Housekeeping Operations In A Designated Hotel: A Comparison Between Practical Experience And Theory

1.A discussion on whether the housekeeping operations at your designated hotel were different or similar compared to what you have learnt in class, what is written in your course notes and as referenced in at least one Housekeeping text. Tip: You will find texts listed on your Subject Outline.

2.The efficiency of the daily housekeeping operation for the organisation of guest room cleaning.

3.An overview of the linen and laundry operations of the hotel and how this contributed to the efficiency or inefficiency of the daily housekeeping operation.

4.A written reflection of your practical experience. It should include your expectations before and after your practical work experience and your thoughts during the experience.

Requirements

• All worked must be typed
• Points will be deducted for late assessments (per ICMS Style Guide)
• Remember to spell check your work- (marks will be deducted)
• Attention to ICMS Style Guide, correct structure and referencing;
• Double spacing
• Right header is to show assignment code AT2 and your name

Areas of Responsibility of Housekeeping in Meriton Chatswood

Housekeeping in hotel is one of the most important services that which demands lots of physical labor, it involves a variety of services to make the customers stay in the hotel as pleasant as possible. The amount of the work needed in housekeeping depends upon the size of the room and the number of beds in the room. The housekeeping requires adequate amount of time, it takes 15 to 20 minutes to do the house keeping of a room. Housekeeping consists of  following activities, making beds, cleaning rooms, cleaning and polishing toilets, taps, sinks, bathtubs and mirrors, washing of the floors, stain removal, vacuuming and dusting (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2015).

Housekeeping refers to the performance of duties towards cleaning maintaining orderliness and running a house or a business property. Cleanliness is the most important factor in the housekeeping activities, because it makes the room look more beautiful and attracts more visitors, it makes the ambience desirable, the Meriton Chatswood considered this fact. The endeavors of the house keeping department results in flawless room services which is very attractive and noticeable. The most essential task is to keep the guest rooms and the guest bathrooms clean because it is the most important criteria for the guest’s satisfaction. If the guests are satisfied they will visit the hotel in the future as well. They have a standard procedure that is followed by all the employees so that the best quality of services are provided to the guests (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2015).  

 The layout of the housekeeping departments depend upon the total number of rooms available for the guests. They take care of the furniture, fittings and the fixtures of the whole hotel. The various areas of the housekeeping department that are the most prominent are in the Meriton Chatswood which was quite similar to the theories

The Executive House Keeper carries out office of the Executive Housekeeper- All the administrative work of the department (Saunders & Graham, 2012).

House Keeping control desk- The desk is open 24 hours and the house keeping staffs report to the desk everyday in the beginning and the end of their shifts. It consists of notice boards, shelves, registers, lost and found cupboard and key-hanger matrix (Saunders & Graham, 2012).

Landry area- This area takes care of the washing, dry cleaning, ironing and folding of the linen and the uniform of the staff members (Saunders & Graham, 2012).

Uniform room- The uniforms of the staff members are collected and kept in this room and then it is distributed to the staffs from here (Saunders & Graham, 2012).

Linen Room- In this room the linen of the guest rooms like,bed-sheets, towels, pillow cases and many more are stored, collected distributed to various rooms from here (Minder, 2015).

Tailor room- In this room stitching and repairing of the linen and the uniform of the staffs is done here (Minder, 2015).

Flower room- This is the air conditioned room which consists worktables, sink and water supply, cupboards to store vases and stones and a counter (Minder, 2015). 

Efficiency of Daily Housekeeping

Housekeeping stores- In this area the cleaning equipments and the supplies of the guest are kept and stored(Saunders & Graham, 2012).

Lost and found- This room stores the left items of the guests. It is in direct contact of the front office desk because the guest first ask about their lost items in the front office desk (Saunders & Graham, 2012).

Areas of responsibility of Housekeeping in Meriton Chatswood

As per the theories the house keeping department takes care of the guest rooms, guest bathrooms, areas used by the guests, like lobby and lifts, banquets, conference halls, parking area, sales, admin offices and garden. The house keeping department is also responsible for handling of the keys, the same procedure was even followed in Meriton Chatswood Apartments (Rutherford & O’Fallon, 2017).

The difference that I found between the theories and the practical working is that working practical is much more complex because the staffs had to be more careful, there was complexity in the types of chemicals that were used for washing purposes.  Another thing that was different in Meriton was that the lost and found department had maintained a register and if there was an evidence of the address of the guests then they were immediately contacted and informed about their lost belonging (Brotherton, 2012).

There are many advantages of housekeeping, it provides clean and hygienic atmosphere, comfortable and convenient guest stay, it provides privacy to the guests. Guest gets a number of facilities. It makes the guests feel good and have a wonderful experience (Rutherford & O’Fallon, 2017). The efficiency of the services depends upon the housekeeping services to a great extent, laundry management is very important function of the housekeeping department, that is the reason Meriton has an in house laundry, which helps in regulating cleanliness and timely delivery of the linens (Aziz, 2016). Based on the personal work experience in Meriton Apartments Chatswood , Sydney it was found out that the operational procedure as mentioned in the theories are not much different but can be said that it is more complex, the procedures that seem simple while reading in the books are actually quite complex while one is performing the task. For example, the task of putting a bedsheet or bedcover might seem simple when one reads about it but while performing the same task one comes to know that the task is actually quite difficult to be performed. A particular procedure and technique are used to put the sheets. Similarly there are many tasks that seem simpler in the theories but practical exposure shows the complexity of the tasks. There are also certain tasks that we as team has to perform on the request of the guests. The functions of housekeeping department are not limited to the theories but rather they perform a variety of tasks depending upon the needs of the guests (Raghubalan & Raghubalan, 2013).

The standard procedure used for operations was followed in Meriton Chatswood as well. Setting of the Chambermaid’s Trolley, the chambermaid’s trolley is a huge tool box having wheels which helps the house keeping staffs. There are a number of shelves and compartments in the Chambermaid’s trolley that was used in the Hotel to provide supplies to the guests. In Meriton we use to load the trolley with required amount of supplies based on the number and the types of the rooms on a particular floor. It was kept in mind that the trolley is not overloaded because it might cause accident and chances of the supplies getting spoiled. The lenins were counted and and loaded as per the requirement, because if the staffs carried less than the required linen and the supplies then they will have to make unnecessary trips. Standard operational procedure for entering the guests rooms were also similar to that we studied in the theories. The Do not Disturb rooms were not to be disturbed.  The staffs used to knock at the rooms and announce to the guests in a very polite way “Housekeeping”. After the announcement, the staffs had to wait for the response of the guests, if the guests do not respond the staffs should announce again. If the guests are found sleeping the staffs should not disturb them (Lewis & McCann, 2014). 

The housekeeping department aims at overall cleanliness in the most efficient and effective manner through the usage of the best quality, safe cleaning equipments and chemicals for the cleaning. Another objective of the housekeeping department is to manage the linen and laundry. The housekeeping department does the pest control. They aim at keeping the hotel classy with attractive interior decoration

The linen maintenance is one of the  most important functions of the house keeping department. Meriton Chatswood had in-house laundry equipments for the linen maintenance. It had washers and dryers. Washers were used for washing the huge amount of the linen, dryers were used for drying clothes because it consumes less time and electrical energy. Ironers and folders were used for ironing and folding the clothes.  The laundry consisted of the bath and the bed linen, dinning linen, staff uniforms, curtains, blankets and rugs. Only the most experienced staffs of Meriton Chatswood used to handle the guest linens. The staffs who was responsible for the cleaning of the clothes was supposed to have a sound knowledge of the detergents, chemicals, dry cleaning agents as well as the stages in the laundry cycle. As soon as the dirty laundry arrived at the laundry room the staffs started to performed in order to avoid the stains get permanent (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2015).

The standard operational procedure used for laundry management consisted of following steps

Collection of the dirty linens- Linens were collected from all the parts of Meriton, like the guestrooms, guest bathrooms and dining area. The soiled linens were kept separately, the linens were to be immediately transferred from the collection basket to the laundry department (Jones, 2017).  

Sorting the linen- Based on the type of the fabric, extent of dirt and the type of stains the linens are sorted. The staff uniforms, guest room linen, dining area linen, butchery aprons and guests personal clothing were all kept separately. The staffs always used gloves while handling the linens (Gray & Liguori, 2013).

Pre-treatment of the stains- The staffs had to check for stains before putting the linens in to the washer, they had to check for stains like oil or grease. Once the stains were detected then the stain removal was to be done using cleaning chemicals (Fouad, Hussein & Attia, 2016).

Washing the linen- The linen were to put in the washer, the staffs had to weigh the linen before washing, so that the linen is not overloaded. For embroidered pillow covers soft wash cycles were used, and for the curtains, hard wash cycles were used. By the use of extractors the water content from the linen was removed to a minimal amount (Chatswood Accommodation | Meriton Suites, 2017).

Drying of Linen- Then the washed linen was dried using dryers.

Ironing- After drying the linen they were ironed and folded with the help of folders and stackers.

Delivering the linen- At last, the linens were delivered to the laundered room or the uniform room (De Vita & Tekaya, 2015). 

The housekeeping department of Meriton Chatswood is very efficient, based on my personal experience I found out that the staff members of the hotel are very efficient as the experienced mentors of the hotel give them very effective training. I learned many new things about the Housekeeping department. The practical exposure provided me an in depth that the theories could not provide. A senior mentor was always with me help me perform even the smallest tasks. The one thing that I fond was the best about the hotel was that cleanliness was given utmost importance, the guest rooms, guest bathrooms, lobby, lift and and all the public places of Meriton. The linen cleaning, laundry management was also given priority and we as trainees were asked to follow the standard procedure of laundry management. We were taught that we have to be polite the guests and take care about their requirements in the best possible manner. The supply management of Meriton was very efficient and well maintained, the linen were counted and kept and hardly there was any mistake while delivering the linen to the rooms (Andrews, 2013).

Conclusion

Meriton Chatswood is one of the best hotels in Sydney the customer service provided by the accommodation facility has been rated as five star. Efficient housekeeping can be said as the one of the key contributors towards the efficiency of the hotel service. Based on the practical exposure in the organization it can be concluded that the training provided to the employees in the organization is very effective and is quite similar to the theories only the difference is that there are more complexities while performing the tasks on the hotel.

References

Andrews, S. (2013). Hotel Housekeeping: A Training Manual. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

Aziz, W. (2016). Evaluation of the Performance of Guest Room Attendants of Housekeeping Department (Application to Cairo Three Star Hotels). International Journal of Heritage, Tourism, and Hospitality, 7(2).

Brotherton, B. (Ed.). (2012). International Hospitality Industry. Routledge.

Chatswood Accommodation | Meriton Suites. (2017). Meriton Suites. Retrieved 17 July 2017, fromhttps://www.meritonsuites.com.au/our-hotels/nsw/northern-sydney/chatswood/?source=GoogleSearchNetwork&device=c&campaign=863772842&adgroup=49322153731&keyword=%2Bmeriton%20%2Bchatswood&matchtype=b&placement=&adposition=1t1&location=1007828&gclid=Cj0KEQjwnazLBRDxrdGMx-Km4oQBEiQAQJ1q6-wbdRv4CbuELC5dQmMZxnhsWVwQ6mszyJ4lYXf6gVsaAmFp8P8HAQ

De Vita, G., & Tekaya, A. (2015). Hotel outsourcing under asset specificity:“The good, the bad and the ugly”. Tourism Management, 47, 97-106.

Fouad, M. A., Hussein, S., & Attia, A. Y. (2016). Housekeeping Performance and Guest Satisfaction in Resort Hotels. International Journal of Heritage, Tourism, and Hospitality, 7(2).

Gray, W. S., & Liguori, S. C. (2013). Hotel and motel management and operations. Prentice Hall.

Jones, T. J. (2017). Professional management of housekeeping operations. John Wiley & Sons.

Kandampully, J., & Suhartanto, D. (2015). Customer loyalty in the hotel industry: the role of customer satisfaction and image. International journal of contemporary hospitality management, 12(6), 346-351.

Legrand, W., Sloan, P., & Chen, J. S. (2016). Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Principles of sustainable operations. Routledge.

Lewis, B. R., & McCann, P. (2014). Service failure and recovery: evidence from the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(1), 6-17.

Minder, D. L. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 6,144,943. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Raghubalan, G., & Raghubalan, S. (2013). Hotel Housekeeping: Operations and Management. Oxford University Press.

Rutherford, D. G., & O’Fallon, M. J. (2017). Hotel management and operations. John Wiley & Sons.

Saunders, I. W., & Graham, M. A. (2012). Total quality management in the hospitality industry. Total Quality Management, 3(3), 243-256.

Singh, A. (2014). Hotel housekeeping modern practices, challenges and opportunities–An appraisal. International Journal of Research in IT and Management, 4(3), 38-44.