Role of Housekeeping in Hospitality Industry
The aim of all Hotels or establishments that offer accommodation is to provide their customers with clean, attractive, comfortable and welcoming surroundings that offer value for money. Nothing sends a stronger message than cleanliness in a hospitality industry. No level of service, friendliness or glamour can equal the sensation a guest has upon entering a spotless, tidy and conveniently arranged room. Both management and guest consider keeping the place clean and in good order a necessity, for a hotel to command a fair price and to get repeat business.
A survey carried out showed 63% travelers rated cleanliness and appearance as their first priority in their choice of hotels. The housekeeping department takes pride in keeping the hotel clean and comfortable so as to create a ‘home away from home’. Good housekeeping is considered as the backbone of accommodation sector as its main aim is to provide a clean comfortable, safe and aesthetically appealing environment.
Housekeeping is an operational department of the hotel. It is responsible for cleanliness, maintenance, aesthetic upkeep of rooms, public areas, back areas and surroundings.
A hotel survives on the sale of rooms, food, beverage, and other minor services like laundry, health clubs, health spa, sightseeing, shopping arcades etc. The sale of rooms constitutes a minimum of 50% of these sales.
Thus a major part of hotels margin of profit comes from room sales because a room once made can be sold over and over again. However, the days when the room remains unsold there is a total loss of revenue. To this extent, rooms are more perishable than food. The housekeeping budget typically accounts for 20% of the properties total operating expenditure. The largest element of operating cost in the housekeeping department is labour. The effort that the housekeeping department makes in giving a guest a desirable room has a direct bearing on the guest experience in the hotel.
Guest rooms are the heart of the hotel. Unless the décor is appropriate, the air odour free, furnishing and upholstery is spotlessly clean the hotel may loose a guest as a potential customer. The housekeeping department not only prepares the clean guestroom on a timely basis for the guests who are arriving but also cleans and maintains everything in the hotel so that the property is fresh and attractive as the day it opens for business. The housekeeping thus contributes in a big way towards the overall reputation of a property. It is a 24 hour and 365 day operation. Scientific housekeeping demands the employment of the most effective cleaning materials and procedures, attention to purchasing the most suitable linen supplies, maintenance of decorative area under the housekeeping department purview and proper organization and supervision.
Other than hotels, professional housekeeping service is very much in demand in hospitals, cooperate buildings, airports, airlines, cruisers, banks shopping arcade. Since most such organizations prefer to out source these functions, contract housekeeping is becoming a lucrative entrepreneurship venture these days.