Abstract

Housekeeping is an important part of hotel as it is the operational team for rooms division which contributes major part in revenue. This research is to focus on major operational procedures on housekeeping department. Main purpose of this study is to identify key aspects of operation and develop information it for future study. Objective of this study is to analyse the data provided based on the earlier research conducted in housekeeping department of hotel in Auckland. And to develop a theoretical framework with aspects of the results and findings. To conduct this research qualitative analysis has been followed from the secondary   data provided by Whitireia Polytechnique. From the research if been highlighted that labour turnover is the major issue prevailing currently in the industry, in addition to that service quality set by proper standards and procedures helps to improve guest satisfaction and business revenue. Another aspect is management skills which is highly important to run a department and an organization towards success. This research paves a way for future research, which can carry out on various other aspects of housekeeping. Future study should focus on additional issues and other service quality aspects to improve guest satisfaction and business.

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Introduction

The reason for this study is to bring out the housekeeping related operations in hotel from the provided data and to propose a future study with this. Hotels in Auckland are been selected for this study with a main objective to do secondary data analysis with the data provided on housekeeping operations in a hotel, and to provide a theoretical framework to propose future study based on the finding of this research. The methodology used for this study was a secondary analysis of data focused on qualitative research. Data are been provided by Whitireia Polytechnique. Data are the interviews conducted with General Managers and other managers from hotels in Auckland. This research study continues with basic background about hospitality and housekeeping department in a hotel followed by literature review to support this work. And then results and discussions are briefly explained with the help of data provided continued with conclusion and a proposal for future study.

Background

Hospitality industry basically provides services like food, accommodations, drinks and other activities. The word hospitality is derived from Latin word “Hospes” which means visitor and stranger. Hospitality is not a new term for mankind. History dates to 40BC, since then it is evolved to various forms (Historical Background of the Hospitality Industry – A Fascinating Journey, 2020). Over the last few decades hospitality industry has evolved so much, and growth of travel industry is doubled in 2016.  Hospitality has become most diverse industry. Technology is also been associated within hospitality industry, such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things also plays a major role in development of industry. (Wich, n.d.).

Rooms are the major revenue generating departments in a hotel and housekeeping plays a major role in rooms operations. Guest rooms and public areas are the main areas which housekeeping department focuses on. Core work is to keep the areas clean and tidy and to maintain high standards of cleanliness and hygiene. Planning of rooms, scheduling and inventory maintenance falls with housekeeping (Housekeeping Operations and Management in Hotel and Hospitality Management, n.d.)

Literature review

This literature review explains about the major three aspects covered by the managers from different hotels. And it will give a brief understanding and importance of those aspects in housekeeping department.

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Housekeeping issues

Housekeeping department staffs are responsible for the maintenance of rooms and public areas in a hotel. In case of any small issues, first it will be reported to housekeeping desk and from there the information goes to the concerned department. Every single room is cleaned and maintained by HK staffs. But when it comes to busy schedule or high occupancy, HK is the first department to get affected due to a smaller number of staffs and managers. It faces high labour turnover compared to other departments in the hotel. However, existing staffs is not trained enough to attend all guest complaints and queries because of lack of experience in guest handling and most of the staffs are new as there is high turnover of staffs. Many HK staffs leave the department/hotel due to long hours of work, lack of flexibility with the work and mainly due to minimal growth opportunities (Martinelli, 2017). Housekeeping requires lot of physical work, in due course humans tend to lose interest if they constantly experience huge physical works (Potter, 2014). Working extra hours to clean the rooms are the common practice within housekeeping department which a major cause for labour turnover. HK departments not only cleans and manages guest rooms and public areas, it also looks after laundry service for guest, staff uniforms, minibar inventories, guest room amenities, floral works and other amenities to be placed in the hotels. Technically it has more responsibility that other departments in the hotel. Staffs usually think HK as a low-level and less appreciated job and leaves the company. Other reasons like inadequate tools and equipment to do the job, low wages compared to other departments and high working time frames are reasons for high turnover of staffs.

Another issue within housekeeping department is theft from guest rooms. These are reported many times back in the history but not in the recent times. As the technology develops, everyone is aware that they might get caught as there is a record for every room and who cleaned which rooms (Jones, 2012). Usage of guest items like perfumes, or any other cosmetics will also come under theft. There may be habits with some staffs that if they found any valuable cosmetics or any sort of products, they tend to try it their own self, this activity will continue until they get caught or sometimes this will become as a habit if the staff does it on regular basis. (Headley, 2019).  Sometimes lost and found things which is not claimed for long time will be returned to the person who found it, some staffs may use this to get the things.

Training and monitoring the staff is the only way to reduce staff turnover. Making the safe work environment, sticking to the shift times, and healthy work culture will help the company to retain their housekeeping staff. And providing necessary tools and equipment to finish their work is mandatory, because housekeeping is the department which requires more of physical work and different postures, so it is important that all staffs have access to necessary tools and equipment to finish their works. And, with regards to the chemicals, training should be taken to all staff members. Usage of chemicals, different chemicals, safety measures and way of using those chemicals (Training Programme for Housekeeping Staff, n.d.).

Housekeeping service quality

Service quality is highly important element for housekeeping department. It reflects the brand and represents the whole hotel. If any issue with the service quality, then the hotel reputation will get affected. Housekeeping team members must follow as per standards and procedures in order to maintain service quality. Every department in a hotel has certain service quality to be maintained. Housekeeping department is in charge to maintain cleanliness and standards of the hotel (The Importance of Maintaining High Standards of Cleaning Services, n.d.). And, every guest room has certain standards to follow from cleaning to placing amenities. Guest rooms are important in terms of customer satisfaction, guest rooms are cleaned and serviced properly, customer satisfaction level will increase, and it will lead to customer loyalty. Continues improvement in service and quality will help the hotel to increase its business and customer loyalty will increase. Amenities like cosmetics, water bottles, dental kits etc has procedures and standards to follow in numbers and in which place and order all to be placed. All these standards and procedures are framed and maintained to increase guest satisfaction.

In order to maintain guest satisfaction level, housekeeping plays very important role, because all the request from guest room will direct to housekeeping desk, they take responsibility in solving guest request and compliments. Housekeeping staffs are the people who have more direct guest interaction in a hotel, as they will be always on the floor and guest rooms, and if any guest request HK staffs are first to receive them (Davies, 2018). Every guest request should be treated with utmost care and importance because even the small error will lead to major issue for the hotel. All guest is not same, so every guest should be treated with care and passion. Guest will be impressed when they receive the service as quick as possible, so it equally important to give the service or handle the compliments as quick as possible.

Management skills

Management skills are certain attributes or abilities or skills that an executive should have in order to full fill specific tasks in an organization. These include the ability to conduct executive duties within an organization while avoiding crisis and resolving problems promptly when they arise (What are Management Skills, 2020). Good management skills are vital for any organizations to achieve success and goals. A manager who brings up good management skills can bring up the company’s vision and mission with less hurdles and objections (What are Management Skills, 2020). Managing the housekeeping department of the hotel requires high managerial skills and abilities with the combination of technical knowledge, customer service, problem solving and multitasking etc. All these skillsets are essential for managers and supervisors of housekeeping department to successfully run the hotel. This skillset will help to improve the service quality, business standards, team handling and employee retention (How to Be an Effective Housekeeping Manager, 2018). Supervisors and managers can change the way of how the housekeeping department functions, with improved skills and knowledge managerial skills will help to create good working culture and positive environment. Most of the employees leaves the company because of bosses and managers (Goler, Gale, Harrington, & Grant, 2018), it can be changed if the boss or the manager is highly motivated and motives his team members towards one common goal. Training and development also play a major role in staff retention, when the staff is trained well in his job and he is comfortable to perform his duties, he will not have second thoughts to change his job.  Training gives knowledge to the staffs, providing some sort of training on weekly basis or monthly basis will help to improve service quality and business (Leonard, 2019). Senior managers and supervisors can take initiative for providing training to their staffs, this will lead to increased job morale and satisfaction. In many hotel brands, all the general managers are mainly form rooms division, it’s because they are high in managerial skills and were able to learn & adopt quickly also, they motivate and train other team members to achieve company’s vision and mission (5 ways to get your housekeeping team organized, 2016).

Overall, this literature review highlights that housekeeping is directly associated with maintaining service quality of the hotel, however there are many issues with the department to manage the daily operations. Labour turnover in housekeeping department affects the entire hotel reputation due to lack of service and service delay. A proper training to all department staffs and a good manager with managerial skills can help to sort out the issues and can lead the department in a positive way. Management skills plays an important role in the department because they are responsible for achieving results. Report is followed by research methodology and data analysis section.

Research Methodology

Research Method

To perform this secondary research, the researcher has used qualitative analysis method. The explanation for using qualitative research approach is that it is used to obtain a deeper understanding of the problem and also helps to explore thoughts and perspectives.

Data Description

Data used for this research belongs to Whitireia Polytechnique, since the data are provided by the institute. These data are set of 8 transcripts of semi structured interviews from managers of different hotels in Auckland. All these data are secondary data, thus providing information about revenue management, housekeeping, service quality, food quality and overall operations, challenges and corrective measures to solve common issues.

Data Analysis

Data for this research work was analysed by coding method. The codes were derived from the given transcripts. After collecting the research appropriate data, a theoretical framework was created that clearly gives an idea of the research theme.

Results

This section brings out the results and views of the managers participated in the interview, all the views are based on their own experience and knowledge. Above mentioned three aspects of housekeeping are addressed here.

Housekeeping issues

Major issues like labour turnover and guest room theft are highlighted here in this section.

1.Labour turnover

Participant for the research said that “ yeah like as I mentioned as housekeeping usually the largest team in a hotel and the larger the team you face problem in regards to consistency so because there a turnover a high turnover so there is new members always on the board and the easiest way to overcome is usually obviously through continuous training so in my previous roles we would either it’s ensuring that supervisors are consistently training the staff member what consistency we want we also do room spots checks to make sure everything is consistent and If it is not obviously we know who clean those rooms and we go back to them see why they have not done as per the standards”

 Labour turnover in housekeeping department is been a major issue for hotels, consistency is providing service lacks due to labour turnover and new members are not trained enough to provide all sort of HK services. Hotels has to come up with working standards and policies which benefit the employees and gives good working environment to all employees.

2.Theft in Guest Room

Another issue addressed by one of the participants is theft in guest rooms, “I will give you an example, housekeeping practices… So it happened in our hotel, it happened with few of the ladies actually, where the guests were staying and that were crew members, a lot of airlines crew members stay in the hotel, so they were using the perfume which the guest were living and using it little bit at least person won’t know about it, but using too much where people can make out as to how much is being used, that has happened before, someone has picked up the perfume and went, so there are disciplinary procedures which are being taken care of it… see again on the other way if you say the guest took that perfume along with him or her and then blaming the staff… so we have to be very particular how we have to… if it is a regular practice happening with a person, its fine… but if it is happening once a while you can’t blame the staff till the time you don’t have the proof… so there are lot of ways of catching hold of people now a days, later on if someone comes up I will let you know the example… theft  is a way of, now a days you have got so many cameras, small cameras which you won’t even notice that we have put it… so regular complaints we put the camera on… right? Give that person that same room to do it most of the time, and we check… If someone has got a practice of doing something, that person will do it right? That might be if I walk into a room, I want to see what guest stuff is lying inside and I will go inside and start opening and checking so that’s the regular thing which does not change if a person gets that habit… So, the cameras are there… so be very careful there are very minute small cameras now a days… if I am carrying a camera, you won’t even come to know right? So, be careful, whatever you are doing, do the right thing, I think everything will be fine…right?  “

Guest room theft is one major issue which every hotel deal with, it’s a matter of hotel’s brand reputation and services. This cannot be a good sign for hotel if it gets more complaints like this. Every hotel should take disciplinary actions towards the staff who ever commits this kind of actions.

Housekeeping Service Quality

Service quality from housekeeping department plays a vital role in guest experience and guest satisfaction. Cleaning and decorating guest rooms, public areas etc. gives positive impression to the guest.

1.Housekeeping Standards and Procedures

As per the participant HK is very much operated by standards and procedures “A housekeeping is very procedural driven housekeeping.  It is one of the only departments where guests can get 100% human interaction.  So, we have to weather all the properties you end up creating like workflow, procedure per room, so then that create standards and that ensures you end up with quality and you end up with  room completed to highest standard, so each room type would have its own workflows and procedures to go through, to run through that. Yeah.  “Another participant mentioned that “we want we also do room spots checks to make sure everything is consistent and If it is not obviously we know who clean those rooms and we go back to them see why they have not done as per the standards also we housekeepers these are all different hotels and I am just combining them as only one hotel did that and also we provide with information and detail cleaning guide them in terms of exactly with what sort of consistency we want so that it all usually it is not a very word document focus it is very photo focus it has lot of pictures with what sort of look and consistency do we want so with all those measure that’s how we usually try maintain consistency as much as possible with obvious housekeeping it’s human input that goes in and everybody has different standards so that they think one person may think it is not clean but the other person think it is clean so it is not perfect all the time but we try get it close to perfect as possible..”

Both the participants had mentioned that hotels strictly follow high level of standards and procedures to give a perfect and quality services to the quest at all times. Importance of standards has been observed from the above answers from participants. And it is clear that service quality can be achieved by following standards and procedures to finish the daily duties and operations.

2.Cleanliness and hygiene

Under service quality, cleanliness and hygiene is a very important aspect to consider because the quality of the product depends on how clean and hygiene it is for the guest to use.

” Ok, although I have worked in housekeeping before, obviously when we were trained, and I have seen what is happening in the department. See hygiene is the first thing while recruiting the employ we take care of that, how the person is groomed, how person is, then we recruit the first person so that is the first point of contact by the HR and the manager who is taking the interview right? Now coming to the second step, someone is not following the procedure, something is not being done, so every day in the morning in the housekeeping department you have a meeting or briefing done at 7.30 where everyone is seen how they are dressed up, how they are taken care of, taking care of themselves, groomed everything is done.”

Above statement from the participant shows the importance of personal hygiene and cleanliness as well.

Housekeeping Management Skills

Management skills are important to run a successful business.

1.Staff Training

Participant mentioned that “so there are new members always on the board and the easiest way to overcome is usually obviously through continuous training so in my previous roles we would either it’s ensuring that supervisors are consistently training the staff member”

“to be used, which chemicals to be used for which room, everything is there, and I think we provide, in our hotel we provide everything for our staff”

Managing staffs and providing essential training to them is very important in housekeeping department. Every staff member must undergo training for certain number of hours in order to perform his or her duties efficiently. Training staffs and making them to perform well in the operation is the important management skills.

2.Staff monitoring

“Now coming to the second step, someone is not following the procedure, something is not being done, so every day in the morning in the housekeeping department you have a meeting or briefing done at 7.30 where everyone is seen how they are dressed up, how they are taken care of, taking care of themselves, groomed everything is done”.

“So, there are supervisors who take rounds so while they are working Ok… and people who don’t follow practices, other people observe them, you come to know”

Monitoring is very essential in management skills because staffs will not be perfect all the times in their work, they will go wrong and as a manager it’s the duty to monitor the staff and mention them where they have gone wrong and if possible give solution to do the same thing in right way.

Overall, the results describe, major issue is with staffs as they are not stable with the work, next it has to deal with service quality by maintaining all the works through set standards and procedures. Along with that management skills are essential for smooth running of business. Next session will discuss clearly about the results mentioned.

Discussion

This part of the research report will describe about the three sections of results, Housekeeping issues, Housekeeping service quality and Management skills. Based on the results obtained from participants we have put together the discussions below.

Housekeeping issues

When it comes to issues in housekeeping department the participants highlighted that labour turnover is the major issue and theft in guest rooms. However, theft in guest is not a major one but it sometimes leaves a very bad impression on the hotel. Participant has also mentioned that sometimes guest by themselves takes the things and put the blame on staffs. “see again on the other way if you say the guest took that perfume along with him or her and then blaming the staff…” so without having a proper evidence we cannot come to conclusion. Labour turnover affects the day to day daily operation in the hotel because if a person joins the department, at first a proper training will be given by other staff members by investing time and money. But later within few days or months the same employee leaves the company which brings hard time for the department. This is the common practise in housekeeping department. Many people leave the hotel and it is tough to maintain consistency of providing quality service. Well trained and experienced staff and newly appointed staff has very big difference in their work. Once the guest is satisfied with our service, he/she will expect the same type of service, but if the staff are new then it’s difficult to give the same service again. This challenge is most crucial as it impacts the hotel reputation and business directly. On the other hand, this can be overcome by proper training and monitoring the staff for continues improvement and growth. Once the staff is trained well enough to perform his duties this issue will be reduced.

Service Quality

Service quality in a hotel is directly related to business. Housekeeping plays a major role in maintaining those qualities as per standard. Every hotel follows standards and procedures to maintain a perfect service quality as these standards are set to ensure guest satisfaction. Housekeeping is more of physical job and all the works to be completed within short time span. In those limited time staff must ensure the cleanliness, hygiene standards and other in room amenities are done. Every guest expects a clean room to stay whenever he checks into the hotel. So, meeting the guest expectation is highly important in hospitality industry to increase the business. Moreover, creating positive impression is possible only by service quality, it cannot be achieved by just promising any sort of things. Maintaining hygiene in work environment, personal hygiene is especially important, and it is monitored by supervisors and managers on daily briefings.

Management skills

Housekeeping managers and supervisors should have high managerial and multitasking skills, as they must deal with multiple duties and responsibilities in a hotel. A manager or a supervisor can change the working culture in an organization. They can guide the team towards the company goals and vision. Housekeeping managers should be clear with staffs about the work and requirements, and in tough times manager should be able to guide the team members to complete the works. Monitoring and training the staffs will help the team to work closely towards success.

Bringing altogether, housekeeping issues like labour turnover can be solved by proper training and service quality is very important for every hotel. As it has direct impact on the business. Service quality maintenance is utmost important to guest satisfaction. Management skills are important in supervisors and managers as they lead the team and organization towards success. The above results and discussion highlighted the major aspects of housekeeping department followed by conclusion and future work.

Conclusion and Future Work

The main objective of this research study was to analyse the secondary data provided based on the earlier researched study on housekeeping operation to provide theoretical framework of housekeeping and to suggest a future study based on the results. Important aspects of housekeeping were selected from the given data which helped in framing a theoretical work. Rooms division stands top in terms of revenue generating in a hotel, housekeeping is the heart of rooms division, as they maintain and provides quality rooms to the guest. Major issue like labour turnover and solution to overcome the issues was discussed. Service quality of housekeeping department is the key factor for guest satisfaction. Managers should possess management skills in order to run the team of staffs and organization towards success. This study is limited only to few aspects of housekeeping because of the provided data, any important aspects apart from this are not discussed due lack of availability of data. Future study recommendations could be considered on other issues like proper tools to work, health and safety

Proposal for Future Study

Housekeeping being the busiest department in a hotel, there are lot many aspects to consider for future study.  Future study should focus on main operation aspects of housekeeping which are uncovered in this study. This will help the researchers to identify the gap, and it will be helpful for students, managements and industry peoples. Service quality plays vital role in developing business, so if the future study involves in going deep understanding of service quality in housekeeping operations it would be helpful for all others in the industry.

Objective of the future study is to conduct primary research on housekeeping operations by collecting real time data, which contributes to better understanding and more realistic results. In this future study, qualitative analysis methodology will be used based on interviews. Convenience sampling method will be suitable, and 10 senior managers will be selected for interview from hospitality industry. These interviews will be semi structured and recorded in author’s mobile or any other device in audio format and later it can be converted into text format. This research study will help the people in industry to perform their duties and work better.

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