HRM subjects

Housekeeping

Extra pillows, fresh towels, bed linen, and other room amenities are found in Housekeeping. This is one of the most important and huge department in a hotel. No matter if the hotel is a 5 star or just a motel, Housekeeping is still needed.

It makes not only the room but the whole hotel / establishment clean to reach its high standard. Base on my experience, from the 5 months experience I had at the Housekeeping department of The Langham Hotel, Melbourne Australia. During those times that I was doing my Industry Placement or the so called (OJT) On-the-Job Training, I found it physically hard, because this was also my first time to work in the real world. My day as a Room Attendant would start at 8 am in the morning, collecting bucket (with chemicals used for cleaning) ; setting up the trolley (filling it with room amenities, linen, and towels), attending the daily briefing, receiving worksheets, and the real work begins.

During the morning briefing which is led by either the Shift Leaders or sometimes the Assistant Executive or Executive Housekeeper. They discuss about the occupancy rate of the hotel, some reminders, and receive our daily worksheets. If in Food and Beverage they have a waiter’s friend, in Housekeeping we have the daily worksheet.

This is where us Room Attendant base which rooms we are to clean and which rooms are to be prioritised. OD, VD is the most or should I say the status which is seen always in the worksheet. Example, 1920 OCC OD, it means that the room is occupied and it’s dirty. But if the OD has an (*) at the end, the status changes into an Occupied Dirty room which is about to check out. OD*# is another status, Occupied Dirty Room, checking out and with an incoming guest. These rooms should be prioritised, to avoid delays. Rooms which are Vacant and Dirty have the status of VD. One of the most annoying statuses in Rooms is the DND which stands for Do Not Disturb. It is not good because it delays one’s workflow.

Things to prepare in housekeeping

  • Trolley - You will be needing this during housekeeping because all the things that you need are kept in this cart like container. This is the first thing that you will prepare. Here are the items that must be inside your trolley:
  1. Face towel
  2. Hand Towel
  3. Bath Robe
  4. Bath Towel
  5. Toiletries
  • Shampoo
  • Conditioner
  • Lotion
  • Soap
  1. Garbage bag
  2. Handy Vacum
  3. Map
  4. Pail
  5. Window glass cleaner
  6. Toilet cleaner
  7. multi-purpose cleaner

 

 
Hotel and restaurant management | HouseKeeping tips | Oct 09, 2009