CHAPTER 2

THE ROLE OF HOUSEKEEPING IN

HOSPITALITY OPERATIONS

OBJECTIVE : Describing the role of

housekeeping within the hotel + explaining its
relationship with the other departments.
 TYPES OF HOTELS
Three Basic Service Level Categories

Economy/limited-service Hotels
Mid-range-service hotels
World-class-service hotels
 ECONOMY/LIMITED-SERVICE HOTELS

provide clean, comfortable, inexpensive rooms and

meet the basic needs of guests

appeal to budget minded travelers e.g. families with

children, bus tour groups, business travelers,
vacationers, retirees, groups of conventioneers

has limited food & beverage service, do not offer room

service, uniformed service, banquet rooms, health
clubs

the staff consist of owners as managers, room

attendants, front desk agent, sometimes a maintenance
person
 MID-RANGE-SERVICE HOTELS

provide modest but sufficient service

appeal to the largest segment of the travelling

public e.g. business travelers on expense
accounts, tourists or families taking advantage
of special children’s rates
offer uniformed service, full food and
beverage facilities (e.g. specialty restaurants,
coffee shop, lounge, etc)
has management staff consist of a general
manager and several department managers
WORLD-CLASS-SERVICE HOTELS

provide upscale restaurants, exquisite décor,

concierge service, luxurious meeting and
private dining facilities

serve for top business executives,

entertainment celebrities, high ranking
political figures, wealthy people

provide exclusive housekeeping services e.g.

turndown service
HOTEL DIVISIONS AND DEPARTMENTS

Revenue Center:
Areas that sell goods and services to guests, in
other words, generate revenue e.g. front
office, food and beverage outlets

Support Center:
Areas that do not generate revenue directly,
but play a supporting role to the hotel’s
revenue centers e.g. housekeeping,
accounting, engineering and maintenance,
human resources.
HOTEL DIVISIONS AND DEPARTMENTS

Front-of-the -House:
Areas in which employees have guest
contact e.g. front office, food and
beverage outlets.
Back-of-the -House:
Areas in which employees have less
direct contact e.g. accounting,
engineering and maintenance,
housekeeping
HOTEL DIVISIONS AND DEPARTMENTS

The Rooms Division – front office (front desk,

cashier, mail and information section), housekeeping,
reservations, telephone, uniformed service.
The Engineering & Maintenance Division
The Human Resources Division
The Accounting Division
The Accounting Division
The Security Division
The Food & Beverage Division
The Sales & Marketing Division
 HOUSEKEEPING & FRONT OFFICE

Written Communication
- occupancy report
- housekeeping rooms status report

Mechanical Communications

Computerized Communications
 WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

Occupancy Report : prepared by a front desk agent

every night, lists the occupied rooms that night and
indicates the rooms expected to check-out the
following day

The Executive Housekeeper gets this list in the

morning and schedules the rooms for cleaning.
 WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

Housekeeping Status Report : prepared by the

Housekeeping Department at the end of the shift,
indicates the current housekeeping status of each
room (the rooms that have been cleaned that day)
based on a physical check of each room.
Room Status Discrepancy : is a situation in which the
housekeeping department’s description of a room
differs from the front desk’s description of a room.

Keeping room status information up-to-date requires

close coordination between the front desk and the
housekeeping department. The two most common
systems for tracking current room status are
mechanical room rack systems and computerized
status systems.
 MECHANICAL COMMUNICATION

A room rack may be used by the front desk to track

the status of all rooms. A room rack slip is filled at
the registration process with the guest’s name and
other necessary information and placed in the room
rack slot corresponding to the assigned room
number. The presence of a room rack slip indicates
that the room is occupied. When the guest checks
out, the rack slip is removed and the room’s status is
changed to an on-change.
This system may lead to mistakes and delays in the
room status information between housekeeping and
front desk. For example, if a room rack slip is
mistakenly left in the rack after the guest’s check out,
front desk agents may think that a vacant room is still
occupied (sleeper)

Here, the communication between housekeeping

and front office may be spoken (on the telephone),
written (through the usual reports) or telewriter.
 COMPUTERIZED COMMUNICATION

In a computerized room status system, housekeeping

and front desk uses a computer terminal which
ensures instant access to room status information.
When a guest checks out, a front desk agent enters
the departure into the computer which alerts
housekeeping that the room needs cleaning. After
the room is cleaned and inspected, housekeeping
enters this information into the terminal. This is how
the front office is informed that the room is available
for sale.
 COMPUTERIZED COMMUNICATION

When the computer system is connected to the

guestroom telephone system, the supervisors can
enter a designated code on the room telephone to
change the room’s status in the hotel’s computer
system to inform front desk that the room is ready
for sale. This saves time and energy in informing the
front desk about the status of the rooms.
 ROOM STATUS DEFINITIONS

OCCUPIED: A guest is currently registered to the

room.
COMPLIMENTARY: The room is occupied, but the
guest is assessed no charge for its use.

STAYOVER: The guest is not checking out today and

will remain at least one more night.

ON-CHANGE: The guest has departed, but the room

has not yet been cleaned and readied for re-sale.
 ROOM STATUS DEFINITIONS

SLEEP OUT: A guest is registered to the room but the

bed has not been used.
SKIPPER: The guest has left the hotel without making
arrangements to settle his/her account.

SLEEPER: The guest has settled his/her account and

left the hotel, but the front office staff has failed to
properly update the room’s status.

VACANT AND READY: The room has been cleaned

and inspected, and is ready for an arriving guest.
 ROOM STATUS DEFINITIONS

LOCK OUT: The room has been locked so that the

guest cannot re-enter until he/she is cleared by hotel
official.

DUE OUT: The room is expected to become vacant

after the following day’s check-out time.

CHECK-OUT: The guest has settled his/her account,

returned the room keys, and left the hotel.
 ROOM STATUS DEFINITIONS

LATE CHECK-OUT: The guest has requested and is

being allowed to check-out later than the hotel’s
standard check-out time.

OUT-OF-ORDER: The room cannot be assigned to a

guest. A room may be out-of-order for a variety of
reasons, including the need for maintyenance,
refurbishing, and extensive cleaning.

DO NOT DISTURB: The guest has requested not to be

disturbed.
 HOUSEKEEPING &
ENGINEERING/MAINTENANCE

Routine maintenance

Preventive maintenance

Scheduled maintenance
- maintenance work order
 HOUSEKEEPING &
ENGINEERING/MAINTENANCE

Routine Maintenance : activities are those which

occur on a regular (daily or weekly) basis for the
general upkeep of the property. E.g. sweeping
carpets, washing floors, cleaning windows, replacing
burned-out light bulbs, cleaning guest rooms. Many
of them are handled by housekeeping.
 HOUSEKEEPING &
ENGINEERING/MAINTENANCE

Preventive Maintenance : consists of three parts:

inspection, minor correction and work order
initiation. Every day, the rooms are routinely
inspected for any leaks, cracks, etc. If there are some
minor problems, engineering is informed through the
telephone and they are corrected while the room
attendant is cleaning the guestroom.

However, preventive maintenance sometimes

identifies major problems for which work orders are
initiated. Then, this type of work is referred to as
scheduled maintenance.
 HOUSEKEEPING &
ENGINEERING/MAINTENANCE

Scheduled Maintenance : activities are initiated at

the property based on a formal work order. Work
orders are the key in the communication between
housekeeping and engineering. When a work order is
filled by the housekeeping, one copy is kept is kept in
the department and two copies are sent to the
engineering to inform them. One of those copies is
kept by the chief engineer and the other is given to
the engineering staff who will fix the problem.