As a professional and trainer in Executive Housekeeping Dep., I face often comments from people outside the hospitality industry, trainees, and even colleagues from other departments, that the work carried out by us boils down to cleaning rooms. This is, undoubtedly, the task that requires more responsibility from us; however, for the department to perform well, it is necessary to pay the same attention to other tasks that we are responsible for, whether they are related to the guests stay or the daily work of all our colleagues.
Before listing those tasks, it is important to bear in mind that not all of them are currently under the responsibility of the Housekeeping department, as it depends on the category of the hotel itself, or on the external contracting of some of the services. However, I always consider it pertinent to understand the relevance of all of them, regardless of the hotel where we work.
Thus, besides cleaning, we are also responsible for:
To tidy up
I believe it is very important for everyone inside and outside the department to realise that much of our work involves tidying things up and running errands, and there is no need to clean them. This is more noticeable, for example, in Public Areas, as they are places frequented by both guests and hotel employees and which means that there is a constant movement of people. Thus, I consider it essential to have a system of periodic and organized rounds on these places, as it allows having (almost) always someone circulating everywhere and thus keep all spaces tidy. In carrying out these rounds, it is also important to understand the need to pay extra attention to what is in front and around us, in order to achieve effective preventive maintenance. When approaching this topic of tidying thing up, I think it is also important to highlight the fact that it becomes a challenge for us, with the appearance of hotels in buildings that were originally built for housing, to find appropriate spaces within these buildings to store and organize everything we need to carry out our work: bed and bath linen, stocks of amenities, stationary, cleaning materials and equipment, decoration objects, employee uniforms (if necessary) and laundry for guests. There is a lack of awareness to the need for these spaces when transforming these types of buildings and it is something that undoubtedly has a great impact on the journeys we have to make throughout our day and the conditions in which our materials will be stored;
To manage the Lost and Found registration process
This is, accordingly to my experience, a task that is given little importance, whether in the organization of the space, in which the items are stored, or in the entire registration and delivery procedure of the item(s) to the guest. It is a task that is the responsibility of all team members, which begins when something is found in a hotel area and ends when the guest receives or discards it. At this point, the existence of a shared system between Housekeeping and Reception is crucial, so that communication can flow in a simple way, either with records in shared files or records in the Property Management System;
To decorate rooms and areas for special occasions
More and more teams in hotels try to create memorable moments for guests during their stay and wherever I worked, the Housekeeping team is largely responsible for the execution of these moments. Whether placing flowers, balloons and messages in the room, or using towels, or another item of bedroom linen, to create romantic elements (something that is going out of fashion, but which still manages to surprise, especially when people know how they are made). At this point, it is important not to forget what can be done for children, because although they are the ones to enjoy the pampering, the impact will be greater on the parents and the memory of the surprise will remain with them for much longer;
To collect and deliver employee uniforms
There are more and more hotels that choose not to be responsible for cleaning employees' uniforms, assigning this task to the employees themselves or to outsourcing laundries. However, in hotels that still provide this service to employees, the collection and delivery system has to be well organized and requires time and attention, since finding a system that meets the needs of all people in all departments is an almost impossible task! It is also important to remember that sewing arrangements happen frequently and that we must be able to respond to the situation in a timely manner, which is valid for both uniforms and guests’ clothing. Never forget that the clothes we wear in our workplace, and their conditions, is still an image that the hotel passes on to the guests and to all people from the outside;
To manage orders and contacts with suppliers
Now approaching the management perspective, this task is something that requires a lot of attention on our part, since if any order fails, the impact can be disastrous for the normal functioning of the department, meaning lack of products and materials. It also takes time to manage budgets, and sometimes it is necessary to look for new product alternatives, new suppliers so that we can continuously provide an excellent service and meet the financial expectations of directors;
Team management
In my opinion, the most important task when we are in a supervisory position. In my previous workplaces, the importance given to technical skills was much higher than to the search and development of interpersonal skills (in any position in the department). I believe that we should aim for a Housekeeping department in which both are combined, as happens (or is actively sought after) in the other departments. Within team management, we can include the promotion of teamwork, as teamwork is much more than people working at the same time or side by side (but this could be something to explore in another article!); it also includes conflict management, something that happens very often, especially in large teams, and that is usually ignored and attributed to someone’s “temper”; and also include training, something that is not fully valued within the department, as it is almost a given that all people know how to clean and how to do other tasks almost innately. My experience proves this is wrong.
I think that one of the ways to awaken the interest of younger people to work in this department implies more relevance to everything that was mentioned in this article, which doesn’t imply cleaning, because the stigma associated with this profession, and cleaning task, is still great. However, the dynamism that can be obtained in a job within this department and I believe that together with the modernization of procedures, better equipment and better management of teams, the Housekeeping department can (and should!) evolve in the near future.
author:
Sílvia Melo
Teacher at EHTP and Assistant Housekeeping Manager at The Largo
Obs:
Additional elements and bibliography available in the article originally published in LOBBY magazine No. 02.
