Housekeeping Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

[box type=”shadow” ]Housekeeping in the hospitality segment has undergone drastic changes in method and in process. Mohana M speaks to some of the big-wigs in the housekeeping profession in star hotels of Delhi to capture those not-so-easy and challenging moments of work life.[/box]

When we started working in housekeeping 30 years back, there were no chemicals. We only knew of off-the-shelf cleaning products like Vim, Brasso, Teepol and we used to scrub manually right from the washbasin to the bath tub. For floor polishing the chemicals used were a concoction using turpentine oil. All that mattered was to have a shining floor. We used a piece of cloth or a discarded towel to polish the floor. This was housekeeping three decades back.

Now everything has changed with scrubs and cloths being replaced by tools and mops. We have best of the machines with different rpms, best of the chemicals and these make cleaning easy. What I found difficult to achieve earlier, today equipment and chemicals have made it possible.

The future is promising with new inventions coming up. Latest technologies like robotic cleaning or where carpets instead of being shampooed can be dry cleaned and made ready-to-use within two hours, will make all the difference.

Speaking about career growth, earlier promotions and moving up to the next grade or level was not so easy. Nowadays, people down the line are very impatient, and are always looking for higher job posts outside. They do not wish to learn everything and want to move on. The knowledge gathered by working a number of years in a particular role, understanding of that role and execution of that role to perfection is missing currently. It took five years previously to get the next promotion, but now in five years any housekeeper turns into an executive housekeeper or a deputy housekeeper of five-star hotels. Another reason why promotions did not come by easily earlier was because the management never used to recognize our capability.

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In conversation with Sareena Kochar, Vice-President, Housekeeping, The Lemon Tree Hotel, New Delhi

I think the biggest thing is to change the thought processes of people. That can only happen when the housekeepers are brought in through formal institutes.

– Sareena Kochar[/box]

Nowadays, as soon as one steps up the ladder, they reach a saturation point. What next after executive housekeeper? They feel stagnated in a role for three, four or five years, leading to dissatisfaction and demotivation. Ultimately, they look for another job or change the industry.

Soon there will come a time when we will have managers doing multiple roles. There are options in the managerial role where a housekeeper can become a resident manager and then a general manager. As a manager, one needs to learn about rooms, F&B, design and even the engineering part besides selling, customer retention, increase customers, revenue management and many other activities. In short, a manger who knows the operations of each department and who grows to assistant manager, general manager and so on.

When I was opening Continental hotel in Goa 25 years back, I had just three days in hand. It was a big event with VVIP coming in for launch. The entire staff worked continuously for three days without sleep and we were able to put up a great show. At a point of time, we did wonder whether it was possible or not. But everything is possible if you wish to go for it. Opening a hotel in three days was a new learning and great achievement for me too. I never trusted myself to do this but it was done eventually.

Hence, growing is quality delivery of what one learns as a housekeeper. How much a housekeeper knows about the job. Superiors give us the necessary knowledge and training but we need to be updated.

When I started my career, I didn’t have a laptop. Today, I do everything on Excel easily. This is the learning we need to keep ourselves updated with. What is happening technologically or otherwise in this field, upcoming design, the tools, cleaning chemicals and so on; one needs to be updated.

Over and above, one needs to also understand what the new generation is expecting from you. Maybe they are not comfortable to learn the way we teach them. We need to adapt different ways to teach them also. We also have to speak their language. They should like whatever we teach them in a methodology that they comprehend. My team has 25-year-old girls who sit here and learn with me. Within two and half years they are ready to become an executive housekeeper. This is because the teaching and learning which involves operations, design, manpower ratio, laundry, horticulture and so on, is very-very strong. The housekeeper within two years knows my expectations which is the key to their success.

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In conversation with Rita Chaudhry Corporate Executive Housekeeper at Sarovar Hotels & Resorts

Hence, there is a lot of awareness and training that needs to be imparted to retain the interest in housekeeping.

– Rita Chaudhry[/box]

In my family, no girls had ever worked outside. Somebody I knew told me about a vacancy in front office. When I went there, I was asked to join housekeeping. I did not know what was working in a hotel was all about. In those days, nobody joined hotels. I had to seek a lot of permission from my grandparents. I just joined to begin with and today it has become my career.

In those days, occupancy largely depended on the flight movement. Within 45 minutes of the flight landing, we knew that the room had to be kept ready. In those days, housekeeping was more of a five-star hotel concept. It probably did not exist in other star hotels or dormitories. Gradually, as they got exposed, awareness about housekeeping spread to other hotels and then hospitals, malls and so on. This has changed the whole scenario drastically.

The difference then was that there were no inputs, no training, no chemical, no machine, no laundry equipment and no dosing systems. Today, training has become important, briefing is a must, there is more awareness, more products and more occupancy.

Guest experience was important then and now too. In fact, we rise to the occasion only when there is a complaint lodged. Today, most of these shortcomings are attributed to untrained people and shortage of manpower. One of the first machines that we used then came from abroad. Room attendants were essentially male and housekeepers were females. Girls were trained to use the machine too. The training sessions were fun filled and thereafter the user of the machine was more knowledgeable.

Earlier, promotions and movement of people was much restricted. Today, if one does not like being in an organization, they just move on. More than experience, money matters these days. Today, the mindset is such that if you change jobs every two years you make a lot of money. Each one looks for better prospects. In those days when someone took up a job they would stay long enough out of loyalty.

Further, the concept of housekeeping differs from place to place. A housekeeper in a mall does not need to clean rooms and bathrooms. Today, cleaning bathroom has become a big issue.

Again, designations matter today. A room attendant of 10 to 12 years would become a supervisor and now we call them assistance housekeeper, senior housekeeper and so on.

Housekeeping still holds a stigma. There was a time when family members coming to meet the housekeeping staff was a strained meeting. Housekeepers did not want their family to know they were doing the cleaning job and would rather prefer to meet them outside the property rather than inside.

Retaining people in housekeeping is an issue today. It is still possible to convince ladies to stay on the job. However, the average retention of anyone in smaller properties is about six months. People are not willing to join housekeeping any more.

We are providing housekeeping with cleaning equipment, we have brushes, brushes with handle… without thinking about the cost to change the mindset of housekeepers. We need to tell them that instead of bare hands we can use gloves, we can use hand held brushes, instead of broom we have long handle brooms which takes care of their back and fatigue while cleaning.