HOUSEKEEPING DEPARTMENT REPORT

The housekeeping department is an important component in hotel business because it
affects the first impression on a guest, making it a major contributor to profit. It entails
conducting all the duties such as maintaining orderliness, cleaning, and a highly desirable
ambience. In doing so, hotel housekeepers aim to perform in the most efficient and effective
methods all these duties that enhance the quality, cleanliness, and interior décor. Areas of
responsibility in the housekeeping department include guest bathrooms, rooms, the lobby,
conference and banquet halls, parking area, garden, and sales and admin offices. It also
entails managing laundry and handling room keys. Most importantly, the housekeeping
department must work closely with the Front office to create a seamless experience to the
guests.

Housekeeping Department Organization Chart

Most hotels have a standard housekeeping organization chart that demonstrates a clear
picture of the channels of communication and lines of authority.

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Figure 1 : Housekeeping Department Organization Chart
Housekeeping is one of the busiest departments in hotels, and a clear channel of
communication is necessary to establish effective conduct of all employees, collaboration,
and access to housekeeping supplies. The Executive Housekeeper is the highest authority in
the department, and is also referred to as the Housekeeping manager. Every housekeeping
employee must stay oriented with their job description at all times and report to the right
authority of any irregularities with room facilities, assets or any equipment noticed in the
process of housekeeping. Basically, the standard procedure in room housekeeping starts with
notification from the checkout clerk to the housekeeping manager that a room has been
vacated, and therefore, needs to be cleaned. The housekeeping manager then send a room
attendant to clean the room, in which case they should report back about the condition of the
room. In addition, the when the room is Out of Order or out of service, it is retracted from the
list of available rooms until a repair is scheduled with the Maintenance Department. When

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everything is set, the room status is updated to Clean and Available and the manager contacts
the Front Office department to confirm the status of the hotel room.
Collaboration between Housekeeping and Front Office Department
The inter-relationship between Housekeeping and Front Office department is mainly
due to the need for clean rooms for stay overs and expected arrivals and also to increase the
capacity to satisfy special guest needs concerning facilities and amenities in their rooms. This
collaboration involves a series of processes such as cleaning and inspection that determine
the time, effort, labor needed on any shift, and also ensuring availability.
A two-way communication between housekeeping and front desk is relatively
important in hotel management as it ensures that the work schedule of the housekeepers can
be preloaded in their accrued terminal before the start of their shift. On the other hand, the
housekeepers can use the two-way system to inform on any changes and any forms of
emergencies that require immediate redress.
Standard operating procedures for the opening and closing of the building
Opening and closing of houses or building in hotel management is a process that is
procedural in nature and which should be handled carefully to avoid friction with the clients
who are within the hotel. The following procedure should be followed. The process should
start at the front desk where the housekeeping receive information on which houses or
buildings requires services. The housekeeping then records the information on the working a
and control document. For those houses which occupancy is less than 100%, they are
transferred to the open section of the record. The occupied rooms are then close checked and
the process of closing and opening the building can be initiated based on the information
recorded on the working and control document.
Naming and understanding of the daily reports that are crucial for day to day
operations of the department

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Housekeeping should be an efficient process that aimed at making the clients satisfied with
the services of the hotel so that they come back. Therefore, the housekeeping should maintain
reports that reflect on the progress of the department. Some of the reports that the department
should maintain include
Shift audit report- This report indicates the day and night shift of workers in the department
and show even the brief breakdown of the activities carried.
Departure report- This is a report that shows how the clients are scheduled to departure from
the hotel. The objective of this report is to help everybody in the department to effectively
prepare in servicing the guests.
Arrivals report- records on arrival of guests to ensure and the arrival time to ensure their
rooms and associated services are in line for maximum delivery of service and customers
satisfaction. Without this report, the cohesion between the front desk and housekeeping might
be affected.
Housekeeping report- This is a comprehensive report that show elements such as
housekeeping status, front desk status, property room number, departure dates and unit type.
The report improves the efficiency in housekeeping as each staff knows everything that needs
to be done.
The relationship between the Front office and Housekeeping department
What is evident is that no department in a hotel can work independently without the
inclusion of other departments. Front office and housekeeping are among those departments.
There is close relationship between this two departments and friction and lack of cohesion
between this two departments can disable the operations of the hotel. There is two-way
communication between the two departments. The major communication is usually about the
status of the housekeeping rooms. This is mainly done face-to-face and there is little use of
property management system (PMS) as the two department are closely related in functions.

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Each day the front office department must produce an occupancy report which indicates the
room that are currently occupied and which are empty. The executive housekeeper must
consult this report every morning and schedule the cleaning process based on what is
indicates in the report. Other information that us received by the housekeeping from the front
desk include VIPs in the house, crew in the house, group in the house among other house
information.

The process of room allocation

There is an elaborate room allocation procedure which is aimed satisfying the clients
and ensure that there is cohesion between the front desk and housekeeping. First the guest
presents the reservation document to the front desk. The staff checks the details and ensure
that they match with the records of the hotel. After checking the details, he or she records on
the check in and check out list and goes ahead to allocate the available room based on the
needs of the client. Special request of the client must be adhered to when blocking the room
for the client. The front desk should be more careful while handling VIP reservation due to
their accrued sensitivity. Without good blocking systems there is a high likelihood that the
clients will not be satisfied and that is not good for business. After allocation of the room, the
client is then shown the room and the housekeeping is updated.
Content and process involved in stocking of the room attendants’ cart
Notably, cleaning the guest rooms is fundamental for the accrued success of a hotel.
The cleaning staff need to be well organized and efficient and this begins with a well-stocked
housekeeping cart. Though the process of stocking the cart might vary from one hotel to
another, the cart should be stocked from bottom up. The bottom should begin with towels and
linens, then paper products and the top should have the cleaning supplies and the amenities.
Note that the cart will be in plain view of the client when the staff is cleaning and thus it must
be well organized.

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Tasks and key duties involved with the supervision of the public areas of the hotel
The supervision of the public areas is done by the public area supervisor and he or she
is charged with various responsibilities and they include

• The accrued supervision of the daily hotel public areas cleaning.
• Scheduling of deep cleaning and supervising the activities involved
• Performing routine inspections of all service areas, public areas and storerooms.
• Organize and supervise flowers, pest control and other elements in public areas
• Anticipate the needs of the clients and acknowledge them effectively
• Organize the staffs involved in maintaining the public areas.
• Report on all maintenance issues to the housekeeping desk.
• Train and manage public area attendants

Duties and responsibilities of the housekeeper

The house keeper is the senior staff in the housekeeping department and he or she is
charged with following duties and responsibilities

• Supervising, organizing and coordinating the housekeeping staff in their day to day
  activities.
• Preparing duty rosters and ensuring that they effectively followed by each staff in the
  department.
• Inspecting the rooms to ensure safety, sanitation and comfort for the clients
• Ensuring there is good communication and working relation in the department and
  holding periodic meeting to update the staff and obtain their response, suggestions
  and complains
• Motivate and counsel the employees within the department
• Develop and maintain elaborate standard operating procedures for housekeeping
  which will ensure efficiency within the department.

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• Make an evaluation of the performance of the employees in the department.
• Keep an inventory of the equipment and keep checking on the available equipment
  within the department.

Day to day routine of looking after the swimming pool

The pool is a major component of a hotel and how it maintained determines the level of
clients’ satisfaction especially those who are ford of swimming. There are various routines
that that the staff involved in maintaining the pool should observe to ensure that it is in order.
They include:

• Checking the filter and pump of the pool
• Checking for debris and foreign objects
• Inspecting the skimmer baskets and pump traps for any accrued blockage
• Testing the pool water

Types of interaction between the housekeeping and maintenance department
There is close relationship between the housekeeping department and maintenance
department as the latter supplements the former. One of the interactions between the two
departments is scheduling of maintenance whether the housekeeping department evaluates
areas which require maintenance and reports to the maintenance department for action. The
second interaction involves placement of a work order that, in turn, prompt the maintenance
to send an employee to the department to repair areas as report by the housekeeping
department.

Functions and working of the laundry department

The laundry department has various functions. One of the functions is dealing with
the linens supply which include face towels, towels, pillow cases, bed linen, bath mat, bed

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sheets, table clothes among others. It is also charged with responsibility of taking care of the
staff uniform and maintaining a good inventory of the linens.

The role and routine work of the lost and found department
This is a department that is charged with the responsibility of keeping and locating the
owners of items found within the hotel. It is a department within housekeeping. Clients who
have misplaced items are always advised to report in the department for correspondence.