The housekeeping department plays a critical role in the functioning – and success – of a hospitality business. Whether you operate a hotel, motel, dormitory, or bed and breakfast, your housekeeping department is responsible for taking care of your guests’ expectations.
We’ll explore exactly how your housekeeping services can help your business in a variety of ways.
What is Hospitality Housekeeping?
The whole idea behind the hospitality industry is to provide service to customers and guests. Depending on your business, these services can include accommodation, food & drinks, transportation, event planning, and much more.
Since this post is specifically about the hospitality aspect of your business, let’s focus on that.
Depending on the size – and room count – of your facility, your housekeeping department staffing can be as small as a couple of part-time employees or as large as dozens of full-time employees. Daily cleaning of the guest rooms are also typically included in traditional hotels and motels and includes:
- Making the bed
- Changing the sheets
- Dusting and vacuuming
- Cleaning the bathroom
- Taking the trash out
- Restock items in the room (e.g., linens, soap, shampoo, drinks, towels, etc.)
The housekeeping department also makes sure that the public areas such as the reception lobbies, hallways, recreation areas, parking lots, and public bathrooms stay clean 24×7, which means these areas are cleaned several times each day.
Why Hospitality Housekeeping Is Important
Since it’s the housekeeping services that keep your facility clean and shiny year-round, you can imagine how critical their role is in your organization. In the hospitality industry, strict cleanliness is not optional – it’s an expected standard that must be met, every time.
It’s easy to assume that a housekeeper – traditionally known as a maid – simply brings fresh towels and changes the bedding. But they do much more than that.
A housekeeper who works in the hospitality industry is tasked with making sure the guests are comfortable and enjoying their stay at the establishment. This can mean bringing items to guests as they need them, or checking on appliances to ensure they are working properly, or removing stains from the carpeting in a guest room.
In hotels, B&Bs, and other lodging establishments, the major part of revenue comes from the rooms so naturally, housekeeping is always a top priority (as it should be).
A hospitality industry owner can find themselves in serious trouble if the hotel doesn’t meet quality standards of cleaning.
The internet has made the world smaller, and if your guests think your hospitality cleaning services are cutting corners or simply ineffective, you may find yourself on the wrong end of a surprise health inspection. Or your online business page (on Google or Tripadvisor) may be bombarded with extremely damaging negative online reviews from a negative guest experience.
Here’s why it pays to have reliable and quality hotel cleaning services:
Cleanliness is everything in 2021: The term “cleanliness” means something a bit different now than it did pre-COVID-19. A competent housekeeping staff now not only cleans the rooms but may also disinfect the high-traffic areas.
Disinfecting will reduce the transmission risk of pathogens, including the coronavirus, at your facility.
Ensuring comfortable stay:
Your priority is to ensure that your guests feel at home in your hotel. Whether it’s a boisterous family on a holiday or a business traveler, they should feel welcomed, safe, and comfortable.
An effective housekeeping services staff will keep the guests in their comfort zone, ultimately improving your business’s bottom line.
What Constitutes Effective Hospitality Housekeeping
Your housekeeping department has the same responsibilities as your competitors’ housekeeping services. If you want to gain a competitive edge over your competition, you must go the extra mile; simply performing routine cleaning is not enough to do this.
Prioritize Guest Needs:
Set daily priorities before you send the housekeeping staffing team out. Aligning your services with the needs of your guests will enable your staff to prioritize their tasks and insure cleaning standards are met – or exceeded.
The focus should also be placed on recent guest complaints. Involvement and oversight by the housekeeping services supervisor are critical to ensure thorough cleaning is adhered to on an ongoing basis.
Embrace Technology:
If you’re not using a mobile app or web-based software for your housekeeping services, you’re missing out.
Servi-Tek’s proprietary software, Servi-Trak, helps you ensure all hospitality cleaning services work orders are addressed on time and closed out. It also includes a self-inspection module for facility inspections.
Pest Awareness Training:
The last thing you want is to receive complaints from your guests about pests. Rodents, cockroaches, bedbugs, and flies shouldn’t be cohabiting with your guests, period.
Train your staff to spot these pests to prevent any embarrassing situations.
Effective cleaning in both common areas and guest rooms can minimize attracting creepy-crawlies and them from breeding.
Take Sustainability Measures:
73% of millennials say they are willing to pay more for environment-friendly brands. More and more guests are now seeking accommodations that take clear measures to protect the planet.
Consider utilizing eco-friendly cleaning supplies or hire a janitorial services company that can utilize LEED-certified “green products”. Implementing initiatives to minimize water usage by reducing towel usage, for example, are also a meaningful sustainability measure.
How Housekeeping Services Can Affect Your Bottom Line
Nothing – NOTHING – repulses guests more than visibly dirty and unkempt housekeeping accommodations. According to a survey, 97% of guests think that having a clean room is the most important factor in the hospitality industry.
Your facility’s level of cleanliness immediately sets the tone for quality, plus it shows your guests exactly how much you care – or don’t – about their guest experience.
It’s safe to assume that failure to meet their housekeeping services expectations can do irreversible damage to your brand’s reputation. As one study concluded, a single negative review can cost your hotel nearly 30 guests.
Investing in housekeeping services and establishing strict quality standards can help you stand apart from your competition. Experienced and dedicated housekeeping staff will not only enhance your guests’ experience but help your facility and brand gain a competitive edge and improve your financial bottom line.
Guest Satisfaction = Repeat Visits
Guests feel motivated to return to a hotel, motel, or a B&B for several reasons, including price and location. However, what drives long-term loyalty is a consistent experience that meets and exceeds their most basic needs.
This means having clean sheets, hot water, and fresh towels every day of their stay. If your rooms are clean and comfortable, and your staff goes out of their way to make the guest feel important and even special, they will be way more likely to revisit.
Remember cleanliness also includes in the common areas of the facility, including recreation areas, walkways, parking lots, and lobbies.
Show Guests High-Touch Customer Service
Want your guests or customers to keep coming back for more? Make sure you have a housekeeping staff that resolves problems before your guests have time to even think about them.
It’s the hallmark of a great hospitality brand to consistently exceed guests’ expectations. To turn a guest into a lifelong loyal customer, you need to delight and dazzle them with a personalized touch. And this can only be achieved through a well-thought-out housekeeping management service.
For example, while cleaning a guest’s bathroom, one of your housekeepers notices that the guest’s toothpaste has been squeezed to the last drop. Instead of waiting for the guest to request another tube of toothpaste, the housekeeper decides to do that right away. The guest will take notice and appreciate their attentiveness.
If your housekeeping staff takes pride in their work and takes the initiative to know each guest and their preference, nothing can stop you from becoming successful in your industry. Here is an example of how a housekeeping staff can make your guests experience memorable:
Leaving an extra bottle (or two) of water if the guest uses the fitness center or goes jogging every day. A note wishing them to have a great workout will be the cherry on top.
A high-touch guest experience does not have to cost a lot of money; it, instead, is an attitude.
It’s All About the Details
Preventing the Spread of Illness
Although infection prevention should always be top of mind for businesses in the hospitality industry, the focus has never been stronger than with the COVID-19 pandemic.
A good housekeeping services staff knows the difference between cleaning and disinfecting, and how both of these processes affect the spread of infection. Cleaning means removing dirt and dust from surfaces while disinfecting refers to the process of eliminating germs, bacteria, and pathogens.
Trained housekeepers can clean and sanitize high-touch surfaces such as doorknobs, countertops, sink faucets, light switches, elevator buttons, etc.
Maintaining Peace of Mind
Let your guests know that your establishment takes their health and safety very seriously. If you own or operate a B&B, motel, hotel, or rental property, consider having your housekeeping staff use Clean Seals.
These Clean Seals tags will assure your guests that their room has been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
Guests love this little tool because it lets them know the establishment owners are adhering to the strict safety protocols and care about their wellbeing.
Best-In-Class Janitorial Provider for Your Housekeeping Needs
Stellar hospitality equals explosive growth. 86% of people in America are ready to pay more for a better customer experience. If you’re working in this industry, it’s your job to improve the hospitality levels of your business. You don’t want a guest to jump on Facebook to tell the world about some issue they had during their stay.
Servi-Tek Facility Solutions is a full-service commercial janitorial contractor with experience in a wide array of property types. Our best-in-class service delivery platform can be tailored to your hospitality cleaning services requirements. The bottom line is exemplary customer service is our forte.
To learn more about our complete suite of commercial janitorial and maintenance services, please call us at (866) 454-6185 or leave us a message online.
