Housekeeping Organization

Housekeeping Organization

Introduction

                  Housekeeping organization is largest organization in any hotel which involve in the running of a household activities such as cleaning, home maintenance, shopping, laundry, & bill pay. Also it can be defines as general care, orderliness & maintenance of business or property. Housekeeping organization should be well managed and systematic so that working procedures could be easy.

Layout of Housekeeping department

                  There is no idea of universal model for the layout of a housekeeping department. The layout differs from hotel to hotel and is dependent upon its size & physical space limitation. However if the housekeeper is involved in the facility planning stage, s/he must be told the number of function rooms and the volume of business anticipated so as to estimate the amount of linen required as also the types & sizes of table clothes to cater to variety of tables.

                  The following spaces would have to be provided for the essential activities of the department:

• Housekeeper's office
           This is the main administration center for the department. It must be an independent cabin to provide the housekeeper with silence to plan out his work. It will also provide her privacy to counsel her staff or hold departmental meetings. It should be preferably be a glass paneled office so as to give her a view of what is happening outside her office. The office should be preceded by a cabin for security that would control movement into the housekeeper's office.
• Desk Control Room
           This is the main communication center of housekeeping. This is the room where all the information is sent out and received in the concerning department. It is the nerve center of housekeeping. It coordinates with Front office, Room service, Maintenance, Banquets etc. The Control desk should have a desk and a chair with preferably more than one telephone. It should have a large notice board, schedules, day to day instructions, etc. It would normally adjoin the housekeeper's office.
• Linen Room       
           This is the room where current linen is stored for issue and receipt. The room should be large airy and free from heat & humidity. It should have an adequate shelves, easy accessible, to stack all the linen. It should be secure & offer no possibilities of pilferage,
• Linen Uniform Store
            This room stores the stocks of new linen cloth materials for uniforms. The stock maintain should be enough to replenish the whole hotel once over. However, these stocks are only touched when the current linen in circulation falls short due ti damage or loss.
• Uniform Room
            This room stocks the uniform in current use. It is possible that similar hotels may choose to combine the uniform room with the linen room. A separate uniform really depend on the volume of uniforms in circulation. The only difference would be that the uniform rooms have adequate hanging facilities as many uniforms are best maintained with hung.
• Tailors Room          This room is kept for house tailors who attend to the stitching and mending work of linens & uniforms. If the house policy is to contract out all tailoring & mending work, the tailors room could be avoided.
• Lost and Found Section          This should be small space, away from the thoroughfare, secure, cool and dry place with a cupboard to store all the guest articles that are lost and may be claimed later.
• Flower Room
            This room should be an air- conditioned room to keep fresh flower for the flower arrangements that a hotel require. The room should have work tables, a sink & water supply.
• Floor Pantries
            Each guest floor must have a floor pantry to keep the supply of linen, guest supplies & cleaning supplies for the floor. It is the housekeeping nerve center for the floor. The floor pantry should keep one complete set of linen for the floor above what is in circulation in the rooms. The pantry should be away from the guest view and situated at the service landing near the service elevators. It should include shelves and cupboards to stack all the linens & supplies.
• Heavy Equipment Store
             This will be the room to store the bulk items, such as vacuum cleaner, shampooing machine, ladders etc. The room should be clean and dry. It should also be securely locked to avoid stealing or pilferage by the other departments.
• Green House
              As a horticulture comes under housekeeping, normally a green house foster specialized plant is necessary in the garden areas. The green house should have wooden racks to store pots, etc.
• Horticulture equipment store
              There are number of garden equipment's such as; lawn movers, spades, rakes, pots, etc that are essential for gardening operations. These need to be stored safely. A store close to the gardening operation must be provided. The larger the landscape to be tended, the larger will be the storage measurement.

Organizational chart of Housekeeping in small hotels:

Organizational chart of Housekeeping in medium hotels:

Organizational chart of Housekeeping in large hotels:

Duties and responsibilities of Housekeeping staff:

Executive Housekeeper

• checking the cleanliness of entire hotel.
• Providing comfortable and safe environment to guest.
• Co-operation with other department.
• Recruitment, engagement, dismissal and welfare of staffs.
• Supervision control and training to staffs.
• Implementing the policy of the company, organizing, work schedules, duty roasters setting standards and achieve goals.
• Checking of room occupancy list.
• Dealing with guest complaints & request.
• Reporting & checking of maintenance work.
• Control and supervision of the work of linen rooms and possibly the laundry.
• Dealing with lost property.
• Responsibility for keys in his/ her department.
• Prevention of fire and other accidents in the department.
• Care of sick and provision of first aid for staff and guests.
• Ordering and control of stores in the department.
• Advise on the interior design of rooms.
• Keeping inventories and record of equipment, redecoration and any responsibility for floral decoration.
• Making budget of housekeeping department.
• The purchase of supplies and equipment.
• A combination of profitability, reputation and smooth running of establishment.

Public Area Supervisor

• To supervise reports to work, collect keys & signs for them.
• Check all the public areas check lists and see that they meet the standard of cleanliness.
• Make a regular & complete schedule programs for the public area cleaning, daily & periodically.
• Clean safety and security systems in public areas e.g. lock, shutters, etc.
• Checks that the flowers are kept in its proper place.
• Checks the banqueting diaries to note the function of the day time flowers required and any such information,

Floor Supervisor\

• To attend guest special request as quickly and efficiently as possible.
• Assign duties to the floor houseman & room maid.
• Check and control equipment like hoovers, floor washing machine, shampooing machine, etc.
• Ensure that system relating to inventory , equipment control and distribution are established and compiled.
• Inspect each room completed by room attendants according to specified room checklist and ensure they meet the standard of the establishment in terms of cleanliness, functional & aesthetic value.
• Check par stock of linen and guest supplies and cleaning supplies on the floors and ensure timely delivery of soiled linen to laundry and requisites fresh linen from linen room, guest supplies/ cleaning supplies from the stores.
• Ensure the efficient issue, receipt and control of staff uniforms so that they are maintained in a good conditions at all time.
• Communicate with your staff so that they are kept fully informed of events changes & occurrences within the department & the hotel.
• Maintain communication between the housekeeping department and front office for rooms that are occupied and vacant.
• Check all safety systems on the allotted floors.
•  Prepare housekeeping occupancy list for front office.
• Check all maid's cart.
• Record " Lost & Found" and understand the procedure for the guest promptly.
• Liaison with housekeeping desk for list of rooms that needs to be cleaned for sale.
• Follow up on maintenance order sent to engineering, sign for work completed.
• Plan a roaster for the housekeeping staff.
• Train new employees and then assigns them to work with experienced workers.
• Keep the daily log book up to date with all relevant details.
• Report to Executive housekeeper for any special cleaning needed in the selection i.e. shampooing.
• Maintain a close liaison with house guests whenever possible and ensure that the room requirement of all VIP's are handled in the approved manner.
• Identify problem areas that occur in the department and discuss with the Executive housekeeper so that those situations can be eliminated.
• Maintain the highest level of courtesy & friendliness when dealing with house guest & staff members.

Chamber maids/ Room attendants

                 Chamber maids and room attendants are responsible for the servicing of guest bed rooms, private sitting rooms, often bath room & collect and return guest laundry.

• Responsible for her own key.
• Checking or reporting to housekeeper any lost property and maintenance.
• Reporting damage or irregularities in rooms.
• Collecting visitors laundry and returning clean.
• Keeping the equipment and cleaning materials in good condition.
•  Turn down beds at night.
• Checking rooms and completing occupancy list.
• Responsible for her own set of linen.
• She should be polite, pleasant, and courteous to guest as well as her superiors and colleagues. Her appearance should be neat clean & tidy.

Job of Houseman

• Clean the lobby area.
• Clean windows and door panes at entrance.
• Empty and clean trays & urns.
• Wet mop floor/ dry mop floors.
• Machine buffing floor (wax and buff weekly)
• Vacuum carpets (floor)
• Dust furniture and window sills.
• Straighten and replace furniture according to set plan.
• Spot clean wall areas around elevator.
• Report necessary repairs and maintenance.
• Shifting of heavy furniture and carpets.
• Carrying soiled linen from the guest room to the linen room.

Relation of Housekeeping department with other departments of the hotel

* Interrelation:

                  All departments in the hotel are interrelated. Interrelation of housekeeping with other departments are as follows:

1. Food & beverage
           Housekeeping department supplies cleaned, fresh, ironed linen & uniform thus to maintain the hotel standards. It does flower arrangement and other special functions.
2. Maintenance
            Regarding repair orders.
3. Purchase
            Purchase department buys out of stock items for housekeeping such as guest supplies, stationary linen, detergent, etc.
4. Store
             In place where linen stock is stored in general store coordination ensure the day to day availability of the department requirements. Issuing of materials ordered through purchase department.
5. Kitchen
              Housekeeping provides clean kitchen uniforms and kitchen provides staff meals.
6. Security
              To end any misuse of the hotel room and other property by the guest or by the staffs. Housekeeping department has to have a good communication with security department for its involvement.
7. Personnel
               Coordination with personnel department is mainly for recruitment and exit of staffs along with salary, administration, grievance procedure, identity card, induction, locker facilities & transfer and promotion formalities.
8. Accounts
                It handles all the matters related to money. e.g. reports, budgets, etc.
9. Front Office
   - concerning room ready for selling.
   - reporting double occupancy of single room.
   - reporting scanty luggage.
   - reporting guest ill in bed.
   - reporting pets in room.
   - regarding flower arrangement.
   - regarding staff uniform.
   - VIP expected.
   - occupancy list.
   - regarding transferring bills (laundry bills)
   - regarding notification of changing room.
   - regarding complaints, compliments and requests.
   - regarding discrepancy.
   - reporting lost & found.
   - regarding special request of the guest.

* Personal attributes/ Qualities of Housekeeping Staff

                     The personal attributes of housekeeping staff in lodging industry plays an essential role. It enhances the image of property as well as the quality of professionalization that only human can give. Based on the nature of jobs, the housekeeping must have the following attributes:

1. Personal Hygiene
              Housekeeping staff must take regular bath. They must clean hands and feet & no body and mouth odor should be present. Any transferable disease must be reported immediately.
2. Personal Grooming                     Housekeeping staff should be normally groomed. They must ensure that their uniform is crisp, clean and well ironed. Lady staff must wear light makeup & restrict their jewelry to minimum. Hair must be tied in a bun. Gents staff must be well shaved & hair should be short.
3. Honesty
               As housekeeping staffs have an access to all guest rooms, sometimes guest belongings, either valuable or non- valuable, are often found lying around in the room which may arouse temptation. Hence, only honest person can defy the temptation.
4. Eye for detail
               This attribute enables housekeeping staff to take note of the minute detail in any given area. This results in making the guest bed rooms, bathrooms and other belonging areas. It ensures to make area free from last minute defects.
5. Courtesy
                Courtesy is an essential attributes for all personnel committed in the hospitality field. While talking to the guest the staff must be very polite and courteous.
6. Tact & Diplomacy
                 Often guest may request for facilities and services that are beyond the management policy. It takes a lot of tact & diplomacy to decline without hurting guest feelings.
7. Physical Fitness
                  Most work in housekeeping is manual. A housekeeping member, when on duty is on his/ her feet almost continuously. It would require a sturdy physical built to cope with the demands of housekeeping work.
8. Cooperativeness
                   Housekeeping staffs need to be cooperative with all the employees from different departments & sections to achieve efficiency in their works. Very often this attribute helps to create a very cozy environment.

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