Streamlining the housekeeping functions of small independent hotels

The housekeeping team at a hotel can actually be considered as the unsung heroes of the hospitality industry. Their quality of work and the fluidity in which they function can at times, make or break the experience a guest has at a hotel. They need to ensure that rooms are cleaned daily at times convenient to the guests and stocked with the in-room amenities. During peak seasons, they need to ensure that rooms are ready between the minimal time frame of check-ins and check-outs. They also ensure that the common areas like the reception and restaurants are spotless and presentable. And, they do all this without being noticed.

The workload of the housekeeping staff is immense and they need to ensure they complete their work in a limited time frame which entails a lot of co-ordination, planning and impeccable communication between the staff. All this sounds well and good for the bigger hotels who have a large housekeeping team managed by a housekeeping manager; but what about the smaller hotels, the independents that need to manage their housekeeping requirements with a team of 2 or 3 people?

The answer is actually extremely simple and easy to use; a cloud based property management system. An efficient PMS allows small and mid-sized hotels to effortlessly manage the housekeeping requirements of their hotel.

A PMS can streamline the housekeeping function in the following ways:

– Task Assignment: It lets you maintain a list of the housekeeping staff and rooms can be assigned to them based on blocks/floors or the room status. This assists the hotel in managing the division of work amongst their staff.

– Manages Lists: It doesn’t matter if the hotel’s housekeeping staff doesn’t know how to use the computer…..they don’t need to. The daily list of the housekeeping tasks is easy to print and the work is easy to divide and distribute amongst the staff. The lists can be given to the staff so that they are clearly updated of their roles and responsibilities.

– Room Updates: Many PMSs allow a simple task and messaging system for special requests, thereby keeping a clear line of communication. Rooms can also be marked as being under maintenance, DNR rooms, not available for certain periods so that the housekeeping staff is updated that these rooms are not required to be serviced.

– Automates Changes: A PMS is also a great way to reduce the chances of errors. Many hotels have gone through the embarrassment of staff walking into a room with guests still inside. The systems can automatically be instructed to change room to ‘Dirty’ on checkout, or a clean room to ‘Inspect’ on Night Audit. (Also read: 9 simple hotel housekeeping practices)

PMS systems are truly the way to streamline housekeeping operations; it just can’t get simpler than this. No need to have registrars cross checking room updates multiple times throughout a day to find out whether they need to be serviced or not, waiting for the front desk to relay any special requests that need to be made, constantly checking if rooms have been cleaned and are ready for check in…….A PMS takes care of all the above in a significant less time sans errors.

A PMS like Hotelogix has the following:

 – Housekeeping function in complete sync with the hotel’s front desk

 – Provides a single-screen snapshot with the most-current room information

 – Is organized neatly in a tabular format which can be amended or updated with a click of a button.