The Annual Hotel General Managers’ Conference back in January featured a wide-ranging programme, with a number of sessions that addressed such issues as the need for review and control of business costs in the current tough trading climate.
Amongst these was a presentation by Anne Britton MIH, Chair of the UK Housekeepers Association, who stressed the need for leadership, commercial and technical skills in order to deliver the quality performance demanded these days, pointing out that ‘housekeeping’ could encompass everything from labour, linen, cleaning supplies, capex and refurbishment, to complex contract negotiations. This not only requires considerable in-house ability, but also training to support and equip the team involved.
Cost specifics
There are, however, ways to address costs, and suggestions included:
- Dry cleaning: negotiate a cost per item contract with your supplier which will enable you to re-charge to guests with a margin for profit
- Cotton: the raw material price fluctuates, but suppliers and manufacturers prefer to retain price increases that were originally based on their increased material costs. Check raw material costs and challenge quoted prices if they are not reflecting reductions.
- Stock levels: reducing stock levels too far can result in staff wasting time sourcing stocks from other floors of the hotel, with consequent loss of productivity and/or increased labour costs.
- Flexible contracts: where possible, negotiate contracts that allow costs to be flexed against actual use or requirement.
- Cleaning materials: beware promises and insist on seeing the test results that demonstrate that the product is appropriate for the proposed use.
- Are there items in rooms on which you can economise without reducing quality? For example, in-house water-bottling is justified for both economic and sustainability reasons these days.
- Monitor use of towels: are they being laundered when the guest has indicated re-use?
- Equipment sharing: is this practical? Or will it result in lost productivity?
- On a wider level, it is possible to undertake a detailed time and motion study in order to better understand how long it should take to reach a floor and clean an average room. There are likely to be problems identified, efficiency lessons learned.
A final thought: as Anne Britton pointed out, it is false economy to accept poor standards in housekeeping which lead to problems, guest dissatisfaction, poor reviews and then lost business – a ‘vicious spiral’ that it is difficult and slow to reverse.