If you asked the General Manager of a large hotel what takes up the majority of their time, they would likely say housekeeping management, as this is at the core of their operation and its success or failure will have a direct impact on profitability. At the top of their list would be ensuring the cleanliness and orderliness of the rooms, and ensuring they are sufficiently stocked with supplies.
A key activity for any General Manager is the planning of daily work schedules and the assignment of housekeepers to different tasks. From the plan, there is then the supervision of housekeeping staff to ensure that they perform their duties to the exacting hotel standards. This will include a range of activity such as room checks, cleaning and re- ordering of rooms once guests leave, scheduled deep cleans and checking public areas, all of which can be very challenging in a busy hotel.
Gathering information from the housekeeping staff on maintenance issues and utilisation of supplies is often paper-based or by word of mouth, so in practice, some things fall down the cracks which can lead to customer complaints. If you do receive a complaint, how can you check if housekeeping performed against the expected plan? What evidence do you have to aid with performance reviews of housekeeping staff?
What you need is a cost-effective, easy-to-use, cloud-based software solution that can be easily deployed across a single hotel or a complete group. This should include a simple scheduling system, which can capture daily work routines and simplify the staff assignment process. In addition, integrated time and attendance recording will ensure you have a complete record of when and where housekeeping staff attended work, while a simple drag and drop tool will help you plan the daily activities and communicate them to your housekeeping staff on their Smartphones.
What is more, there should be a simple means of gathering evidence that the tasks were performed as planned, along with additional capabilities to electronically notify the maintenance team of any remedial work required; monitor utilisation and procurement of supplies; and manage potentially chargeable damage.
The consumer world is awash with technology advances such as AI, voice assistants, big data and self-driving cars, so why are hotel managers in many cases still using paper for much of the above? Well, you no longer have to, by using a Facilities Workforce Management solutions like SmartTask you can automate much of the above which will provide a rapid return on investment by saving many hours of management time and ensuring improved customer service. Once implemented such a system can deliver “push of the button” visibility of housekeeping staffs performance against planned activities, providing management data for employee performance reviews, along with trend analysis of key activity such as room turnaround time, cleaning duration and room checks.
Managing Hotel Housekeeping In The 21st Century
