Housekeeping

Keeping house

The mechanisation of housekeeping has happened - the traditional mop has gone for a toss and high-gloss flooring that requires crystallisation is the latest. Praveen K Singh brings to light the best housekeeping practices happening in India

'Heavenly Bed' by Westin Hotels & Resorts, a Starwood brand

The standard of any hotel balances precariously on the cleanliness and hygiene conditions of the establishment. The role of a housekeeping department, therefore, attains a certain level of indispensability. The emphasis was initially on cleanliness, but hygiene today has become imperative. So how do housekeeping managers ensure perfect and complete hygiene?

Darshan J Singh, a housekeeping consultant and industry veteran, explains, "Housekeepers have to be multi-faceted in the current scenario. Today the fundamental issue is to maintain the quality and standards of the hotel. Good housekeeping is the image builder for any establishment." She accentuates that the first impression being the last fits housekeeping services and this shows the health of an establishment.

The transition

The change is fast and so are the housekeeping needs with new hotels coming up. With constant check-ins and check-outs, a room is being sold twice between noon-to-noon modules of hotels. This way housekeeping has to clean and make up the room to be sold to another prospective customer without making them wait. Quite a challenge, isn't it? The housekeeping staff has to take personal care of the guests.

Explaining the changing scenario, Puja Mehta, executive housekeeper of Jaypee Vasant Continental, says, "A sea change is how I would describe the overall change in the housekeeping scenario. Mechanisation has taken over completely and we at Jaypee Hotels follow the latest cleaning techniques with the aid of the most sophisticated maintenance equipment and cleaning agents. Such practices have positively influenced our manpower requirement and individual outputs. The traditional mop has been replaced by terminologies like high-gloss flooring involving processes like crystallisation and honing of marble and the benchmarks for housekeepers are the glass-o-meters for checking the gloss levels."

Last but not the least; multitasking is the most sought-after requirement for our staff. "A carpet mender could aspire to become a desk attendant after undergoing formal training," she emphasises.

Outsourced cleaning

In the changed scenario and in times of financial prudence, several hospitality concerns are outsourcing their cleaning needs. According to a survey by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), 74 per cent of respondents said they outsource housekeeping, 15 per cent said they had an in-house department and 11 per cent used an in-house contractor.

Outsourcing is therefore a popular method for dealing with facility-related tasks for various reasons. The top three general reasons for outsourcing, according to the IFMA survey, are: because special skills are required (as might be the case for window cleaning or landscape maintenance); to reduce or control costs; and to focus on core competencies. Surendra Routela, who runs a facility management company, says, "Strategies aimed at outsourcing issues can be proactive, safeguarding clients from the possibility of being replaced with a contractor or geared to address a transition from in-house to contract cleaning."

Adhering to mechanisation

Except the normal mopping and wiping of floors and glasses, today the entire cleaning process and housekeeping services have become automated. Anjali Chatterjee, executive housekeeper at Le Meridien, explains, "We have a new calendering machine that folds bed sheets and other laundry items after being dried, thereby limiting the human touch to a minimum. This ensures better hygiene."

There is a limit to which a service industry can automate because only service employees can perform guest service. In addition to the above, hotels need a considerable amount of information regarding guest requirements, from guidance to operations. Sharma points out, "We are using the latest techniques in the cleaning process, which is combined with the manual system to be more effective. We try to retain the personal service and hospitality of business while automating everything else possible in different spheres of operation."

Steam cleaning is another development in hotels. Explains Renu Kotia of Hotel Jaypee, "Steam cleaning allows to easily sanitise and deodorise a variety of surfaces and materials around the premises with less work and no chemicals or detergents. One can clean those tough jobs without exposing oneself and the environment to hazardous chemicals. These systems work efficiently on tiles, linoleum, carpets, bedding, windows, fabrics, bathrooms, kitchens, mirrors, grills, ovens, sealed hardwood floors and any other place that accumulates grease, grime, mold, mildew and allergens."

One can even use steam cleaning technology to remove wrinkles from clothing, strip wax floors and wallpaper and de-grease automobile engine. Steam cleaning technology is therefore considered a healthy and more environmentally beneficial option.

Sanitation issues

When it comes to maintaining hygiene in the guestroom, one has to take notice of some of the peripheral matters like air quality, the condition of corridors, food supplied (as amenities) and so on. Chatterjee says, "There are many things of concern; transmission of disease is one fear and to avoid unhygienic conditions, we take steps that ensure a sanitised atmosphere. To ensure proper hygiene, we use detergents, cleaning agents and sanitisers that protect the room from any possible microbial attacks."

Sharda Sharma, executive housekeeper at Qutab Hotel & Apartments in Delhi, says, "Almost all guests these days are concerned with the hygienic conditions of the hotel." The conventional is giving way to the new. Since the time available for quick recovery of a room after a guest leaves is less, hotels are coming up with innovative ways to ready a room. Qutab Hotel, for instance, takes a step forward by removing the bed covers and using duvets instead. The duvet covers are compulsorily changed after a check-out enabling a fresh environment for the next guest. Room carpets are being replaced with wooden floors and headboards of beds, which were initially padded with foam (making it easy to attract dander, hair and absorb oil) are being replaced by leather coverings for easy maintenance and disinfecting, Sharma informs.

The most potent issue for any housekeeping staff is to provide a clean rest room to the guest. Rest room cleaning is appraised by room supervisors in all hotels and the frequency of cleaning has also gone up. As far as washroom amenities are concerned, a lot is being offered (soap, shampoo, body/hair gel, shower cap, etc) in attractive packaging.

Comfort bed

With international chains entering the country, a new drive of providing better comfort levels in terms of bedding service and pillow facilities have picked up in a big way. The perfect example is the 'Heavenly Bed' by Westin Hotels & Resorts, a Starwood brand, and the Hilton hotels with its US $1 billion effort that included the addition of its branded 'Serenity Bed'.

Even domestic chains are in a race to provide better bedding quality to meet the international business and luxury traveller's expectations. S M Azmat, senior VP (Sales & Marketing) of Jaypee Group, explains that irrespective of the hotel category, rooms should be given utmost importance, especially beds. The group itself is coming up with a budget hotel brand, where rooms will be at par with five-star comforts, and invariably, so will be the beds. Ruchika Kapoor, executive housekeeper at The Park, New Delhi, opines that the focus should be on beds as a differentiating factor. She says, "Hotels are installing modern beds with an eye on differentiating themselves from others. The focus on beds has led to some hotels to invest in different kinds of beds for different rooms."

Luxury hotels are ever more focusing on bed furnishing through bedding solution providers. Manu Malhotra, managing director of Snoozer Bedding, says, "Indian hotels have recently become very particular regarding the bedding issue. Most international brands have strict specifications for beds and mattresses." Snoozer Bedding recently tied up with Muehldorfer, a German company known for providing quality bed furnishings across the world, in order to meet the demands for high-end bedding solutions with specifications that conform to international standards.

The Park Hotel, New Delhi, is undergoing renovations of its top floors, and is refurbishing the rooms with imported beds and furnishing, a signal of how hotels are becoming conscious of bedding specifications. Housekeepers are now thrusting on the fact that a bed is the most essential thing in a hotel room and has a direct impact on the customers' psyche towards liking for a hotel. Driving the point home, Marie Nadkarni, executive housekeeper with Radisson Hotel, Delhi, points out that the pressures of modern-day life take their toll on bodies and it has therefore become a prime responsibility of hotels to provide comfortable bedding.

Thrishna Hundal, executive housekeeper, Metropolitan Nikko, remarks, "Hotel room beds are selected on the basis of aesthetics, needs, and the most important factor of guest expectations. The bed tops should have a luxurious weave and a good provision for air circulation." Moreover, the choices available today are immense. From spring and foam to latex beds, water beds, adjustable beds, pocket spring beds, and visco-elastic beds, they have to be dust, mite and allergenic resistant too. This obsession percolates to mattresses too. Nadkarni views, "Mattress options have changed dramatically in the last 15 to 20 years. Memory foam and latex mattresses are quite common and inner spring mattresses have changed as well. Manufacturers are incorporating new types of foams into the top of mattresses. It just goes to show that innovation is paving the way for better sleep."

Meanwhile, Hundal adds that her hotel uses spring-box type beds that are made in Bangkok with a mattress (eight inch thick) that has a hard and soft side to it. According to Nadkarni, "It is desirable that executive housekeepers are aware of technology options available to us. As far as the selection of beds and mattresses is concerned, it should firmly support the body contours without sagging to take care of the posture."

Running in-house laundry

Of late, even three- and four-star category hotels are looking at the option of having an in-house laundry. According to Padmaja Rao, general manager (Rooms) with Old World Hospitality, having one is very important. "We have a need of catering to in-house linen and uniforms and also to the guest laundry which demands quick service." She explains that by having an in-house laundry, the requirement of storage space in the linen room will be reduced, as would the overall requirement for linen inventory, which would come down by nearly 30-40 per cent. This would also apply to other items like towels, table linen and uniforms.

In the long run, the cost-cutting benefits which come with in-house laundry cannot be ignored. Dyal Singh Bist, laundry manager at Crown Plaza Surya in New Delhi, concurs as well. "It is a fallacy to think that an in-house laundry is an expensive investment. In fact, it can be a modest investment, if the design and requirements are kept simple. For instance, to process room linen, it only requires a washer-cum-extractor with a flatwork-ironing machine. For processing bathroom linen, a drying tumbler needs to be added. A few hand ironing boards enables the pressing of uniforms as well as the guest laundry. As a rule of thumb, one requires one washer-cum-extractor of 100 lbs that has the capacity to wash the room and bathroom linen of a 100-room four-star hotel in six days of eight-hour shift with 70 per cent occupancy."

In most large hotels, the in-house laundry is free of cost and the laundry department is a self-sufficient profit-making centre. Most hotels do not go in for in-house laundries because lack of planning generally tends to make the subject complicated and expensive than it needs to be. Most of the laundry equipment required by a small hotel is made in India in the range of approximately Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh, including the uniform and guest laundry. The in-house laundry investment quickly pays for itself, regardless of its size and scope and a growing number of establishments have realised its benefits.

Critical issues

While housekeeping directly contributes and gets credited for its work, it is only half of the story. Professionals narrate that, most often than not, housekeeping is a continuous task and spreads across segments. So the cleaning issues are not just limited to rooms - it envelopes the reception area, the elevator, the lobby, the corridor and almost every part of the hotel that is open to guests.

Training is another area that is a cause of concern. In general, people with limited education background tend to form the workforce for housekeeping in the lower cadre. Hence, it becomes pertinent that hotels impart training to them. Sharma says, "The biggest challenge in hotel housekeeping in the present scenario is to find, train, re-train, retain and to continuously motivate quality staff."

Simultaneously, it is to be understood how the responsibilities of housekeeping pile up. The primary reason for this is duplication. One can analyse situations where housekeeping goes for a toss where the routine-defined jobs are repeated in a short span of time. Chatterjee adds, "Efforts are made to train staff actively by briefing them on the various issues that make them understand the market so they are kept updated with the latest in cleaning techniques."

A system, which is both manageable and practical, has to be devised for meeting the expectations of guests and the needs of the employees. Hotels are also promoting cross-training, where inter-department staff shifts are made possible during pressure situations. It is therefore necessary to have regular operational audits to control housekeeping quality and standards. There is a huge need for design and development of documentation standards and training and development is a must for staff at all levels to build world-class housekeeping professionals. This requires detailed induction and orientation, and professional development programmes. With so many new hotels, hospitals and malls coming up one cannot overlook the importance of facility planning, outsourcing and the role of engineers.