Download to read offline
LODGING REPORTINGS......................
- 1. INTRODUCTION Due of itslong staff hours, the cleaning department has a major influence on guests’ perceptions and is a crucial cost center in hotels. Since it doesn’t make money, its effectiveness is crucial. Aligning staff with hotel size, guest type, occupancy, and workload—especially during peak hours—is necessary for optimal staffing. To establish the total number of staff days needed, staffing calculations entail estimating task durations (e.g., 30 minutes per occupied room for cleaning). A daily hourly method that accounts for different shift types and occupancy levels as well as giving employees days off is recommended for new enterprises. To get ideal staffing levels, management must strike a balance between employee count and service coverage.
- 2. HOUSEKEEPING SERVICES • All hotelsrequire housekeeping services, varying in sophistication from luxury resorts demanding daily linen changes and turndown service, to university residences needing only weekly sheet refreshes. Mid-range hotels typically require daily cleaning, daily linen changes, and 24-hour service. Effective management of the housekeeping department is crucial for any lodging establishment’s success.
- 3. • Hospitality graduatesseeking an executive housekeeper position should consider that smaller or medium-sized properties offer faster advancement than larger, more complex operations. The executive housekeeper role is challenging, rewarding, and can serve as a stepping stone to becoming a general manager.
- 4. • When seekinginitial employment, graduates should distinguish between independently owned properties, chains, franchised hotels, and those managed by companies. Independent ownership may limit advancement opportunities, whereas national and international expansion by chains provides extensive prospects. Management companies can offer similar advancement possibilities if they oversee numerous properties, though smaller management companies may have fewer regular openings. Working for a franchised hotel under a brand name like Marriott or Sheraton means employment by the independent owner, not the parent corporation. Lodging, a key component of the hospitality industry, relies on the rooms division to provide services with kindness and efficiency, directly impacting the property’s overall profitability.
- 5. LARGE PROPERTIES • In LargeProperties, operational units are known as divisions. Divisions like rooms and food and beverage generate revenue, while others function as support centers. The director of the rooms division, who may also be called resident manager, executive manager, or senior assistant manager, reports directly to the general manager.
- 6. EXECUTIVE HOUSEKEEPER • The executivehousekeeper heads the housekeeping department, typically the largest in an establishment, holding a department head rank equivalent to other managers. In smaller properties, department heads report directly to the general manager. The housekeeping department is crucial across all lodging operation areas, maintaining primary communication with front office and engineering, but also requiring strong relationships with other units like room service (for tray removal) and sales (for showing ready rooms).
- 7. GUESTROOM IN LODGING PROPERTIES • Thefront office sells guestrooms in lodging properties and requires constant knowledge of cleaned and available rooms. Housekeeping must provide a list of ready rooms for guest check-ins. Poor communication between the front desk and housekeeping can lead to check-in delays or guests being placed in unprepared rooms, negatively impacting the property’s reputation. Daily communication starts with the front desk providing a night clerk’s room report to housekeeping.
- 8. HOUSEKEEPING EMPLOYEE • Housekeeping employeestransfer front desk information to supervisors, who then inform room attendants. The front desk alerts housekeeping to discrepancies between reported room statuses and physical inspections, which can arise for various reasons.
- 9. FUNCTION OF HOUSEKEEPING MANAGER • Housekeepingroles often involve non-traditional working weeks due to hotels’ peak weekend business. The work is physically demanding, requiring the handling of cleaning equipment, furniture manipulation, and prolonged standing. Developing strong interpersonal skills is beneficial, as housekeepers interact directly with guests. Senior housekeepers may also gain managerial experience, overseeing staff and potentially budgets, necessitating numerical and accounting aptitudes. A primary responsibility of housekeeping management is maintaining environmental sanitation, ensuring both bacteriological and visual cleanliness standards are met.
- 10. HOUSEKEEPING MANAGEMENT • Housekeeping managementand supervisory roles may be classified under the general schedule if their primary requirement is management knowledge and experience, even if secondary trades or craft experience is also needed. Conversely, supervisory positions exempt from the general schedule due to a primary need for trades, craft, or laboring experience may still include secondary managerial skills comparable to those in general schedule roles.
- 11. ASSISTANT HOUSEKEEPING OFFICERS • Assistanthousekeeping officers who hold full managerial responsibility and share these responsibilities to a significant degree, forming the basis of the position’s paramount requirement, are covered by the general schedule when reporting to housekeeping officers.
- 12. HOUSEKEEPING OFFICER • The housekeepingofficer bears full responsibility for managing the housekeeping program at a healthcare facility. This includes planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling, and evaluating the program. Key duties involve coordinating housekeeping with other facility activities, setting policy and goals, conducting management reviews, balancing quality with budget constraints, providing training, and actively participating in the facility’s overall management structure. Housekeeping officers are also responsible for formulating, implementing, coordinating, and controlling comprehensive environmental sanitation programs.
- 13. SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIREDFOR HOUSEKEEPING MANAGEMENT POSITION:
- 14. • Ability todevelop procedures which mesh the specific goals of the housekeeping department with the broad overall goals of the, and ability to work with other managers to coordinate respective programs;
- 15. • Ability todelegate authority,
- 16. • Ability toanalyze problems and make decisions taking into full consideration a wide range of factors and requirements;
- 17. • Ability tocommunicate effectively with a wide variety of people, c.g.. Justifying program goals and plans to top managers and motivating housekeeping employees;
- 18. • Familiarity withgovernment-wide, agency, and rules and regulations in areas such as budget, personnel and labor relatiotts, and ability to develop operating procedures for implementing these requirements the local housekeeping program
- 19. • Practical workingknowledge of some of the basic principles of chemistry, biology and bacteriology as applied to environmental sanitation, infection control, and choice and use of cleaning agents and equipment, and as gained by on-the-job training supplemented by related experience, education or special outside courses,
- 20. • Knowledge ofhousekeeping methods and techniques, of various floor, wall, and ceiling covering materials and theit properties, and of current developments concerning new clearning agents, techniques and equipment.
- 21. This includes responsibility forperforming the full range of the following duties and responsibilities:
- 22. • Determining long-range,intermediate, and short-range program goals and policies independently or jointly with higher management and/or the appropriate committee(s);
- 23. • Developing andimplementing organizational structures and operating plans and procedures to achieve program goals, monitoring effectiveness and efficiency of operations within the established framework, and making adjustments as necessary;
- 24. • Determining needfor and allocation of resources, and accounting for their effective use;
- 25. • Coordinating programefforts with other internal activities, and, as necessary, program management officials at the headquarters level;
- 26. • Understanding agencyand local policies and priorities and communicating them throughout the housekeeping department; and communicating the goals of the housekeeping program to other departments;
- 27. • Establishing personnelmallagement policies for the housekeeping department which are in line with the general personnel policies of the agency and the local; dealing with personnel actions affecting key employers and with other actions with possible serious repercussions, and,
- 28. • Delegating authorityto subordinate supervisors and holding them responsible for the performance of their respective organizational units
- 29. INTERIOR DECORATION • Responsibility forinterior decoration in a hotel includes developing a guest- centric, aesthetically pleasing plan considering durability, cleanability, suitability, expense, and aesthetic value of materials. While staff preferences are noted, the hotel housekeeping officer holds final selection authority, subject to management or committee review.
- 30. LAUNDRY • Responsibility includesactive management of technical laundry operations, in conjunction with the plant manager, covering equipment selection and usage, work standard establishment, and workflow procedure development and revision.
- 31. CONTROL OF LINEN MANAGEMENT • Thehousekeeping officer manages the complete linen lifecycle, encompassing procurement, stock levels, ward quotas, transportation of clean and soiled linens, and laundering, repair, and replacement services.
- 32. DEVELOP CLEANING INVENTORIES • Create detailedlists of items requiring regular cleaning and maintenance for each area (e.g., guestrooms, lobby). These lists should follow the sequence of cleaning tasks.
- 33. ESTABLISH CLEANING FREQUENCY • Determine howoften each item needs cleaning (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). Area cleaning inventories can be combined with frequency schedules into a single document. Deep cleaning, typically done once or twice a year during low occupancy, should also be planned.
- 34. SET PERFORMANCE STANDARD • Define clearexpectations for cleaning outcomes, including the equipment, supplies, and methods to be used. These standards should be specific and measurable (e.g., “wipe the surface clean with a sanitized rag until no spots remain”). Engaging cleaning staff in the development of these standards is beneficial.
- 35.