Special Report

H&MM October 1, 2007 HotelMotel.com

www. Hotelf\/lotel. com/digital_edition

CLEANING & MAINTENANCE SOLUTIONS

Housekeeping evolution means efficiency

By Jason Q. Freed
ASSOCIATE EDITOR

hen the guest in

room 357 wants additional towels, he
doesn't want to wait long.
In the past, the guest would
call the front desk, which would
contact the housekeeping office,

which would search around rhe

storage room for towels and decide
who was going to deliver them.
It could have taken nearly
an hour for the guest to get his
towels.
This facet of customer service fails squarely on the housekeeping department, which has

evolved drastically during the past

decade.
Now, at tnany locations, the
guest contacts an "at-your-service"
employee, who is trained specifically in dealing with customers
and knows where housekeeping
staH members are at all times. A
message is sent to a housekeeper's

handheld communication device,

and he or she finds the nearest satellite closet and delivers the towels
within a matter of minutes.
"Twelve or 14 years ago. we
thought beepers were pretty cool,"
said Jim Kerrigan, regional vice
president, director of operations
For Windsor Hospitality Group.

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Specialized industries demand specialized

cleaning. Jani-King bas stood tbe test of time
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From casinos and cruise ships to hotels

The Gaylord Opryland expects

employees to have more skill sets
than they've had in the past.

"Now, technology has brought

us tremendous ways to improve
customer service. It speeds up the
process."
Lodging executives agree that
housekeeping is the heart ofthe
hotel. After all, the cleanliness of
rooms and the ability to get amenities make the biggest impact on
a guest. But it wasn't until about
a decade ago that management
began focusing on technology.

and resorts, Jani-King delivers quality and

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Our concept and passion for perfectioti has

Kerrigan

McCann

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training courses and hiring standards to improve the efficiency of

the housekeeping department.
At the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in
Nashville, Tenn., the department
has experienced many changes. Because housekeeping staff is
now expected to communicate
with guests more, management
is "extremely picky" with whom
they hire, said Derek McCann,
director of rooms.
"The skill set ofthe individual
has changed," he said. "In the past,
we just assumed anyone could do
that job. Now we look for someone who doesn't just go to work
and clean rooms; it's about going
that extra step and getting whatever the guest needs."
An increase in guest interaction prompted Windsor HospitalSee Efficiency 1 page 56

I Special Report

www. HotetMotd. com/digital_edition

H&MW October 1, 2007 I HotelMotel.com

CLEANING & MAINTENANCE SOLUTIONS

Efficiency
Continued from page 54
ity Group to offer second iar^age
programs to its housekeeping staff,
Kerrigan said.
And employees across the
board now are being trained on
how to operate the newest technologies, which increase efficiency in keeping a hotel clean.

At the Gaylord Opryland, a

property-management system is
run solely by computer programs
that are much more sophisticated
than they were in the past. When
housekeeping personnel arrives,
instead of printing a report of all
the rooms that were occupied the
previous night, management now
is able to allocate certain rooms to
certain housekeepers and provide
more details to the staff.

"We no longer spend hours

breaking down room counts,"
McCann said. "It's a huge amount
of labor savings."

Easier time
Efficiencies in the cleaning industry have helped considerably.
Coffee makers now brew by the
cup directly into a mug, which
means housekeepers don'r have to
remove and clean coffee pots on

a daily basis. Housekeepers use

lighter, quieter vacuum cleaners
that can be run throughout the
night without disturbing guests
in adjacent rooms. In lobbies and
hallways, housekeepers use mostly cordless devices, which prevent accidents and help srafif move
more quickly.
But the introduction of technology has brought with it a vast
array ofguest expeaarions. Guests

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expect the newest technology and

best products in their room, and
they expect service to be qu ick and
painless. For example, at Windsor
Hospitality Group properties, all
rooms are triple sheeted, which
affects the time housekeepers put
into cleaning linens.
"Things that 15 to 20 years
ago were considered concierge
are now standard," Kerrigan said.
"The expectations ofthe customer have changed."
Gerry Chase, c.e.o. of New
Castle Hotels and Resorts, agreed,
saying New Castle's biggest change
has been in its bedding/linens program. With the introduction ofduvets about six years ago, there has
been a 10 percent increase in linen
costs, and it also takes more time
to clean each
room. Therefore, he said,
the amount of
rooms a housekeeper cleans
per day, or per
eight hours,
has decreased
slightly.
Chase
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"As a company, we have

made adjustments to that," he
said. "More demand in the hotels
has helped offset the costs."
Chase said New Castle has
spent a great deal of time over
the past six months looking into
their green program. They are attempting to use new technologies
to speed up the laundry process
while saving on energy consumption. More biodegradable products
are being used, and New Castle is
transferring to new washing machines that consume less vrater.
"We hope to have it down by
the end of this year," Chase said.
As new technologies arc introduced, housekeeping duties conti nue to evolve. Hoteliers focus on
training their staff on the newest
equipment, and the new equipment helps employees work more
efficiently.
As these changes aim to improve the quality of a room, Kerrigan said it is important to have
excellent communication with
the honsekeepi ng staff.
"They need to be given the
tools," he said. "It's one of those
under-appreciated departments,
and they need to be valued
employees."
jfi'eed@cjuestex. com