INCREASE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

The ultimate guide to hotel housekeeping

Housekeeping is foundational in a hotel's reputation and success, as it maintains the cleanliness, maintenance, aesthetic appeal and overall guest satisfaction.

Hotels that best meet these heightened guest expectations, as evidenced during their stay, will best enhance the property's reputation and success.

While price remains a high priority for guests, we can expect them to focus just as much on a hotel’s commitment to its cleaning initiatives.

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What is hotel housekeeping?

Hotel housekeeping refers to the department responsible for maintaining the cleanliness, order, maintenance and overall appearance of a hotel.

This includes guest rooms, public areas, and back-of-house spaces.

Housekeeping plays a crucial role in the overall guest experience, contributing significantly to their comfort and satisfaction.

Why is hotel housekeeping important?

The rise of the “Generation Clean” traveler – a new travel segment valuing cleanliness protocols above all else – reinforces the importance of housekeeping today, with health and safety ranking as the #1 priority for travel comfort.

These heightened cleanliness expectations require a thoughtful examination of processes to prioritize the wellness of staff and guests to win their confidence.

Addressing heightened housekeeping expectations

Hotels that best meet new guest expectations for scrupulous standards of cleanliness – and live up to delivering on those commitments – are best positioned to create long-lasting guest experiences.

Planning your hotel’s cleanliness commitment to guests and stakeholders will pave the way for building brand equity and guest loyalty tomorrow.

Here are 5 Steps to Enhancing Hotel Housekeeping & Guest Satisfaction.

Also, the use of housekeeping checklist or Amadeus’ disinfecting checklist, endorsed by the International Executive Housekeeping Association (IEHA), can help meet today’s standards and ensure nothing gets missed.

As guests now expect the highest standards of sanitization to feel comfortable in a hotel, operators worldwide need to work with their housekeeping teams to better prepare for the impact of these new realities.

By using this time to analyze hotel housekeeping practices, hotel leaders have an opportunity to take advantage of automation tools to more accurately plan for operational shifts that have the power to influence bottom-line results.

“Generation Clean” will continue to be a driving force along the evolving traveler journey in the post-COVID world.

Hotel housekeeping tips & action plan

The pivotal role of hotel housekeeping in shaping guest satisfaction cannot be overstated, with several key aspects directly influencing a guest's experience.

Cleanliness and maintenance of rooms and public areas serve as the initial indicators of a hotel's standards, significantly impacting guest satisfaction and shaping the hotel's brand image

Here’s an action plan to help you deliver on these heightened guest expectations:

Determine a cleaning plan of action and create a checklist for deep-cleaning hotel rooms, meeting spaces, restaurants, as well as the fitness center, pool, and other public areas.
Get the front desk, housekeeping, and engineering teams aligned to avoid significant disruption to operations and room readiness.
Schedule regular reminders for filters and ventilation systems to ensure optimal air quality.
Plan for health checks on equipment and meter readings, while reconfirming maintenance and housekeeping checklists meet the evolving standards of today. From public areas and outlets to guestrooms and back of house, reviewing standard operating procedures can help to reduce costs and mitigate risk.
Make sure all team members are empowered to flag areas of concern and have the tools they need or a common space to log the information, so nothing gets left behind
COVID-19 has brought hotel housekeeping to center stage, and all initiatives to reduce the potential spread of germs and viruses should be considered. It is important your hotel remains vigilant in its commitment to cleanliness.
Lack of planning for this additional time can cause strain on staff, while last minute modifications to departure room schedules can impact room readiness. By tracking and analyzing the resources needed to execute the tasks these rooms now require, hotels can adjust to new cleaning schedules, while identifying valuable areas for improvement.
Clearly communicate your service and cleaning protocols with your guests in pre-stay, on-property, and post-stay communications.

Servicing guests and managing hotel operations will require more focus than ever before. Whether full service, luxury, or select service, properties that rethink the guest experience to meet the needs of the new traveler best, while incorporating a higher standard of cleanliness into their core values, will have the ability to attract a new generation of loyal guests.

Hotel maintenance

When communicating with guests, be sure to share the proactive and enhanced preventative maintenance measures your hotel is taking.

Promoting healthy hygiene practices will put your guests at ease and gain their trust.

It can also become the number one most influential factor in the hotel booking cycle for the foreseeable future.

Maximizing the value and health of your hotel’s infrastructure will be essential in facilitating any short and long-term planning as well.

In protecting your building’s assets, it is recommended to formulate a plan to zero-in on the best practices for your hotel’s current, ongoing, and future state of business.

For example, it is important to schedule regular reminders for filters and ventilation systems to ensure optimal air quality. Plan for health checks on equipment and meter readings while reconfirming hotel maintenance checklists to meet the evolving standards of today.

Following the pandemic, it’s important to go beyond your hotel’s standard maintenance plan and automate processes.

Your hotel should begin to focus on performing more proactive maintenance to protect your assets and meet new requirements.

Even with limited resources and minimal team operations, there are many tasks that require timely attention. After all, a strong guest experience can’t happen without clearly defined cleanliness, security, and operational procedures.

From public areas and outlets to guestrooms and back of house, reviewing standard operating procedures around the hotel’s entire organization can help to reduce costs and mitigate risk.

Hotel labor shortages

As occupancy rates reach new heights, so does the need to improve operational efficiencies.

A surge in hotel bookings and elevated guest expectations, combined with limited staff due to labor shortages, presents new challenges that threaten the hospitality industry’s potential for an accelerated recovery.

A shortage of workers also threatens our global industry’s potential for success, as travelers arrive to properties with elevated expectations and a critical eye, sharply attuned to imperfections.

Turnover can impact everything from staff morale and a property’s ability to deliver consistent guest experiences, to budgeting, forecasting, and overall profit margins. To reduce it, building a more satisfied, engaged team and upskilling is key. Learn more in our article: How to reduce employee turnover at your property.

By considering the new trends shaping hotel operations and appropriately preparing teams to meet the new needs of travelers, we can begin to welcome back travel globally.

As demand and occupancy return, so does hotel maintenance, room cleaning, and guest requests. Faced with these challenges along with reduced staffing levels, hotels should consider tools to help orchestrate tasks such as automating room assignments, managing housekeeping opt-out programs, and proactively scheduling maintenance checks to help give limited time back to already scaled-down teams.

How to Elevate Guest Satisfaction with Scaled-Down Operations

Find out how to:

address labor shortage implications
inform your strategies with hotel market data
build successful operations plan

Download now

Clustering hotel teams

Institutionalizing new cleaning measures and SOPs (standard operating procedures) in a short amount of time is no easy feat.

But then trying to maintain those practices with reduced staff and labor shortages is an even greater challenge.

To help streamline, hotels with several properties may consider taking a centralized approach to organizing operations by clustering hotel teams.

This would be done by creating groups of hotels and assigning key staff members to manage those hotels in a unified fashion.

For instance, call center activities for guest requests and room control could be centralized, as housekeeping and maintenance staff could share team members between properties. This could help hotels do more with fewer staff, while overcoming some of the immediate challenges as we work towards recovery.

Hotel staff safety

Hotels must analyze data on recurring guest requests to identify shifts needed in staff time or in-room amenity programs, while monitoring changes in booking patterns to avoid understaffing.

Developing a culture of safety at your hotel for your team can also contribute to less staff turnover, ensuring team members are happy, engaged, and more productive.

Instilling a sense of safety by training on best practices for risk mitigation and implementing staff safety devices will also be key, while ensuring safeguards are in place for specific departments and tasks at hand.

The Ultimate Hotel Housekeeping Checklist

2024 Hotel Housekeeping checklist

Ready, set, improve hotel housekeeping!

We hope that this hotel housekeeping guide was useful for you

Hotel housekeeping can be a little overwhelming at first, but with a little practice and experience, you can quickly produce guest experiences that generate results from day one.

As occupancy reaches new heights, hoteliers are taking the time to reevaluate the fundamentals of how they’ve historically operated and strategize new ways to scale-up guest satisfaction with scaled-down operations.

For further reading, you can access our other comprehensive guides for hoteliers:

We wish you a lot of success in your hotel marketing strategies, and do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss how to kick-start or optimize your hotel marketing strategies.