Liaise With Other Departments
Report malfunctions as required
There may be times when you will come across equipment that is malfunctioning – either not working as intended, making too much noise, is unsafe, is damaged or not working at all.
All such equipment must be immediately tagged as Out of Order and, where possible and safe to do so, the item should be removed from the guest‟s room and logged at the housekeeping department as being in need of repair.
Where possible, a replacement item must be placed into the guest room so that required house service levels are maintained, and guest expectations continue to be met.
Replacement items may come from storage or from a vacant room, in the immediate short term. Sometimes a new item may be purchased as the replacement.
Reporting malfunctions
You must do your best to immediately replace the item in the guest room by seeking a replacement from the housekeeping department, storage or substituting one from a vacant room.
Where the item is of such importance such as the fridge, the TV, the air conditioner or stove (in a kitchenette situation) front office must be notified so they take the room off the board and not sell it.
If the room is occupied and a major piece of equipment is malfunctioning and can‟t be repaired or replaced immediately, the guest will have to be re-roomed (room change) to another room.
It is housekeeping staff who will have to move the guest‟s luggage and belongings in such as cases, and set up those belongings in the new room.
How might I report these problems?
The traditional ways of reporting these equipment problems are:
Verbally – face-to-face or over the phone with the Floor Housekeeper, Maintenance Department or the Executive Housekeeper
Completing a relevant in-house report form – these are pro forma documents that detail the item of equipment, the room number the item came from, the problem that was identified, name of the person reporting it, date.
Where establishments have their own in-house maintenance department it will be the Executive Housekeeper‟s responsibility to contact them for repairs or to make a judgement call about replacement rather than repair. It is the Executive Housekeeper‟s responsibility because the expenses will be charged against the Rooms Division.
Participate in planning to enhance service delivery standards and equipment purchase
Planning in housekeeping is just as important as in other hospitality departments. Whilst the majority of services delivered through housekeeping as not done in direct view of the guest, the output has a tremendous impact on the guest, either in a positive or negative way.
As the staff member working in the environment where the guest resides and being the contact point for the guest, your input, suggestions and input is invaluable in ensuring that the services and products provided not only meet the expectations of the guest, but actually exceeds them.
This requires detailed planning of both services and products. Without either of these the guest experience is certainly compromised.
Planning services
Improving staff knowledge, skills and attitudes
Services are commonly referred to as the output of staff resulting from their current knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Therefore to improve the service provided, management must plan to improve each staff member‟s:
Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes.
Staff are always keen to learn and improve and management should strive to find out from staff what they would like to learn to enable them to provide better service.
This training may come in the form of:
Workshops
Training sessions
Qualifications and courses
Buddy system
Mentoring programs.
Staff have a good understanding of what they consider important to know and this must be communicated and understood by management