How to improve the housekeeping department? 8 Tips for hoteliers
As a guest in a hotel how often do you consider the workload that the housekeeping department has to go through to ensure they meet your needs? This is where the art of a hotelier comes into play, to create such seamless operating procedures and use technology to make this process so smooth that guests don’t even realize all that happens behind the scenes to make their stay unforgettable.
How can hoteliers do this? By following the 8 tips outlined below.
1. Embrace technology
In recent years, the hospitality industry has seen a lot of technological change. Thanks to technology like Mews’ housekeeping integration, you can use the system to assign rooms to housekeeping staff, create shifts, and immediately let them know when a guest has checked out. The faster they can turn around a room, the better for turnover and guest satisfaction because they can check in earlier.
Find out the benefits of early check-in.
2. Automate and streamline cleaning shifts
By automating and streamlining cleaning shifts, housekeeping staff will be more productive because they can easily keep track of their schedules. As occupancy increases, they can be automatically informed of changes in their shifts allowing them to better manage their time. Better time management is not only better for the hotel but also helps increase staff satisfaction. Learn how automation can help better optimize hotel housekeeping.
3. Develop agile task lists and training programs
With technology like Mews’ Commander App you can manage your team’s tasks from any device seamlessly. Use the technology to develop task lists so that your staff can check them off as they go and your staff can be sure not to miss a thing. Discover the features you should look for in hotel housekeeping software.
This improved workflow takes the pressure off the department and helps increase productivity, saving you man hours and money instantly. Training is also an important part of improving the housekeeping department, ensuring that they are being up-skilled constantly so that they perform better and you facilitate more job satisfaction.
Find out how to build and manage the perfect staff.
4. Check your guest feedback
Guest feedback is fundamental to understanding how each department is performing, and even more so for the housekeeping department. Nothing does more for guest satisfaction than a spick and span room and spotless facilities. So be sure to have controls in place to make sure your staff is performing and check in with guests during and after their stay to see how you performed and learn where there is room for improvement.
5. Go for a real-time reporting tool
With today’s pace of technological change, it’s vital for hotels to be plugged into an ecosystem of products that is constantly evolving and adapting. This is where real-time reporting comes in handy. Get status updates on rooms so you can easily let guests know when their rooms will be ready. Real-time reporting allows your departments to be more agile because the front desk can more easily understand room cleaning progress and know when a room is ready immediately, and the other departments can more easily coordinate amongst each other.
6. Use data to establish predictability
Get statistics of how many rooms are cleaned per hour and understand which of your staff are more productive so you can be sure to schedule those staff on busy days. You can also use data to better predict when rooms will be ready so that you can give more accurate updates to your guests that are waiting for their rooms to be ready.
7. Enhance communication among hotel staff
With technology you can more easily facilitate communication among hotel staff thanks to messaging that is all managed in one place. Instead of using their own cell phones to communicate with the front desk, they can directly communicate via an app. This streamlines communication and makes it easier for inter-departmental communication, which is fundamental to a hotel working well.
8. Foster a positive and motivated team environment.
Fostering a positive and motivated team environment is what staff needs to be fulfilled. The more you can encourage staff to work together, the more part of the team they will feel and the more committed they will be to making the housekeeping department the best it can be. You can do this by rewarding your top performers, and by giving positive feedback.
Be sure to set up a system of regular reviews so that you can easily catch when something is not going as expected and get feedback from your staff about any necessary improvements. They will feel more involved, and the more you involve them, the more productive you will be. Read this guide to better housekeeping.
How can Mews improve the housekeeping department in a hotel?
The Mews Commander App works alongside our PMS solution to further increase the productivity of the housekeeping department. Our hotel housekeeping technology allows you to navigate all rooms with reservation details of arriving, departing and in house guests.
Housekeeping can instantly clean and inspect rooms from the application, filter them by status for up-to-date information on guests in house – so no more knocking on doors and interrupting unsuspecting guests!
Plus, by using integrated technology that syncs up to your PMS to better run every department, you can be sure to have a better manage tasks, get a better panorama of all the guests that are arriving and departing that day so that you can get a clearer picture of all the moving parts that go into running your hotel’s housekeeping department. Enhanced communication streamlined workflows and task management make Mews a must for improving housekeeping operations.
Conclusion
We’ve looked at how improving the housekeeping department can increase productivity and guest satisfaction as well as 8 tips to make this possible. The better all your departments work together, finding ways to optimize workflows and communication, the happier your staff will be, which will have a positive effect on guest satisfaction.
Furthermore, increased productivity positively influences revenue and profitability. So why wouldn’t you do all it takes to make sure your housekeeping department is working like a well-oiled machine?
Download our guide
To learn more about optimizing your housekeeping operations, refer to our guide on best practices.
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