Organising the hotel housekeeping department. Housekeeping is also a source of revenue

Programme

The rooms operation service

• Organisational structure
• Tasks, functions and areas of responsibility of housekeeping. Interaction with other departments
• Telephone answering standards, forbidden phrases
• Drawing up work schedules and personal assignments for room attendants
• Planning. Drawing up occupancy and cleaning schedules
• Planning the working day of the supervisor (head room attendant). The supervisor's functions. Allocating duties for the shift
• Organising quality checks of cleaning work. Interaction with other services

Room cleaning

• Types, sequence, distinctive features and principles of cleaning
• Cleaning guest rooms and service areas
• Organising the work of floor staff
• Types of rooms, room equipment
• Services provided by the rooms service
• Evening service and VIP service technology. Service times, list of activities. Guest categories. Interaction between services
• Organising guest room cleaning; standards for cleaning rooms of different categories
• Guest room cleaning standards: routine cleaning, routine cleaning with linen change, evening cleaning, cleaning after guest departure, wet cleaning of reserved rooms, deep cleaning
• The room attendant's working day from arrival at work to handing in the keys
• Stocking the room attendant's trolley

Cleaning public areas

• Types and principles of cleaning
• Cleaning guest areas
• Organising the cleaning of guest areas; standards for cleaning guest areas

Development strategy. Budget. Change management

• Supplies and processing deliveries
• Controlling the consumption of supplies. Planning consumption
• The internal requisition system. Approving purchases. Stock accounting: acceptance documentation; procedure for issuing supplies
• Laundry. Procedures for receiving, processing and delivering guest orders, price list for laundry and dry cleaning services, laundry bags, the linen room, etc.
• Stocktaking: procedure
• Energy saving and energy efficiency
• Repair, reconstruction and renovation in the hotel. Change management
• Engineering survey of structures and identifying defects

Legal foundations of housekeeping

• Specifics of drafting and administering the contracts used in housekeeping: employment contract, sale and purchase contract, supply, works and service contracts, maintenance contract, utilities contract. Typical mistakes and their consequences
• The technical specification for contractors as the main tool for protecting your interests
• Housekeeping's involvement in organising occupational health and safety and industrial sanitation. Governing regulations and internal organisational and administrative documents, procedure for drawing them up
• Document flow. Standard documents in housekeeping
• Safety. Use of chemicals and electrical appliances. Safety briefings and logs. Frequency, requirements for training staff/training organisations. Liability of officials

Conflict situations and procedures

• Causes of conflicts in housekeeping and ways to resolve them
• Analysing typical situations: lost property, an open safe during cleaning, a locked safe after guest departure, drinks in glasses, flowers, etc.
• Room attendant's actions on discovering breakages, missing items or damage to property by a guest
• Interaction between the room attendant and the technical service, standards for repair work in an occupied room
• Procedures for handling guest complaints
• Processing items left behind by guests. Storage, return procedure
• Handling complaints from internal services and guests. Internal investigations: grounds, rules and mechanisms, supporting documentation. Ensuring legality and confidentiality. Deciding whether to involve law enforcement

Working with rooms service staff: search, recruitment, training

• Recruiting housekeeping staff — finding candidates, qualification requirements, professional competencies. Building the job profile. Methods of appraisal, immersion and express training under outstaffing
• Performance assessment, motivation and advanced training. Training planning, costs. Training formats: induction training, mentoring
• Theft. Preventing theft by staff. Rules for using service keys. Deviations from job descriptions — non-standard guest requests and situations — review of practice with examples of liability

Skills

• Setting up the hotel's rooms management system
• Developing standards for housekeeping staff

Developing documents

• The room attendant's handbook with a detailed description of all procedures
• Job descriptions for the room attendant and the housekeeping supervisor
• Guest service standards for the housekeeping unit
• Room attendant shift checklist
• Room cleaning checklist
• Room inventory and scheduled cleaning form
• Standard contract for contract work