitness housekeeping is a 24 x 7 x 365 operation and the staff work long hours on their feet. Most of their work is manual and may require them to handle heavy equipment. Hence physical fitness is a must to cope with the nature of this work. A thorough medical examination and a medical history of candidates can be used as tools to ascertain their fitness at the time of recruitment. Housekeeping staff must maintain their level of fitness at the optimum to perform to required standards. It is said that ideal housekeeping staff should possess a ‘strong heart and good feet’.
Personal Hygiene Personal Hygiene deals with matters pertaining to the health of the individual for the maintenance of which the responsibilities lie with him alone.
Elements of good personal hygiene include:
• Good and healthy habits
• Cleanliness of the skin
• Cleanliness and care of hair, eyes, ears, teeth, and nose
• Cleanliness of the nails and fingers
• Cleanliness, tidiness, and condition of clothes and footwear
Housekeeping staff must maintain a high standard of personal hygiene, as it reflects on the hygiene standards of the hotel. They must take a bath daily to avoid body odour. Their hair must be well combed, their nails cleans and clipped. Their mouths should be free of any offensive odour. Any infections should be reported and attended to immediately. Cuts and burns should be covered with the correct dressings.
Eye for detail This is one of the foremost attributes that housekeeping staff must possess. They must be able to take into consideration minute details that a layman may let go unobserved. The power of critical observation is what distinguishes good service from average. Room attendants need to have an eye for detail in order to make up a flawless guestroom and housekeeping supervisors need to have a keen sense of observation to inspect these rooms for perfection. Furthermore, the whole property must be continually scrutinized by the housekeeping department for proper care and maintenance
Cooperation Housekeeping staff must cooperate not only with each other, but also with the staff of other departments. This is absolutely essential, since housekeeping involves a lot of team-work for efficient functioning. If there is any lack of cooperation and coordination, it indirectly affects the guest and hampers efficiency
Adaptability This is an important quality in housekeeping staff. They should be willing to try out and experiment with new ideas. The entry of foreign hotel chains into India has brought about an immense sense of competition, due to which hotels in India are now trying out more innovative methods and materials in housekeeping. The staff should accept and adapt to change willingly and should welcome such innovations
Honesty This quality is all-important to the staff in dealings with both guests and the management. Housekeeping staff have direct access to guestrooms. Guest’s belongings are often lying around the room and temptations are great. Housekeeping staff also deal with various kinds of guest amenities that may also tempt them. It is inherent discipline and integrity that checks these temptations. If there is trust and respect across the triangle of staff, guests, and management relationships, then there will be a work atmosphere that encourages efficiency and a good team spirit.
Tact and diplomacy Housekeeping staff come into close contact with various kinds of guests. Some guest may make unusual requests or complaints. Sometimes guests may be fussy and demand service that override management policies. It requires a lot of tact and diplomacy on the part of housekeeping staff to handle such guests at their level, since under no circumstances can they be rude to a guest or hurt his/her sentiments. Staff needs to be trained in haling guests who make such requests
Right attitude Most managers agree that a candidate with the right attitude is more of an asset to them than a candidate who has the skills but the wrong attitude. The candidate with good attitude displays an even temper, courtesy, and good humour, and does not betray displeasure even in the most difficult of times. They learn from their mistakes and are always optimistic. The employee with the right attitude is proactive and anticipates the guests’ needs and wishes.
Calm demeanour Housekeeping staff may be faced with various kinds of emergency situations, and it is essential that they remain calm so as to do their best in coping with the problem in hand. If they panic during an emergency, their anxious demeanour could become contagious and be passed on to guest and colleagues. A calm demeanour helps employees to think rationally themselves and to display their presence of mind.
Courtesy A housekeeping employee should extend courtesy to both guest and colleagues. It is essential that while dealing with guests, the staff be humble and polite. Housekeeping staff should never argue with a guest and, if they cannot deal with the situation, it should be referred immediately to a senior member of the team. Guests will always remember pleasant and charming staff, as this adds to the guest’s positive experience in a hotel.
Punctuality This too is crucially important. If an employee is continually late for duty, it shows lack of interest in the work and a lack of respect for the management and guests. Respect for time during working hours will reflect on the employee’s work and help to create an impression worthy of appreciation
Good memory This is an essential asset in housekeeping staff, particularly when dealing with regular guests and repeat customers. A staff member who remembers a guest’s like, dislikes, needs, and wishes will be tremendous asset to the hotel.
Loyalty An employee’s first obligation and loyalty are to the establishment in which they are employed and to its management. A situation should never arise when employees use guests as their sounding board. They should respect the policies and decisions of the management.
LAYOUT OF THE DEPARTMENT
The layout of the housekeeping department is the physical demarcation of areas in the department. When the layout is well-planned, it enables the smooth functioning of the department. The layout is dependent on the size of the hotel as well as physical space restrictions. Normally, the layout is decided by the executive housekeeper, at the facility-planning stage in setting up the hotel. The following factors are taken into consideration when deciding on the area and layout.
• Total number of guestrooms
• Number of function rooms and number of food-and-beverage outlets
• Amount of manpower required
• Volume of business anticipated
• Number of jobs contracted out
• Flow of traffic (people and equipment)
Figures 2.5 and 2.6 show the layout of the housekeeping department in a budget hotel and a large hotel, respectively.
The following areas constitute the layout of a housekeeping department.
Executive housekeeper’s cabin The executive house should have an independent cabin, since it is administrative centre of the department. A glass-panelled office with blinds to provide privacy at times, such as when meetings are conducted and confidential issues are discussed, is most appropriate. The cabin should have one entrance-cum-exit door where entry is controlled by the secretary. Ample built-in shelves and cupboards with locks should be provided to store files and records.
Secretary’s cabin A smaller cabin should be provided for the secretary, preceding the executive housekeeper’s cabin, to enable the secretary to control movement into the housekeeper’s cabin. Storage area for documents is essential in the secretary’s cabin.
Fig. 2.5 Layout of housekeeping department in a budget hotel
• Cupboards to store guest supplies, cleaning agents, and equipment.
• Shelves and racks to store fresh room linen
• Linen trolleys to store fresh and soiled linen and transporting/dispatching the same to the linen and uniform room
• A notice board to display information regarding expected arrivals, VIPs in the house, extra bed, and guest loan items given to guests
• A sink with hot and cold water facilities to wash or disinfect glasses, fill drinking water in flasks, and for flower arrangements
• Guest loan items such as rollaway beds, cribs, and bed boards
Organization is the process of identifying and grouping the work to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority, and establishing relationships for the purpose of enabling people to work more effectively in accomplishing objectives. If the whole establishment has to work as one unit, it is important that there are clear lines of authority and good lines of communication. The organizational structure of a housekeeping department – whether in a small, medium, or large hotel – is depicted using an organization chart. An organization chart is a schematic representation of the relationships between positions within an establishment, showing where each position fits into the overall organization and illustrating the divisions of responsibility and lines of authority.
The housekeeping department in a hotel is headed by the executive housekeeper. She/he reports to the general manager, or to the resident manager, or the rooms division manager in a larger hotel. In the case of a chain of hotels, the executive housekeeper also reports to the director of housekeeping, who heads the housekeeping departments in all the hotels of that chain. The deputy housekeeper assists the executive housekeeper and, depending on the size of the property, there can also be assistant housekeepers who look after the various areas of responsibility in the hotel, that is, floors, public areas, the linen room, and desk control.
Then there are supervisors in each of these sections, who report to the respective assistant housekeepers. The floor and public area supervisors are responsible for getting the guestrooms and public areas, the linen room, and desk control.
Then there are supervisors in each of these sections, who report to the respective assistant housekeepers. The floor and public area supervisors are responsible for getting the guestrooms and public areas cleaned. The linen room supervisor is responsible for coordinating all the housekeeping activities and liaising with the other departments of the hotel. Attendants and housepersons (also referred to as housemen) departments of the hotel. Attendants and housepersons (also referred to as housemen) report to the supervisors.
The horticulturist has gardeners reporting to him/her. He/she reports to the executive housekeeper. Normally, this area is framed out on contract.
Fig. 2.1 (a) Organization chart of housekeeping department in a small hotel
The laundry manager also reports to the executive housekeeper. He has laundry workers reporting to him. Laundry may also be given out on contract.
The organizational structure varies to some extent with different hotels. Therefore, organization charts are presented here for small (Figure 2.1), medium-sized (Figure 2.2), and large (Figure 2.3) hotels.
Fig. 2.1 (a) Organization chart of a housekeeping department in a small-sized hotel
Fig 2.2 (a) Organization chart of a housekeeping department in a medium-sized hotel
Fig. 2.2 (b) Organization chart of a housekeeping in a medium-sized hotel
Fig. 2.3 (a) Organization chart of the housekeeping department in a large hotel
Fig. 2.3 (b) Organization chart of a housekeeping department in a large hotel
HOUSEKEEPING PERSONNEL
Housekeeping staff can be divided into three categories:
Managerial Executive housekeeper, head housekeeper.
Supervisor Assistant housekeeper, floor housekeeper, linen room supervisor, public area supervisor, and so on.
Unskilled Room attendants, housepersons, cloakroom attendants etc.
Executive Housekeeper/Director of Housekeeping
The executive housekeepers reports to the general manager, or the resident manager, or the rooms division manager. She is responsible and accountable for the total cleanliness and aesthetic upkeep of the hotel. She supervises all housekeeping employees, has the authority to hire or discharge subordinates, plans and assigns work assignments, informs new employees of property regulations, inspects completed assignments, and requisition supplies.
Duties and responsibilities The executive housekeeper is expected to
• Organize, supervise, and coordinate the work of housekeeping personnel on a day – to – day basis.
• Ensure excellence in housekeeping sanitation, safety, comfort and aesthetics for hotel guests.
• Draw up duty rosters and supervise the discipline and conduct of her staff.
• Assure proper communication within the department by conducting regular meetings with all personnel.
• Hire new employees, warn employees when hotel policies are violated, and discharge employees when necessary.
• Counsel employees on various duties and on work-related issues.
• Motivate her staff and keep their morale high.
• Establish and maintain standard operating procedures for cleaning and to initiate new procedures to increase the efficiency of labour and product use.
• Search constantly for and test new techniques and products.
• Maintain an inventory of the furniture, linen and movable equipment in the rooms and related premises and to ensure they are regularly checked.
• Organize maintenance and repair of guestrooms.
• Deal with articles that a guest may have left behind in a room.
• Ensure the provision of proper uniforms for the hotel staff.
• Ensure observance of hygiene and safety precautions.
• Offer suggestions to human resource department concerning selection recruitment, replacement, duty alterations, upgradation, and so on.
• Evaluate employees in order to upgrade them when openings arise.
• Organize and supervise on-the-job and off-the-job training of staff.
• Liaise between the maintenance and housekeeping departments.
• Inspect and approve all supply requisitions for the housekeeping department, and to maintain par stock, inventory control, and cost-control procedures for all materials.
• Check the reports filed and registers maintained.
• Maintain a time logbook for all employees within the department.
• Be responsible for the redecoration and refurbishing of rooms, lobbies and so on.
• Provide a budget to the management, and undertake budget control and forecasting.
Deputy Housekeeper
The deputy housekeeper reports to the executive housekeeper or the director of housekeeping. Large hotels may have a deputy housekeeper to whom the assistant housekeepers report. In smaller hotels, there may be either an assistant housekeeper or a deputy housekeeper reporting to the executive housekeeper.
Duties and responsibilities The deputy housekeeper is expected to
• Check and ensure that all guestrooms, public areas, and ‘back-of-the-house’ areas are clean and well maintained.
• Inspect the work done by contractors- for example, pest control, laundry, window cleaning, and so on.
• Prepare staff schedules and duty rotas.
• Ensure periodical stock-taking and maintaining of stock records for linen, uniforms and equipment.
• Provide the necessary information to and assist the executive officer in staff appraisal, disciplining, termination and promotion.
• Develop and implement training programmes within the housekeeping department in consultation with the executive housekeeper.
• Assist the executive housekeeper in forecasting and budgeting for operating and capital expenditures.
• Take charge of the housekeeping department in the absence of the executive housekeeper.
Assistant Housekeeper/ Housekeeping Manager
The assistant housekeeper usually reports to the executive housekeeper. In hotels where an additional senior position of deputy housekeeper exists, the assistant housekeepers may report to the deputy housekeeper. Generally hotels employ one assistant housekeeper per 50-60 rooms. There may be just one assistant housekeeper under the executive housekeeper in a medium sized hotel or one for each shift in a large hotel. In large hotels the responsibilities for the floors, public areas, linen room, and control room are divided among assistant housekeepers. Essentially, the assistant housekeep manages the resources provided by the executive housekeeper to achieve the objectives of cleanliness, maintenance, and attractiveness during a given shift. His/her responsibility involves the daily supervision of specific areas within the hotel. In the absence of the deputy housekeeper, all the above- mentioned duties and responsibilities are taken over by the assistant housekeeper.
Duties and responsibilities The assistant housekeeper is expected to
• Be responsible for the efficient and orderly management of cleaning, servicing, and repairing guest rooms.
• Be responsible for the hotel linen and check its movements and its distribution to room attendants.
• Keep an inventory of all housekeeping supplies and check it regularly.
• Assist the room attendants in their work.
• Provide the front office with a list of rooms ready for allotment to guests.
• Organize the flower arrangements.
• Arrange the training of staff and substitute for the executive housekeeper in case of his/her absence.
• Update record books, registers, and files.
• Compile the maids’ roster.
• Check the VIP and OOO ( out-of order) rooms.
Floor Housekeepers/ Floor Supervisors
The floor housekeeper reports to the assistant housekeeper and executive housekeeper. Floor housekeepers have final responsibility for the condition of the guestrooms. Each floor housekeeper is assigned three or more floors. She gives the room attendants their room assignments and floor master keys, which are returned at the end of the day. She checks, supervises, and approves the attendants’ work and makes periodical inspection of the physical condition of all rooms on the floor.
Duties and responsibilities The floor housekeeper is expected to
• Supervise the handing over of soiled linen to the laundry and the requisitioning of
fresh ones from housekeeping
• Ensure supple of equipment and maintenance and cleaning supplies to floors and public areas.
• Issue floor keys to room attendants
• Supervise spring cleaning
• Report on maintenance work on her floor
• Coordinate with room service for cleaning.
• Maintain par stock for the respective floors.
• Coordinate with the front office manager.
• Facilitate the provision of extra services to guests, such as baby sitters, hot water bottles, and so on, on request.
• Immediately report on any safety or security hazard to the security department or to the management.
• Check on scanty baggage.
• Prepare housekeeping status reports.
• Supervise cleaning on the allotted floors and areas – including guestrooms, corridors, staircases, and floor pantries of allotted floors.
• Report on standards of individual staff performance.
Public Area Supervisors
The public area supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. Public areas are the ‘front of the house’ areas such as the entrance, lobby, guest corridors, and so on. Since much of the public-area cleaning is done in the night, good coordination with the night supervisor is essential in this role.
Duties and responsibilities The Public area supervisor is expected to
• Ensure that all public areas and other functional areas are kept clean at all times.
• Organize special cleaning of public areas.
• Ensure that all maintenance jobs are attended to in coordination with the maintenance department.
• Ensure that flower arrangements are placed in appropriate places in public areas.
• Ensure that banquet halls and conference halls are kept ready for functions and conferences.
Night Supervisor
The night supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. He supervises all night staff engaged in the cleaning of public areas and guestrooms in the hotels.
Duties and responsibilities The night supervisor is expected to
• Ensure that all public areas are thoroughly cleaned at night, which is the only time when traffic is low.
• Clear departure rooms to the front office if necessary.
• Plan the order of work according to priority and direct staff accordingly.
• Make sure that departure room s are serviced and made ready as soon as
possible in order that reception may re-let at any time.
• Organize special cleaning of rooms as required.
• Anticipate guests’ requirements at all times, thereby ensuring comfort and
satisfaction.
• See that all lost-and found articles are deposited with the control desk.
• Ensure that submission of room attendants’ reports and the room status reports.
• Help with training of staff.
• Report any safety or security hazards.
Evening Shift Supervisor
Evening Shift Supervisors are required for the floors. Public areas, and control room.
They report to the assistant housekeeper.
Duties and responsibilities An Evening Shift Supervisor is expected to
• Check all log entries and ensure they are followed up.
• Ensure all keys are deposited back before taking over the shift.
• Ensure all cleaning of rooms that were not serviced in the morning – rooms with a ‘do not disturb’ (DND), double locked (DL), or refused service status.
• Ensure all departure rooms are cleaned and released to the front office as soon as possible.
• Ensure that the turned down service is carried out for all rooms.
• Ensure public areas are kept clean at all times.
Linen Room Supervisor/Linen Keeper
The linen room supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. She supervises the work of linen room and may have several linen attendants to assist her in providing clean presentable linen throughout the house.
Duties and responsibilities The linen room supervisor is expected to
• Be responsible for the entire hotel’s linen.
• Send dirty linen to the laundry after checking them piece by piece.
• Check laundered linen before giving it for ironing.
• Put away linen neatly once it has been washed, ironed, and mended.
• Hand out linen to various departments on presentation of vouchers signed by the heads of the respective department.
• Maintain a register of linen movements and check the linen regularly.
• Look after the ironing and laundering of guests’ clothes and the uniforms of the hotel staff.
• Supervise the work of the linen attendants and tailors.
• Make suggestions relating to replacement purchases.
Uniform Room Supervisor
A uniform room supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. He/she is responsible for the
maintenance of hotel staff uniforms.
Duties and responsibilities The Uniform Room Supervisor is expected to
• Be responsible for providing clean, serviceable uniforms to the staff of the hotel.
• Keep an inventory control of various uniforms in various stages of use- such as when sorted ones are handed over, or which are being washed or dry cleaned in the laundry, or those on the person of the staff, or those in store for future issue.
• Set the budget for the procurement of additional material of staff uniform.
Linen Room Attendant / Linen Room Maid
Linen Room Attendant reports to the linen room supervisor.
Duties and responsibilities The linen room attendant is expected to
• Be responsible for sorting all the sheets, pillowcases, towels, table cloths, napkins, and so on into separate stacks.
• Issue clean linen on a clean-for soiled basis.
• Place soiled linen in containers and send these to the laundry.
• Examine and count each item when they are sent to the laundry and again on their return.
• Shelve laundered linen after verifying the number and type of articles.
• Send torn articles to the seamstress for repair.
• Maintain proper records of discards and determine the percentage of discards.
Uniform Room Attendant
A uniform room attendant reports to the uniform room supervisor. He/she is in actual contact
with the staff for issuing uniforms.
Duties and responsibilities The uniform room attendant is expected to
• Issue clean uniforms while receiving soiled ones.
• Send soiled uniforms for laundering.
• Examine the laundered items to ensure cleanliness and serviceability.
• Send torn uniforms to the seamstress for mending
• Keep a count of uniforms.
• Shelve laundered uniforms after verifying the types of articles.
• Count and record linen to fill requisitions.
Storekeeper
A storekeeper reports to the linen room supervisor. In large hotels, a storekeeper may be
appointed to a full-time position.
Duties and responsibilities A storekeeper is expected to
• Control the stock of equipment.
• Store cleaning materials and agents
• Issue equipment and cleaning materials as per demand.
• Prepare requisitions for used-up materials and new products for the approval of the executive housekeeper.
• Liaise with the purchase department for the procurement of approved materials.
Control Desk Supervisor/Control Room Supervisor
The control desk supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. The control room or control desk is the nerve centre of the housekeeping department. The desk is manned 24 hours a day. Since the control desk is the hub of information dissemination in housekeeping, the control desk supervisor is a critical person in housekeeping operations.
Duties and Responsibilities The control desk supervisor is expected to
• Coordinate with the front office for information on departure rooms and handing over of clean rooms
• Coordinate with other departments for smooth functioning and efficiency
• Receive complaints on maintenance and housekeeping
• Maintain registers kept at the control desk
• Receive special requests from guests
• Act as a pivotal person in receiving and disseminating information amongst housekeeping staff
• Maintain the latest reports regarding room occupancy, VIPs, status of rooms and so on, so that work can be delegated to attendants and supervisors accordingly
• Attend to all phone calls received at the control desk
• Be responsible for guestroom keys given to room attendants and to store the keys and maintain a key register
Guestroom Attendants/Room Maids/Chamber Maids
Guest room attendants (GRAs) report to the floor supervisor (or the night supervisor, in case of night room attendants). In small hotels, they may report to the assistant housekeeper directly. Generally hotels employ one room maid per 12-15 rooms. The room attendants’/maids’ work is of great importance because it contributes in a big way to the comfort of guest and hence their impression of the hotel, and this includes making beds, coping with linen supplies, and general cleaning. Nowadays most hotels use the term ‘attendant’ rather than ‘maid’ since men have entered this arena earlier dominated by women.
Duties and responsibilities A room attendant is expected to
• Clean and tidy rooms as per the sanitary regulations assigned
• Change guestroom and bathroom linen
• Make guestroom beds
• Replenish guest supplies
• Answer guests’ summons promptly
Uniform Room Supervisor
A uniform room supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. He/she is responsible for the assistant housekeeper. He/She is responsible for the maintenance of hotel staff uniforms.
Duties and responsibilities The uniform supervisor is expected to
• Be responsible for providing clean, serviceable uniforms to the staff of the hotel.
• Keep an inventory control of various uniforms in various stages of use-such as when sorted ones are handed over, or which are being washed or dry-cleaned in the laundry, or those on the person of the staff, or those in store for future issue
• Set the budget for the procurement of additional material for staff uniforms
Linen Room Attendant/ Linen Room Maid
Linen room attendants report to the linen room supervisor
Duties and responsibilities The linen room attendant is expected to
• be responsible for sorting all the sheets, pillowcases, towels, table cloths, napkins, and so on into separate stacks
• issue clean linen on a clean-for-soiled basis
• placed soiled linen in containers and send these to the laundry
• examine and count each item when they are sent to the laundry and again on their return
• shelve laundered linen after verifying the number and type of articles
• send torn articles to the seamstress for repair
• maintain proper records of discards and determine the percentage of discards
Uniform Room Attendant
A uniform room attendant reports to the uniform room supervisor. He/She is in actual contact with the staff for the issue of uniforms
Duties and responsibilities A uniform room attendant is expected to
• issue clean uniforms while receiving soiled ones
• send soiled uniforms for laundering
• examine the laundered items to ensure cleanliness and serviceability
• send torn uniforms to the seamstress for mending
• keep a count of uniforms
• shelve laundered uniforms after verifying the types of articles
• count and record linen to fill requisitions
Storekeeper
A storekeeper reports to the linen room supervisor. In large hotels, a storekeeper may be appointed to a full-time position
Duties and responsibilities A storekeeper is expected to
• control the stock of equipment
• store cleaning materials and agents
• issue equipment and cleaning material as per demand
• prepare requisitions for used-up materials and new products for the approval of the executive housekeeper
• liaise with the purchase department for the procurement of approved materials
Control Desk Supervisor/Control Room Supervisor
The control desk supervisor reports to the assistant housekeeper. The control room or control desk is the nerve centre of the housekeeping department. The desk is manned 24 hours a day. Since the control desk is the hub of information dissemination in housekeeping, the control desk supervisor is a critical person in housekeeping operations
Duties and responsibilities The control desk supervisor is expected to
• coordinate with the front office for information on departure rooms and handing over of clean rooms
• coordinate with other departments for smooth functioning and efficiency
• receive complaints on maintenance and housekeeping
• maintain registers kept at the control desk
• receive special request from guests
• act as a pivotal person in receiving and disseminating information amongst housekeeping staff
• Maintain the latest reports regarding room occupancy, VIPs, status of rooms, and so on, so that work can be delegated to attendants and supervisors accordingly.
• Attend to all phone calls received at the control desk
• Be responsible for guestroom keys given to room attendants and to store the keys and maintain a key register
Guestroom Attendants/Room Maids/Chamber Maids
Guest room attendants (GRAs) report to the floor supervisor (or the night supervisor, in case of night room attendants). In small hotels, they may report to the assistant housekeeper directly. Generally hotels employ one room maid per 12-15 rooms. The room attendants’/maids’ work is of great importance because it contributes in a big way to the comfort of guests and hence their impression of the hotel. Their day consists of servicing each room to the required standard of the hotel, and this includes making beds, coping with linen supplies, and general cleaning. Nowadays most hotels use the term ‘attendant’ rather than ‘maid’ since men have entered this arena earlier dominated by women
Duties and responsibilities A room attendant is expected to
• clean and tidy rooms as per sanitary regulations assigned
• change guestroom and bathroom linen
• make guestroom beds
• replenish great supplies
• answer guests’ summons promptly
• be responsible for getting guest laundry processed
• undertake the evening check of rooms and provide the turn-down service
• check and secure rooms
• hand over to the housekeeper any article which a guest might have left behind in a room
• replenish the maid’s cart with guest supplies, cleaning agents, and linen
Head Houseperson
He/She reports to the public area supervisor. In some organizations, he/she may report directly to the executive housekeeper or assistant housekeeper, and is in charge of the housemen/housepersons.
Duties and responsibilities the head houseperson is expected to
• Supervise the work allotted to housepersons, especially those in the public areas.
• Supervise the work of people who clean the carpets, wall washers, and window washers
• Supervise the work of drapery men, heavy vacuum machine operators for general cleaning, chandelier cleaners, and workers responsible for relamping.
• Supervise the work of furniture men, floor en, and warehouse men
Houseporters/Housepersons
The housepersons report to the head houseperson or the public area supervisor. The houseperson’s job involves heavy physical work as assigned, such as carpet cleaning, window cleaning, carrying heavy pieces of furniture, washing public areas, garbage clearance, and also complementing the work of room attendants on guest floors.
Duties and responsibilities A houseperson is expected to
• Clean carpets
• Shift beds, chairs, and other heavy furniture
• Cart linen to and from floors
• Clean the swimming pool
• Clean garden paths and such outdoor surfaces
• Clear out the garbage
• Polish all brasswire
• Help room attendants in their work in guestrooms
• Clean all doors, windows, and ventilators
• Take down and re-hang curtains as needed
• Clean fire-fighting equipment
• Keep the fire buckets filled with sand
• Take on heavy cleaning of areas such as shafts and terraces
• Wash walls, draperies, chandeliers, and other hard-to-reach areas
Tailors, Seamstresses, and Upholsterers
They report to the linen room supervisor. They are responsible for mending and stitching uniforms, linen, and upholstery, respectively. The upholsterers also replenish upholstery that require replacement
Duties and responsibilities This group of staff is expected to
• Mend all damaged linen using methods such as patching
• Mend all damaged uniforms and alter uniforms if required
• Make pads from used mattress pads for the burnishing of silver
• Stitch pillowcases if required
• Refurnish all damaged upholstery
• Repair guests’ clothes if damaged
• Estimate the requirement of materials and request the linen room supervisor to place a requisition at the stores
• Draw material from the stores and take these to the tailoring room.
Cloakroom Attendant/Power Room Attendant
In a hotel that hosts many events and receives many non-resident guests, it is usual to have someone on duty in a ladies’ powder room during lunch and dinner time to attend to the requirements of guests, guard their belongings, and keep the powder room neat and tidy. The cloakroom attendant reports to the public area supervisor
Duties and responsibilities The cloakroom attendant is expected to
• Maintain an adequate stock of soaps, detergents, combs, brushes, powder, and hand towels to meet demands at peak hours
• Take soiled hand towels to the linen room for replacement
• Maintain the shoe-shine kit and clean guest’ shoes if required
• Maintain all cupboards and fixtures installed in the cloakroom
• Brush guests’ jackets if required
Hat Checker
A hat checker provides his services in superior hotels in cold climates. His domain is the hat check room, where hats and heavy overcoats are deposited by guests as soon as they enter the hotel lobby, so as to spare them the inconvenience of carrying these articles around in the hotel. The hat checker carefully labels these guest articles, and hands or stores them correctly so as to return them to the guests when they are leaving the hotel
Horticulturist
Many large hotels have their own horticulturist, who reports to the assistant housekeeper. He/She leads a team of gardeners in maintaining the landscaped gardens of the hotel as well as in supplying flowers from the gardens for flower arrangements in the hotel. Flowers are used largely by the housekeeping department to aesthetically enhance various areas of the hotel. Flower arrangements may be used in banquet functions, guestrooms, restaurants, lobbies, offices, and so on.
Duties and responsibilities The horticulturist is expected to
• Supervise the maintenance of gardens and landscaped areas
• Ensure smooth supply of flowers to the housekeeping department
• Assist the executive housekeeper with flower arrangements in the absence of a florist
Head Gardener
The head gardener reports to the horticulturist. He is require to maintain landscaped areas and gardens in a hotel, keeping in mind their cleanliness, aesthetic appeal and freshness all the year round through a well-motivated team of gardeners
Duties and responsibilities The head gardener is expected to
• Ensure that landscaped areas, gardens, rock gardens, waterways, and so on are maintained as per the original concept
• Brief, schedule, ad allot duties to gardeners
• Take care of fresh seasonal plantings
• Procure quality seeds from reliable sources at reasonable costs
• Procure, control, and supervise the usage of manure and fertilizers
• Maintain the watering schedules and attend to any problems regarding water shortages
• Provide the hotel with flowers, garlands, wreaths, or bouquets as and when required
• Maintain and prepare indoor plants for the hotel
• Supervise the maintenance of lawns, mowing and replanting the grass
• Train gardeners
• Ensure that gardeners handle equipment and tools effectively and correctly
• Oversee the upkeep of the plant nursery and greenhouse
Gardeners
Gardeners (maalis) report to the head gardener or the horticulturist. They keep landscaped areas, lawns, and gardens clean, aesthetically beautiful, and fresh through the daily schedules of tasks assigned to them
Duties and responsibilities The gardener is expected to
• Dig landscaped areas and maintain them as per the original concept and undertake fresh plantings.
• Plant seeds and saplings as per conditions and the landscaping/ horticultural concept.
• Distribute manure and fertilizer appropriately.
• Water all garden areas as scheduled.
• Maintain plant nursery, and the greenhouse.
• Prune and trim hedges and bushes.
• Prepare flowers, potted indoor plants, wreaths, bouquets, and so on, as required by the hotel.
• Utilize garden tools efficiently.
Florists
Many luxury hotels employ their own florists nowadays. Providing attractive flower arrangements for the entire hotel is his/her responsibility. A florist may report to the horticulturist or to the assistant housekeeper. He/she may have an assistant florist to help.
Duties and responsibilities A florist is expected to
• Collect fresh flowers from the gardeners every day
• In case flowers are not available from the hotel gardens, to purchase flowers from dealers
• Make up various types of flower arrangements for different hotel areas- lobbies, front office, restaurants, banquet halls, convention rooms, VIP rooms, and guestrooms
• Provide garlands, wreaths, and bouquets to the hotel for guests, as and when required
• Treat cut flowers so that they last longer
• Maintain flower arrangements-by changing water, pruning, and so on
• Be responsible for the functioning of the flower room in the housekeeping department, which deals with the care of flower arranging equipment, mechanics, accessories
• Train the assistant florist
Laundry Manager
The laundry manager reports to the director of housekeeping. He/she is responsible for the entire functioning of the laundry and dry-cleaning unit. A laundry manager must have organizational ability as well as technical knowledge of chemicals and their effect on fabrics.
Laundry Supervisor
He/she is in charge of the functioning of the laundry in the absence of the laundry manager. A laundry supervisor must have a good understanding of all aspects of the laundry equipment, chemicals, and fabrics.
Dry-cleaner
The dry-cleaner is in charge of the dry-cleaning of hotel linen and guest clothing.
Washer
A washer is the person who actually does the laundering of linen, uniforms, and guest clothing.
Duties and responsibilities The washer is expected to
• Spot stained fabrics before loading them into the washing machines
• Load soiled linen into washing machines, feed in the right of detergent and other laundering chemicals and run the machine.
• Load washed linen into dryers
• Clean all equipment after use.
Laundry Workers
They are the lower rung of staff in the laundry, carrying out a variety of duties. Proper training is essential to ensure they function smoothly and efficiently.
Duties and responsibilities The laundry worker is expected to
• Sort soiled linen according to fabric types, colours, and degree of soiling
• Load soiled linen into washing machines and to load washed linen into dryers.
• Transport soiled linen from the linen room to the laundry and fresh linen from the laundry to the linen room
• Keep the laundry clean
Valets/Runners
‘Valet service’ means that the hotel will take care of guest’s laundry. Valets report to the linen room supervisor. They are responsible for collecting soiled guest laundry and delivery fresh guest laundry. In many hotels, a valet is not charged with the task of delivering guest laundry only. Here the valet shares a service room with the GRAs; the room is complete with iron and ironing board, needle, cotton and string, shoe-cleaning necessities, and so on. He may also perform the less tedious functions of a houseman.
PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES OF HOUSEKEEPING STAFF
The housekeeping department in a hotel may easily have the largest workforce. No matter how luxurious the décor or how aesthetic the guestroom may be, grumpy, poorly trained, and unhelpful staff can destroy any potential customer satisfaction with the hospitality product. Being a service industry, the personal projection of staff to guests enhances the image of the hotel. It is also essential to know the qualities that a housekeeping staff must possess for the purpose of recruitment, induction, training and self-development programmes. These attributes sometimes override the importance of skill, as skills can be taught but these personal traits (Figure 2.4) should be inherent in a member of the staff.
Fig. 2.4 Personal attributes of housekeeping staff
Pleasant Personality A pleasant personality is the result of good grooming and good presentation in front of guests. The way a staff looks is the first impression he/she creates, and this reflects on the quality of service and standards in an establishment. It is good to remember that ‘your last look in the mirror will be the guest’s first look’. All the supervisory housekeeping staff and the guestroom attendants (GRAs) should be especially well groomed, as they come into close contact with the guest. The staff should be turned out in clean and crisp uniforms. Aftershaves and perfumes used shouldn’t be too strong; mild deodorants should be preferred. Most establishments follow a minimum jewellery and light make-up policy for female housekeeping staff. Hair must always be clean and, in case of long hair, tied up or back. Many hotels have a maid’s cap for attendants. Because of the long hours involved, housekeeping staff should wear comfortable, light, low-heeled box shoes and keep them looking clean at all times. Unclean mannerisms such as scratching of the face or scalp and chewing gum in front of guests should be avoided. It should always be remembered that a ready smile on the face wins many a battle.
Physical fitness housekeeping is a 24 x 7 x 365 operation and the staff work long hours on their feet. Most of their work is manual and may require them to handle heavy equipment. Hence physical fitness is a must to cope with the nature of this work. A thorough medical examination and a medical history of candidates can be used as tools to ascertain their fitness at the time of recruitment. Housekeeping staff must maintain their level of fitness at the optimum to perform to required standards. It is said that ideal housekeeping staff should possess a ‘strong heart and good feet’.
Personal Hygiene Personal Hygiene deals with matters pertaining to the health of the individual for the maintenance of which the responsibilities lie with him alone.
Elements of good personal hygiene include:
• Good and healthy habits
• Cleanliness of the skin
• Cleanliness and care of hair, eyes, ears, teeth, and nose
• Cleanliness of the nails and fingers
• Cleanliness, tidiness, and condition of clothes and footwear
Housekeeping staff must maintain a high standard of personal hygiene, as it reflects on the hygiene standards of the hotel. They must take a bath daily to avoid body odour. Their hair must be well combed, their nails cleans and clipped. Their mouths should be free of any offensive odour. Any infections should be reported and attended to immediately. Cuts and burns should be covered with the correct dressings.
Eye for detail This is one of the foremost attributes that housekeeping staff must possess. They must be able to take into consideration minute details that a layman may let go unobserved. The power of critical observation is what distinguishes good service from average. Room attendants need to have an eye for detail in order to make up a flawless guestroom and housekeeping supervisors need to have a keen sense of observation to inspect these rooms for perfection. Furthermore, the whole property must be continually scrutinized by the housekeeping department for proper care and maintenance
Cooperation Housekeeping staff must cooperate not only with each other, but also with the staff of other departments. This is absolutely essential, since housekeeping involves a lot of team-work for efficient functioning. If there is any lack of cooperation and coordination, it indirectly affects the guest and hampers efficiency
Adaptability This is an important quality in housekeeping staff. They should be willing to try out and experiment with new ideas. The entry of foreign hotel chains into India has brought about an immense sense of competition, due to which hotels in India are now trying out more innovative methods and materials in housekeeping. The staff should accept and adapt to change willingly and should welcome such innovations
Honesty This quality is all-important to the staff in dealings with both guests and the management. Housekeeping staff have direct access to guestrooms. Guest’s belongings are often lying around the room and temptations are great. Housekeeping staff also deal with various kinds of guest amenities that may also tempt them. It is inherent discipline and integrity that checks these temptations. If there is trust and respect across the triangle of staff, guests, and management relationships, then there will be a work atmosphere that encourages efficiency and a good team spirit.
Tact and diplomacy Housekeeping staff come into close contact with various kinds of guests. Some guest may make unusual requests or complaints. Sometimes guests may be fussy and demand service that override management policies. It requires a lot of tact and diplomacy on the part of housekeeping staff to handle such guests at their level, since under no circumstances can they be rude to a guest or hurt his/her sentiments. Staff needs to be trained in haling guests who make such requests
Right attitude Most managers agree that a candidate with the right attitude is more of an asset to them than a candidate who has the skills but the wrong attitude. The candidate with good attitude displays an even temper, courtesy, and good humour, and does not betray displeasure even in the most difficult of times. They learn from their mistakes and are always optimistic. The employee with the right attitude is proactive and anticipates the guests’ needs and wishes.
Calm demeanour Housekeeping staff may be faced with various kinds of emergency situations, and it is essential that they remain calm so as to do their best in coping with the problem in hand. If they panic during an emergency, their anxious demeanour could become contagious and be passed on to guest and colleagues. A calm demeanour helps employees to think rationally themselves and to display their presence of mind.
Courtesy A housekeeping employee should extend courtesy to both guest and colleagues. It is essential that while dealing with guests, the staff be humble and polite. Housekeeping staff should never argue with a guest and, if they cannot deal with the situation, it should be referred immediately to a senior member of the team. Guests will always remember pleasant and charming staff, as this adds to the guest’s positive experience in a hotel.
Punctuality This too is crucially important. If an employee is continually late for duty, it shows lack of interest in the work and a lack of respect for the management and guests. Respect for time during working hours will reflect on the employee’s work and help to create an impression worthy of appreciation
Good memory This is an essential asset in housekeeping staff, particularly when dealing with regular guests and repeat customers. A staff member who remembers a guest’s like, dislikes, needs, and wishes will be tremendous asset to the hotel.
Loyalty An employee’s first obligation and loyalty are to the establishment in which they are employed and to its management. A situation should never arise when employees use guests as their sounding board. They should respect the policies and decisions of the management.
LAYOUT OF THE DEPARTMENT
The layout of the housekeeping department is the physical demarcation of areas in the department. When the layout is well-planned, it enables the smooth functioning of the department. The layout is dependent on the size of the hotel as well as physical space restrictions. Normally, the layout is decided by the executive housekeeper, at the facility-planning stage in setting up the hotel. The following factors are taken into consideration when deciding on the area and layout.
• Total number of guestrooms
• Number of function rooms and number of food-and-beverage outlets
• Amount of manpower required
• Volume of business anticipated
• Number of jobs contracted out
• Flow of traffic (people and equipment)
Figures 2.5 and 2.6 show the layout of the housekeeping department in a budget hotel and a large hotel, respectively.
The following areas constitute the layout of a housekeeping department.
Executive housekeeper’s cabin The executive house should have an independent cabin, since it is administrative centre of the department. A glass-panelled office with blinds to provide privacy at times, such as when meetings are conducted and confidential issues are discussed, is most appropriate. The cabin should have one entrance-cum-exit door where entry is controlled by the secretary. Ample built-in shelves and cupboards with locks should be provided to store files and records.
Secretary’s cabin A smaller cabin should be provided for the secretary, preceding the executive housekeeper’s cabin, to enable the secretary to control movement into the housekeeper’s cabin. Storage area for documents is essential in the secretary’s cabin.
Fig. 2.5 Layout of housekeeping department in a budget hotel
• Cupboards to store guest supplies, cleaning agents, and equipment.
• Shelves and racks to store fresh room linen
• Linen trolleys to store fresh and soiled linen and transporting/dispatching the same to the linen and uniform room
• A notice board to display information regarding expected arrivals, VIPs in the house, extra bed, and guest loan items given to guests
• A sink with hot and cold water facilities to wash or disinfect glasses, fill drinking water in flasks, and for flower arrangements
• Guest loan items such as rollaway beds, cribs, and bed boards
Working of a vacuum cleaner
1. It removes debris soil and or water from a surface by suction
2. All vacuum cleaners operate on the principle of suction
3. An electric current operates the motor
4. The motor is attatched clean to a fan which has blades like an aeroplane propeller
5. As the blades turn they force air inwards the exhaust port or outlet
6. Thus a partial vacuum is created in the vacuum cleaner
7. This causes air pressure to decrease in the vacuum cleaner as compared to the outside
8. The partial vacuum at lower pressure causes a suction action
9. Air from the outside rushes in through the intake port or inlet
10. Rotating brushes positioned near the inlet kicks up dirt and dust from the surface being cleaned
1. It removes debris soil and or water from a surface by suction
2. All vacuum cleaners operate on the principle of suction
3. An electric current operates the motor
4. The motor is attatched clean to a fan which has blades like an aeroplane propeller
5. As the blades turn they force air inwards the exhaust port or outlet
6. Thus a partial vacuum is created in the vacuum cleaner
7. This causes air pressure to decrease in the vacuum cleaner as compared to the outside
8. The partial vacuum at lower pressure causes a suction action
9. Air from the outside rushes in through the intake port or inlet
10. Rotating brushes positioned near the inlet kicks up dirt and dust from the surface being cleaned
Chapter 6
COORDINATION WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS
No individual department in any hotel can work in insulations. A willingness to cooperate and coordinate with the assistance of efficient methods of communication is essential if the establishment is to run smoothly. The house keeping department is just 1 of the department in a hotel working towards the satisfaction of the guests and each department is dependent on others for information and/or services if its work is to be accomplished efficiently frictions between departments must be kept to a minimum and these should be close inter department liaison.
Coordination with Front Office
Rooms are of chief concern to the front office and house keeping departments. It is important for the departments to continuously exchange information on room status. The front office must provide lists for expected arrivals and departures for the day in advance, and notify housekeeping of actual arrivals and departures as and when they occur. The font office is not allowed to assign guestrooms until the rooms have been cleaned, and released by the housekeeping department.
Each night, a front office assistant produces an ‘occupancy report’, also called the ‘night report’. This report lists rooms occupied that night and indicates guests who are expected to check out the following day. The executive housekeeper procures and consults this list early the next morning and schedules the occupied rooms for cleaning. As guests check out, the front office notifies housekeeping. Housekeeping ensures that these are given top priority in servicing, so that clean rooms are available for sale. If a guest checks out before the stated departure date, the front office must inform housekeeping that the room is no longer a stay over, but is now a check-out. To ensure efficient rooming of guests, both housekeeping and the front office must inform each other of changes in a room’s status. Knowing whether a room is occupied, vacant, on change, out of order (000), under repair, or similar, is important for proper room’s management.
A flow of information in the reverse direction is also necessary, especially by way of the ‘room status report’ or the ‘housekeeping status report’. At the end of a shift, the housekeeping department prepares the housekeeping status report, which indicates the physical count as seen by housekeeping, which is to be tallied by the reception board. This report indicates the current housekeeping status of each room. The front office must be informed about the rooms that are ready for occupation and those which are out of order or under repair. The room status report is compared with the front office’s occupancy report, and discrepancies are brought to the attention of the front office manager.
A room status discrepancy is a situation in which the housekeeping department’s description of a room’s status differs from the room status information being used by the front office to assign guestrooms. As unoccupied rooms are cleaned and inspected, the floor supervisors call the housekeeping desk attendant, who in turn informs the front office of room ready. The front office then updates the room’s status to ‘vacant and ready’. Promptly informing the front office of the housekeeping status of rooms is a tremendous aid in getting guests who arrive early registered, especially during high-occupancy or sold-out periods.
Keeping room status information up to date requires close coordination between the front desk and house keeping. The 2 common system used for tracking current room status are the manual Whitney room-rack system and the computerized room status system. The front desk may use a Whitney room rack to track the status of rooms. In this system, a room-rack slip containing the guest’s name and other relevant information is prepared during the registration process. This slip is placed in the room-rack slot corresponding to the assigned room number.
The presence of a room-rack slip in the slot indicates that the room is occupied when the guest check out the rack slip is removed and the room’s status now indicates on charge which means the room is in neat of housekeeping service before it can be registered to an arriving guest. Housekeeping meanwhile attends to the occupied room and notifies the front desk which updates the status to ‘vacant and ready’
In a computerized room status system as soon as a guest checks out the front desk enter the departure into the computer. This information is received by housekeeping via the computer terminal located in the housekeeping department. When housekeeping is done with the cleaning and inspection of the room, it enters this information into its departmental terminal. These information is received on the front office computer terminal and its puts the room on sale. This system works best when the computer system is directly connected to the guestroom telephone system. With such a neat work supervisors can inspect room cleaned by attendants and if their found ready for occupancy, enter a code on the guestroom telephone to change the room status to clean and ready in the hotels computer system within seconds, the updated room status is displayed on the screen of a front desk computer terminal. Sharing information on occupancy levels helps forecast occupancy for the year and makes it easier to draw a budget, establish per stalk levels, and estimate required staff strength. It also helps to gear renovations and spring cleaning to low occupancy periods, thereby preventing loss of revenue. The housekeeping department also receives other important information from the front office, which requires special attention.
VIPs in the house: - This information is essential so that the staff can take a little extra care and keener precautions in cleaning and supervising VIPs rooms.
Groups in the house: - The group rooming list must be provided before the group’s arrival as groups tend to move together in terms of arrival, departure, sightseeing tours, and meals. Their rooms need to be readied together in view of strict time parameters. It is also important to intimate room changes, so that items left behind by guests may be handed over extras retrieved and laundry delivered. Group rooming lists enable the department to organize their work and have the group’s rooms ready on time. This is particularly crucial when the turnover is high ends rooms are experienced back to back occupancy.
Crew in the house: - Under normal circumstances airline cruse are allotted a given set of rooms on a particular floor. However, sometimes the arrival of a crew and the departure of another crew from the same airline many overlap. In such circumstance, it is important for the allotted rooms to be cleaned within a shot period of time. Also, because of odd timings for international flights, this crew rooms may display a ‘do not disturb’ {DND} card at times when other guests are normally out which the housekeeping schedule must take into account.
Flowers: - Sometimes the management extends its compliments to a guest with a special gesture of a flower arrangement in a room as recognition of the importance of a person. This requirement of flower arrangements for creating guest is conveyed to housekeeping by the front office on a daily basis apart from the above communications. The front off needs to depend on housekeeping for the provision of c lean uniforms to its staff.
Coordination with Maintenance Department
The maintenance department is responsible for the provision of engineering facilities that contribute to the comfort of guests and increase the efficiency of staff. The housekeeping department depends on maintenance to keep things in order. While caring out their scheduled work, housekeeping employees may find some deficiencies in the hotel facilities, such as faulty electrical plugs, dripping faucets, leaking pipes, or malfunctioning air conditioning units or WC cisterns. The housekeeping department often takes the fast steps in maintenance function for which the maintenance department is ultimately responsible. However this deficiencies and faults should be immediately reported to maintenance. A need for urgent repairs is reported to maintenance over telephone and these requests are usually dealt with promptly if the rapport between the 2 departments is good. There are areas heads under which maintenance work is done.
Electrical work:- Air conditioning and heating, fused bulbs, lights and lamps that are not functioning, defective plugs and plug points, shot circuits, and faulty geysers, refrigerators and mini bars fall under this category.
Boiler work: - This is necessary to maintain a supply of hot water to guest rooms.
Mechanical work: - This entails repair or replacement of any faulty equipment, such as vacuum cleaners, ice cube machines and so on.
Plumbing work: - This deals with faulty faucets, showers, draining systems, water closets, and so on.
Civil work: - Any masonry work comes under this head.
Carpentry Work: - Broken or shaky furniture, mirrors and cupboards in less than peak condition, and fresh wood work are all part of this to look at it any other way, in terms of frequency, urgency, and complexity of the job, there are 3 levels of maintenance work.
Routine maintenance: - This involves maintenance activities that relate to the general upkeep of the hotel. They occur on a regular basis, daily or weekly, and require minimal training or skills. These activities don’t call for the making out of a formal work order, and no records are maintained for them. Most of these routine maintenance activates are carried out by housekeeping. Proper care of many surfaces and materials by housekeeping personnel is the first step in the overall maintenance programmer for the property. Examples of such activities are the replacement of fuse light bulbs, polishing of furniture, cleaning of windows and floors and so on.
Preventive maintenance: - This is a systematic approach to maintenance in which situations are identified and corrected on a regular basis to control and keep larger problems from occurring. It involves inspections, minor corrections and initiation of work orders.
Inspections: - During the normal course of their duties, housekeeping personnel carry out inspections of most areas. Room attendants and supervisors regularly check for leaking faucets, chipped caulking around bathroom fixtures, fuse bulbs, A.C., malfunctions, and so on.
Minor connection: - Problem of a greater magnitude is avoided if minor repairs are attended to promptly. If communication between housekeeping and maintenance is efficient, minor repairs will be rectified by the maintenance department even as the room attendant is cleaning the guest room.
Initiation of work orders: - Preventive maintenance sometimes identifies problem that are beyond the limited scope of minor corrections. The necessary work is then referred to the maintenance department through a formal work order system. The chief maintenance officer or the chief engineer then schedules the maintenance work to be done.
Scheduled maintenance: - This involves maintenance work initiated by a work order. Work orders are key element in the communication and coordination between housekeeping and maintenance.
The procedure for scheduled maintenance is described in this section. The moment a housekeeping personnel detects a problem that requires attention from maintenance, she calls the housekeeping control desk, stating the nature of the problem, the kind of assistance required, and the location where it is required. The control desk fills out a work order form (see exhibit 2.1) in triplicate, each copy being 9 of different color. One copy is sent to the executive housekeeper and two copies to maintenance. The chief engineer keeps one of these copies and gives the other to the tradesperson’s completed work order is sent to the executive housekeeper within an appropriate period of time, housekeeping issues another work order, which signals maintenance to provide a status report on the requested repair.
Nowadays, many hotels install a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to catapult them from the strategy colloquially called ‘bust n fix’ to one of proactive maintenance.
Engineering and maintenance departments in most hotels keep records of all equipment operated by housekeeping personnel. Equipment data cards contain basic information about these pieces of equipment. The purpose is to provide documentation of all maintenance activity on a given piece of equipment.
On the part of the housekeeping department, its personnel should cooperate with maintenance department by getting room doors unlocked promptly when repairs are being done. Housekeeping should also have maintenance rooms already stripped when redecoration is to take place and should have furniture to be removed for repair appropriately labeled.
Exhibit 2.1 Sample work order form
HOTEL SPRING LEAVES INTERNATIONAL
MAINTAINENCE WORK ORDER FORM
Time……….Date………. Check (X) indicates unsatisfactory condition
By………………………... Explain Check in Remarks section.
Location…………………. Bedroom- Foyer- Closet
Problem…………............ () Walls () Woodwork () Doors
…………………………… () Ceiling () Television () Light
…………………………… () Floors () AC unit () Blinds
Assigned To…………….. () Windows () Drapes
Date Compl……………… Remarks…………………………
Time Spent……………… …………………………………….
Completed By…………… Bathroom
Remarks……………....... () Faucets () Drains () Shower
……………………………. () Lights () Wallpaper () Paints
……………………………. () Tiles () Glass () Door
…………………………..... () Accessories () Window
……………………………. REMARKS………………………..
Coordination with Security Department
The coordination here is mainly concerned with the prevention of fire and thefts and the safekeeping of keys and lost property. There are so many security hazards on the floors that this liaison is particularly important, and the housekeeper cooperates by endeavoring to see that housekeeping staff aware of the hazards. Housekeeping personnel should also report anything of a suspicious nature immediately to the security staff. A hotel guestroom should be the most private of places and the hotel staff must ensure their guests’ security and privacy. However, a guest may take advantage of this privacy and may be engaged in certain illegal activities such as gambling, smuggling and so on. Housekeeping personnel have to be alert to this risk and seek the security departments’ intervention if necessary. The security department is responsible for conducting training session on handling emergency situations for the staff. For example, they conduct fire drills to train staff to gear up in a fire emergency.
Coordination with Food and Beverage Department
The food and beverage (F&B) department consists of both the service staff as well as the kitchen staff. The coordination of housekeeping with the restaurants and banquet halls is mainly concerned with the provision of linen and uniforms. The linen room supervisor, under the supervision of the executive housekeeper, needs to have sufficient stock of clean napery to meet the demands of the F&B department’s restaurant and banquet functions. On his/her part, the restaurant manager should ensure the time set for the exchange of linen is expected; that linen is not lost or misused ; and that intimation of forthcoming banquet functions is conveyed to housekeeping well in advance. Besides extra/special linen, housekeeping may also have to arrange for flower decorations for banquets.
Coordination between the 2 departments becomes particularly necessary in the case of room service, so that friction does not arise over matters such as waiters not collecting trays from guestrooms or room service staff leaving soiled trays in the corridors or causing extra work through careless spills on the carpet.
In many hotels, housekeeping department also looks after pest control in restaurants, kitchens, and stores attached to them. Special cleaning of these areas calls for coordination with the housekeeping department. Both restaurant and kitchen staff require clean uniforms on a daily basis, for which too they need to communicate with housekeeping. Provision of staff meals for housekeeping personnel, on the other hand, is the responsibility of the kitchen staff.
Coordination with Stores
Coordination with stores ensures the availability of day to day necessities of housekeeping. Larger hotels have a store attached to the housekeeping department that stocks linen, supplies, and so on. Smaller hotels may stock them in the general store, except for linen, which is sent to the housekeeping department on purchase. Communication with stores is by way of a requisition form, which housekeeping sends to store when it requires certain items. The format shown in Exhibit 2.2 may be used.
Exhibit 2.2 Sample stores requisition form
Hotel Snowflakes
Date……….. STORE REQUISITION FORM
Items required on…………. Item indented on………….
S. no Ledger
folio no. Name
Of item Unit Stock in hand Quantity indented Quantity issued Rate Amount
Coordination with Personnel Department
Housekeeping coordinates with the personnel department for recruitment of housekeeping staff; managing their salaries and wages; addressing indiscipline; following through grievance procedures; issuing identity cards for employees; running induction programmers; maintaining locker facilities; completing income tax formalities; effecting transfers, promotions, appraisals and exit formalities; procuring trainees; and organizing training sessions.
Coordination with Purchase Department
The purchase department procures out of stock item for housekeeping, such as guest supplies and amenities, stationery, linen, cleaning materials and equipment, and so on. Housekeeping should convey their requirements to purchase by way of advance notice in the form of a purchase requisition {Exhibit 2.3}
Exhibit 2.3 Sample purchase requisition form
Hotel Greenwoods Continental
PURCHASE REQUISITION FORM
S.NO items
required UNIT QUANTITY Specification Cost Quantity
In stock Reason
Signature of HOD:………… Approved by: Finance controller:…………
Coordination with Sales and Marketing
The sales and marketing department informs housekeeping of the occupancy forecast for entire year, which is broken up mouth wise. This enables housekeeping to budget for the necessary expenses. An important contribution to housekeeping staff to hotel sales is ensuring that repeat business is obtained by providing the level of cleanliness and service that meets are exceeds guest expectations. The sales and marketing team also have to depend on housekeeping for their uniforms. Two things are certain in hotel business: no matter how many guests a sales person brings in the door, if housekeeping doers not execute its function with excellence, the guests will not be coming back. Vice versa, no matter how well-kept the room, if the sales staffs don’t bring potential guests to the hotel, occupancy falls.
Coordination with Laundry
This applies when the laundry is under the supervision and control of a laundry manager. Without clean linen, the room attendants simply cannot operate. During periods of full occupancy, the housekeeper should stick to the schedule for the laundry. In return, the laundry should provide an acceptable standard of service with regard to laundering. Housekeeping also needs to coordinate with the laundry with regard to housekeeping employees’ uniforms and those of other departments as well.
COORDINATION WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS
No individual department in any hotel can work in insulations. A willingness to cooperate and coordinate with the assistance of efficient methods of communication is essential if the establishment is to run smoothly. The house keeping department is just 1 of the department in a hotel working towards the satisfaction of the guests and each department is dependent on others for information and/or services if its work is to be accomplished efficiently frictions between departments must be kept to a minimum and these should be close inter department liaison.
Coordination with Front Office
Rooms are of chief concern to the front office and house keeping departments. It is important for the departments to continuously exchange information on room status. The front office must provide lists for expected arrivals and departures for the day in advance, and notify housekeeping of actual arrivals and departures as and when they occur. The font office is not allowed to assign guestrooms until the rooms have been cleaned, and released by the housekeeping department.
Each night, a front office assistant produces an ‘occupancy report’, also called the ‘night report’. This report lists rooms occupied that night and indicates guests who are expected to check out the following day. The executive housekeeper procures and consults this list early the next morning and schedules the occupied rooms for cleaning. As guests check out, the front office notifies housekeeping. Housekeeping ensures that these are given top priority in servicing, so that clean rooms are available for sale. If a guest checks out before the stated departure date, the front office must inform housekeeping that the room is no longer a stay over, but is now a check-out. To ensure efficient rooming of guests, both housekeeping and the front office must inform each other of changes in a room’s status. Knowing whether a room is occupied, vacant, on change, out of order (000), under repair, or similar, is important for proper room’s management.
A flow of information in the reverse direction is also necessary, especially by way of the ‘room status report’ or the ‘housekeeping status report’. At the end of a shift, the housekeeping department prepares the housekeeping status report, which indicates the physical count as seen by housekeeping, which is to be tallied by the reception board. This report indicates the current housekeeping status of each room. The front office must be informed about the rooms that are ready for occupation and those which are out of order or under repair. The room status report is compared with the front office’s occupancy report, and discrepancies are brought to the attention of the front office manager.
A room status discrepancy is a situation in which the housekeeping department’s description of a room’s status differs from the room status information being used by the front office to assign guestrooms. As unoccupied rooms are cleaned and inspected, the floor supervisors call the housekeeping desk attendant, who in turn informs the front office of room ready. The front office then updates the room’s status to ‘vacant and ready’. Promptly informing the front office of the housekeeping status of rooms is a tremendous aid in getting guests who arrive early registered, especially during high-occupancy or sold-out periods.
Keeping room status information up to date requires close coordination between the front desk and house keeping. The 2 common system used for tracking current room status are the manual Whitney room-rack system and the computerized room status system. The front desk may use a Whitney room rack to track the status of rooms. In this system, a room-rack slip containing the guest’s name and other relevant information is prepared during the registration process. This slip is placed in the room-rack slot corresponding to the assigned room number.
The presence of a room-rack slip in the slot indicates that the room is occupied when the guest check out the rack slip is removed and the room’s status now indicates on charge which means the room is in neat of housekeeping service before it can be registered to an arriving guest. Housekeeping meanwhile attends to the occupied room and notifies the front desk which updates the status to ‘vacant and ready’
In a computerized room status system as soon as a guest checks out the front desk enter the departure into the computer. This information is received by housekeeping via the computer terminal located in the housekeeping department. When housekeeping is done with the cleaning and inspection of the room, it enters this information into its departmental terminal. These information is received on the front office computer terminal and its puts the room on sale. This system works best when the computer system is directly connected to the guestroom telephone system. With such a neat work supervisors can inspect room cleaned by attendants and if their found ready for occupancy, enter a code on the guestroom telephone to change the room status to clean and ready in the hotels computer system within seconds, the updated room status is displayed on the screen of a front desk computer terminal. Sharing information on occupancy levels helps forecast occupancy for the year and makes it easier to draw a budget, establish per stalk levels, and estimate required staff strength. It also helps to gear renovations and spring cleaning to low occupancy periods, thereby preventing loss of revenue. The housekeeping department also receives other important information from the front office, which requires special attention.
VIPs in the house: - This information is essential so that the staff can take a little extra care and keener precautions in cleaning and supervising VIPs rooms.
Groups in the house: - The group rooming list must be provided before the group’s arrival as groups tend to move together in terms of arrival, departure, sightseeing tours, and meals. Their rooms need to be readied together in view of strict time parameters. It is also important to intimate room changes, so that items left behind by guests may be handed over extras retrieved and laundry delivered. Group rooming lists enable the department to organize their work and have the group’s rooms ready on time. This is particularly crucial when the turnover is high ends rooms are experienced back to back occupancy.
Crew in the house: - Under normal circumstances airline cruse are allotted a given set of rooms on a particular floor. However, sometimes the arrival of a crew and the departure of another crew from the same airline many overlap. In such circumstance, it is important for the allotted rooms to be cleaned within a shot period of time. Also, because of odd timings for international flights, this crew rooms may display a ‘do not disturb’ {DND} card at times when other guests are normally out which the housekeeping schedule must take into account.
Flowers: - Sometimes the management extends its compliments to a guest with a special gesture of a flower arrangement in a room as recognition of the importance of a person. This requirement of flower arrangements for creating guest is conveyed to housekeeping by the front office on a daily basis apart from the above communications. The front off needs to depend on housekeeping for the provision of c lean uniforms to its staff.
Coordination with Maintenance Department
The maintenance department is responsible for the provision of engineering facilities that contribute to the comfort of guests and increase the efficiency of staff. The housekeeping department depends on maintenance to keep things in order. While caring out their scheduled work, housekeeping employees may find some deficiencies in the hotel facilities, such as faulty electrical plugs, dripping faucets, leaking pipes, or malfunctioning air conditioning units or WC cisterns. The housekeeping department often takes the fast steps in maintenance function for which the maintenance department is ultimately responsible. However this deficiencies and faults should be immediately reported to maintenance. A need for urgent repairs is reported to maintenance over telephone and these requests are usually dealt with promptly if the rapport between the 2 departments is good. There are areas heads under which maintenance work is done.
Electrical work:- Air conditioning and heating, fused bulbs, lights and lamps that are not functioning, defective plugs and plug points, shot circuits, and faulty geysers, refrigerators and mini bars fall under this category.
Boiler work: - This is necessary to maintain a supply of hot water to guest rooms.
Mechanical work: - This entails repair or replacement of any faulty equipment, such as vacuum cleaners, ice cube machines and so on.
Plumbing work: - This deals with faulty faucets, showers, draining systems, water closets, and so on.
Civil work: - Any masonry work comes under this head.
Carpentry Work: - Broken or shaky furniture, mirrors and cupboards in less than peak condition, and fresh wood work are all part of this to look at it any other way, in terms of frequency, urgency, and complexity of the job, there are 3 levels of maintenance work.
Routine maintenance: - This involves maintenance activities that relate to the general upkeep of the hotel. They occur on a regular basis, daily or weekly, and require minimal training or skills. These activities don’t call for the making out of a formal work order, and no records are maintained for them. Most of these routine maintenance activates are carried out by housekeeping. Proper care of many surfaces and materials by housekeeping personnel is the first step in the overall maintenance programmer for the property. Examples of such activities are the replacement of fuse light bulbs, polishing of furniture, cleaning of windows and floors and so on.
Preventive maintenance: - This is a systematic approach to maintenance in which situations are identified and corrected on a regular basis to control and keep larger problems from occurring. It involves inspections, minor corrections and initiation of work orders.
Inspections: - During the normal course of their duties, housekeeping personnel carry out inspections of most areas. Room attendants and supervisors regularly check for leaking faucets, chipped caulking around bathroom fixtures, fuse bulbs, A.C., malfunctions, and so on.
Minor connection: - Problem of a greater magnitude is avoided if minor repairs are attended to promptly. If communication between housekeeping and maintenance is efficient, minor repairs will be rectified by the maintenance department even as the room attendant is cleaning the guest room.
Initiation of work orders: - Preventive maintenance sometimes identifies problem that are beyond the limited scope of minor corrections. The necessary work is then referred to the maintenance department through a formal work order system. The chief maintenance officer or the chief engineer then schedules the maintenance work to be done.
Scheduled maintenance: - This involves maintenance work initiated by a work order. Work orders are key element in the communication and coordination between housekeeping and maintenance.
The procedure for scheduled maintenance is described in this section. The moment a housekeeping personnel detects a problem that requires attention from maintenance, she calls the housekeeping control desk, stating the nature of the problem, the kind of assistance required, and the location where it is required. The control desk fills out a work order form (see exhibit 2.1) in triplicate, each copy being 9 of different color. One copy is sent to the executive housekeeper and two copies to maintenance. The chief engineer keeps one of these copies and gives the other to the tradesperson’s completed work order is sent to the executive housekeeper within an appropriate period of time, housekeeping issues another work order, which signals maintenance to provide a status report on the requested repair.
Nowadays, many hotels install a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to catapult them from the strategy colloquially called ‘bust n fix’ to one of proactive maintenance.
Engineering and maintenance departments in most hotels keep records of all equipment operated by housekeeping personnel. Equipment data cards contain basic information about these pieces of equipment. The purpose is to provide documentation of all maintenance activity on a given piece of equipment.
On the part of the housekeeping department, its personnel should cooperate with maintenance department by getting room doors unlocked promptly when repairs are being done. Housekeeping should also have maintenance rooms already stripped when redecoration is to take place and should have furniture to be removed for repair appropriately labeled.
Exhibit 2.1 Sample work order form
HOTEL SPRING LEAVES INTERNATIONAL
MAINTAINENCE WORK ORDER FORM
Time……….Date………. Check (X) indicates unsatisfactory condition
By………………………... Explain Check in Remarks section.
Location…………………. Bedroom- Foyer- Closet
Problem…………............ () Walls () Woodwork () Doors
…………………………… () Ceiling () Television () Light
…………………………… () Floors () AC unit () Blinds
Assigned To…………….. () Windows () Drapes
Date Compl……………… Remarks…………………………
Time Spent……………… …………………………………….
Completed By…………… Bathroom
Remarks……………....... () Faucets () Drains () Shower
……………………………. () Lights () Wallpaper () Paints
……………………………. () Tiles () Glass () Door
…………………………..... () Accessories () Window
……………………………. REMARKS………………………..
Coordination with Security Department
The coordination here is mainly concerned with the prevention of fire and thefts and the safekeeping of keys and lost property. There are so many security hazards on the floors that this liaison is particularly important, and the housekeeper cooperates by endeavoring to see that housekeeping staff aware of the hazards. Housekeeping personnel should also report anything of a suspicious nature immediately to the security staff. A hotel guestroom should be the most private of places and the hotel staff must ensure their guests’ security and privacy. However, a guest may take advantage of this privacy and may be engaged in certain illegal activities such as gambling, smuggling and so on. Housekeeping personnel have to be alert to this risk and seek the security departments’ intervention if necessary. The security department is responsible for conducting training session on handling emergency situations for the staff. For example, they conduct fire drills to train staff to gear up in a fire emergency.
Coordination with Food and Beverage Department
The food and beverage (F&B) department consists of both the service staff as well as the kitchen staff. The coordination of housekeeping with the restaurants and banquet halls is mainly concerned with the provision of linen and uniforms. The linen room supervisor, under the supervision of the executive housekeeper, needs to have sufficient stock of clean napery to meet the demands of the F&B department’s restaurant and banquet functions. On his/her part, the restaurant manager should ensure the time set for the exchange of linen is expected; that linen is not lost or misused ; and that intimation of forthcoming banquet functions is conveyed to housekeeping well in advance. Besides extra/special linen, housekeeping may also have to arrange for flower decorations for banquets.
Coordination between the 2 departments becomes particularly necessary in the case of room service, so that friction does not arise over matters such as waiters not collecting trays from guestrooms or room service staff leaving soiled trays in the corridors or causing extra work through careless spills on the carpet.
In many hotels, housekeeping department also looks after pest control in restaurants, kitchens, and stores attached to them. Special cleaning of these areas calls for coordination with the housekeeping department. Both restaurant and kitchen staff require clean uniforms on a daily basis, for which too they need to communicate with housekeeping. Provision of staff meals for housekeeping personnel, on the other hand, is the responsibility of the kitchen staff.
Coordination with Stores
Coordination with stores ensures the availability of day to day necessities of housekeeping. Larger hotels have a store attached to the housekeeping department that stocks linen, supplies, and so on. Smaller hotels may stock them in the general store, except for linen, which is sent to the housekeeping department on purchase. Communication with stores is by way of a requisition form, which housekeeping sends to store when it requires certain items. The format shown in Exhibit 2.2 may be used.
Exhibit 2.2 Sample stores requisition form
Hotel Snowflakes
Date……….. STORE REQUISITION FORM
Items required on…………. Item indented on………….
S. no Ledger
folio no. Name
Of item Unit Stock in hand Quantity indented Quantity issued Rate Amount
Coordination with Personnel Department
Housekeeping coordinates with the personnel department for recruitment of housekeeping staff; managing their salaries and wages; addressing indiscipline; following through grievance procedures; issuing identity cards for employees; running induction programmers; maintaining locker facilities; completing income tax formalities; effecting transfers, promotions, appraisals and exit formalities; procuring trainees; and organizing training sessions.
Coordination with Purchase Department
The purchase department procures out of stock item for housekeeping, such as guest supplies and amenities, stationery, linen, cleaning materials and equipment, and so on. Housekeeping should convey their requirements to purchase by way of advance notice in the form of a purchase requisition {Exhibit 2.3}
Exhibit 2.3 Sample purchase requisition form
Hotel Greenwoods Continental
PURCHASE REQUISITION FORM
S.NO items
required UNIT QUANTITY Specification Cost Quantity
In stock Reason
Signature of HOD:………… Approved by: Finance controller:…………
Coordination with Sales and Marketing
The sales and marketing department informs housekeeping of the occupancy forecast for entire year, which is broken up mouth wise. This enables housekeeping to budget for the necessary expenses. An important contribution to housekeeping staff to hotel sales is ensuring that repeat business is obtained by providing the level of cleanliness and service that meets are exceeds guest expectations. The sales and marketing team also have to depend on housekeeping for their uniforms. Two things are certain in hotel business: no matter how many guests a sales person brings in the door, if housekeeping doers not execute its function with excellence, the guests will not be coming back. Vice versa, no matter how well-kept the room, if the sales staffs don’t bring potential guests to the hotel, occupancy falls.
Coordination with Laundry
This applies when the laundry is under the supervision and control of a laundry manager. Without clean linen, the room attendants simply cannot operate. During periods of full occupancy, the housekeeper should stick to the schedule for the laundry. In return, the laundry should provide an acceptable standard of service with regard to laundering. Housekeeping also needs to coordinate with the laundry with regard to housekeeping employees’ uniforms and those of other departments as well.
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