Table of Contents
Housekeeping is a core subject that comprises the necessary abilities and practises involved in preserving cleanliness, order, and tidiness in a variety of situations, particularly in residential and commercial settings. It focuses on creating a system for organising, cleaning, and caring for the physical environment. Proper cleaning techniques, effective use of cleaning tools and equipment, knowing different cleaning chemicals and their uses, waste management, and hygiene practises are all covered in this course. Housekeeping students learn to construct and maintain clean, pleasant, and visually pleasing areas, assuring the environment’s general well-being and functionality. Furthermore, housekeeping teaches fundamental life skills that may be employed in both personal and professional contexts, instilling a feeling of responsibility, efficiency, and pride in preserving a clean and orderly environment.
Introduction
We often wonder how all the premises like offices, conference centres, malls, movie theatres, etc. are kept clean and attractive. This is the work of a silent but large workforce called housekeeping. Housekeeping is responsible for the cleanliness, maintenance, and aesthetic upkeep of the entire premises—both externally and internally. It is an extension of basic housekeeping multiplied into
commercial proportions. Therefore, just as we enjoy keeping a sparkling home, the housekeeping department takes pride in keeping a sparkling hotel to create a ‘home away from home.’ The concept of housekeeping is simplistic but when one considers maintaining a house of several hundreds rooms and numerous public areas, the task becomes gigantic and more complex. It takes a well organised approach and technical understanding to enable housekeeping to cope with thevolume of work.
Importance of Housekeeping
The personal effort of the housekeeping department has a direct bearing on the guest experience in a hotel. This is achieved by trained staff, specialised equipment and tools, cleaning solutions, and proper systems and procedures. Housekeeping, as mentioned before, encompasses three major functions:
1. Cleaning
2. Maintenance
3. Aesthetic upkeep of the property
Cleaning
Cleaning is not just having a duster cloth in hand and wiping surfaces. While it may include that activity too, it requires a comprehensive understanding of different surfaces and the best tools andsolutions to clean them to preserve the long life of those surfaces. There are different surfaces in a large commercial operation like a hotel that pose a challenge for the housekeeper. First she must have the knowledge of these surfaces and their properties; then the technical knowledge of how best she can clean them. She must also know how to manage different degrees of stains and soil. All the surfaces require independent understanding of their use and their properties.
Maintenance
Housekeeping identifies and follows up on those items that are malfunctioning or defective throughout the facility and ensures that they are rectified with engineering support. Since housekeeping has access to all parts of a facility in the execution of their cleaning role, they are the right people to locate deficiencies and report them to engineering support for rectification. Engineering support comes in the way of electrical, mechanical, civil, carpentry, plumbing, and any masonry work. The housekeeping staff, for example, will identify corridor lights that are not working; bathroom taps that are leaking; lobby chairs that wobble; or meeting room walls that show water seepage. Housekeeping has an effective communication system with engineering to alert and rectify problems. In some establishments, housekeeping staff are trained to attend to some basic engineering needs such as changing fused bulbs, attending to defective TV connections, or changing a washerof a leaking tap.
Aesthetic Upkeep
The effort made to enhance the property is referred to as aesthetic upkeep. This includes beautifying the grounds and creating floral arrangements and decorations in indoor public areas and offices. To do so, the housekeeper must have a basic understanding of horticulture, including the upkeep of nurseries and green houses. She is also concerned with floral art in order to keep interiors looking nice. At this point, we must distinguish between the roles of housekeeping and internal designer. The theme, colour scheme, furnishings, and fittings of the facility are decided by the interior designer, while the housekeeper maintains the facility as designed by the interior designer. Some experienced housekeepers may also be competent interior decorators.
Role of Housekeeping
First Impression:
Housekeeping helps us to give a good impression to any customer because when a customer first comes into a hotel, he/she will feel good to see the good system regarding decoration & make his/her visit again and again.
Home Away From Home:
Housekeeping provides a home away from home because when any customer takes a room & sees that everything that a room requires is placed on its right place & all the facilities like home are there in the room so he/she will feel that he/she is not away from home.
Repeat Business:
When a customer will be satisfied with the services provided by the hotel & also likes the decoration or view of the hotel, he/she will visit the same hotel again& again. Also, he/she will tell others to be the customer of that hotel so we can say that housekeeping plays the role of repeat business.
Benefits of Housekeeping
The benefits to be given from adopting planned housekeeping and or maintenance subsystem can be considered in financial functional, aesthetic, and human terms.
- Functional Benefit: Functional benefit refers to the kind of benefit which the hotel gets in their functional activities from the good housekeeping for e.g. Housekeeping helps in preserving the physical characteristics of beds and its services ensuring that everything functions satisfactorily and preventing rapid deterioration / break down.
- Aesthetic Benefit: Any area looks more attractive if it is maintained clean and if things are placed in the right place and this is achieved by good housekeeping practices. Cleaning is not only essential to retain the appearance of surfaces and total areas, both inside and outside the building but also helps in improving appearance e.g. Floor seals. Appearance and apparent cleanliness do have a psychological effect on the building user – who may value judgment of total experience based on his perception of an initial view of appearance and standards of cleanliness.
- Financial Benefit: Financial benefit refers to good earnings of the hotel when the customer or guests will come again & again so the hotel will get more revenue or earnings that will give financial benefits to the hotel. Over a period of time, it proves more cost-effective to provide cleaning and maintenance services on a regular planned schedule basis. This helps in extending the life span of equipment surfaces, furniture, fittings, and furnishings. Thus deferring the heavy expenditure of frequent replacement or renovation.
- Human Benefit: These benefits are divided into two ways:
- Guest Benefit: Clean, attractive, well-maintained surroundings are more pleasant, enjoyable, and comfortable for clients to use, increase customer satisfaction, affect repeat business. Housekeeping provides a good facility to the guest so that he feels good & gives them a proper place to stay out of the home without any feeling that we are away from home.
- Employee Benefit: Employees get a good atmosphere for doing their work or job which is made possible if the hotel has good housekeeping practices. If employees get a good working atmosphere it increases their morale, they work hard & efficient works lead to an increase in the revenue. This in turn not only affects labor turnover and recruitment, but it also contributes to creating hygiene and safety hazards.