Housekeeping Department

The housekeeping department is the most extensive department of the hotel and can be called as one of the most important department of the hotel. The primary responsibility of the Housekeeping department is to ensure the hotel’s cleanliness and implement the necessary activities effectively. But in addition to this, many duties and activities are carried out by this department. This article will explain what the housekeeping department is. What are its responsibilities? What is the housekeeping department’s organizational chart, and what is the process of the officials there?

What is Housekeeping?

According to the Collins dictionary, Housekeeping is cleaning.

According to e-PG Pathshala, Housekeeping is defined as providing a clean, comfortable and safe environment. It is the management of the property and equipment of an institute or organization, a house, industrial or commercial institute.

Although Housekeeping is defined differently by scholars and hoteliers, if taken as a common denominator, it is correct to say that Housekeeping is based on the words cleaning and comfortable as well as safety. There are indeed many responsibilities and actions under the guise of this word.

Here, cleaning means removing unnecessary things such as dirt, dust, infectious agents, and other extreme stuff from around the hotel and in the rooms. “comfortable” refers to the maintenance of the housekeeping department to provide and receive what is needed or wanted correctly and efficiently to the guest and the hotel’s staff and the hotel. Security means rescuing and protecting everyone in the hotel from danger or threat. Here, the primary responsibility of protecting not only from pests but also from various epidemics and diseases, as well as animals and insects, is assigned to the housekeeping department. It is more important to pay attention to the organizational chart of the housekeeping department of a hotel before describing the responsibilities in detail.

The organizational chart shows the official levels of the department as well as the way they are organized. From that, the department can understand the actions the people in those positions perform. In the same way, any person can know his work through the organizational chart and can get an understanding of the distance he should be and can travel in the future. For example, if you are a training room attendant today, how far do you have to go to become an executive housekeeper? The organizational chart varies from hotel to hotel. But the positions that must be held are mentioned in the organizational chart of every hotel. It differs from hotel to hotel, depending on the facilities and requirements of that hotel. For example, a 1000 rooms city hotel needs more housekeeping staff and officials. That’s because 1000 rooms is a lot and there are a lot of work duties. More bureaucracy is required to control and supervise all activities. But a small resort hotel with 50 rooms requires fewer employees and fewer officials to manage their work. Some hotels do not need a laundry department because those functions are outsourced. Due to these reasons, the organizational chart can be changed.

The organizational chart of the Housekeeping department is shown below. This is set up as an organizational chart in a large hotel.

Executive Housekeeper.

The Executive Housekeeper is the head of the hotel’s housekeeping department. In some small hotels, villas, or resorts, the position of the executive Housekeeper is impossible to see. Because the hotel is small, the amount of work done differs from that of a large hotel, so instead of Executive Housekeeper, a title like Housekeeping Supervisor is used. But the position of an executive housekeeper can be seen in star-class or luxury hotels. Nevertheless, the executive Housekeeper has a valuable amount of work to do. Therefore, it is appropriate to ask about it.

Duties And Responsibilities of Executive Housekeeper.

The Executive Housekeeper should report to the head of the hotel and higher ranks as the head of the housekeeping department. For example, General Manager, Resident Manager, Housekeeping Director, Rooms Division Manager, Rooms Division Executive etc.

Participate in the daily Executive meeting/morning meeting and discuss and exchange ideas with General Manager / Resident Manager and other department heads regarding the hotel’s current situation and future decisions.

Executive Housekeeper Attending monthly and yearly meetings on behalf of the housekeeping department.

Daily morning briefings should be given to the officials and employees of the housekeeping department. For this, many hotel executive housekeepers participate in the morning shift. In addition, the assistant Housekeeper or housekeeping supervisor does briefing during afternoon/evening and night shifts. If there is no Executive Housekeeper in small hotels, this briefing will be done by a department head or a senior. With the daily briefings, It will be more successful in giving a rough idea of how the work should be done that day to the housekeeping staff. For example, The executive housekeeper or supervisor can be informed about what kind of special events are held at the hotel and explain the duties and responsibilities. Also better to mention that if there is a special guest, the service to be provided is discussed. With the briefing, the department employees also discussed the common problems they had to work on, for example, Defects in cleaning materials and machines, defects in linen etc.

Recruiting new staff members to the housekeeping department, recruiting existing staff members, arranging training programs, and solving problems among staff members should be done by the Executive Housekeeper.

Creating and negotiating annual and monthly housekeeping department budgets.

Must work very well with other departments.

The Executive Housekeeper is responsible for the cleanliness of the entire hotel.

Responsible for the safety and comfort of the rooms in the hotel.

Preparing the daily working roster of the housekeeping department.

Granting and approving a leave of employees.

These are some of the primary duties and responsibilities performed by the Executive Housekeeper. But many other tasks performed by Executive Housekeeper may vary from hotel to hotel.

Assistant Housekeeper.

The main officer after the executive housekeeper in the housekeeping department is the Assistant Housekeeper. In the absence of the executive housekeeper, the assistant housekeeper acts as the acting head of the housekeeping department.

Duties And Responsibilities of Assistant Housekeeper.

Assistant Housekeeper should report to the executive housekeeper. Coming to duty on time is mandatory.

It is mandatory to attend the daily briefing. In cases where the executive housekeeper is unavailable, the housekeeping staff should be briefed for each shift. When the executive housekeeper is on leave or busy, he should attend the daily morning executive or managers meeting and the monthly department meeting.
Staff members should be trained, and programs should be organized for training.

Assist the Executive Housekeeper in preparing the Housekeeping budget.

Arrangements should be made to resolve the guest’s complaint. Staff members should pay attention to the problems if they are real.

Assistant Housekeeper should sort out correct information about things like lost and found with the housekeeping desk attendant.
Housekeeping stock taken at the end of the year should be supported.

The Assistant Housekeeper should be committed to conserving departmental resources. Also, if the department needs new technology and knowledge, it should be tried to get it. For example, attention should be paid to things like new machines.
If the housekeeping department needs to recruit new personnel and the relevant officials need promotions and salary increases, the Assistant Housekeeper should inform the Executive Housekeeper.

They should arrange to provide their knowledge at any time under the housekeeping department.

Arrangements should be made to randomly check rooms, to check places in the public area, and to check the knowledge of the staff working in housekeeping.

Allocating floor supervisors to room floors daily, declaring the room number to be cleaned by room attendants, and explaining the work to be done to public area attendants.
The staff roster should be prepared, and the shift should be given to the people working in the housekeeping department correctly.

Steps should be taken to cooperate with other departments.

Floor Supervisor

In the Housekeeping department, more responsibility is assigned to the Floor Supervisor regarding the room floors and the condition of the rooms. Floor Supervisor should report to Executive Housekeeper and Assistant Housekeeper.

Duties And Responsibilities of Floor Supervisor

Must report for duty in a uniform on time. Likewise, it is mandatory to attend the morning briefing.

The floor supervisor is fully responsible for the floor master keys. (Floor master keys can be used to open the doors of all rooms on the relevant floor).

Floor master keys related to the floor assigned to him to work should be signed in the key register and obtained from the desk attendant. When handing over the keys, the floor supervisor should sign the key register and hand over the keys to the desk attendant. If manual keys are used, they cannot be damaged. However, if any damage occurs, the floor supervisor should immediately inform the executive housekeeper about it and repair it.

The floor supervisor should tell the room attendants that he supervises the respective floor.

The floor supervisor should calculate the number of departure and occupied rooms on the room allocation or the housekeeping information sheet and explain to the room attendant the number of rooms that need to be cleaned as soon as possible.

The floor supervisor should check the room attendant’s trolley before bringing it to the room floor. To know if it has been set up correctly and if there are any defects.

Each room that the room attendant cleans must be thoroughly inspected. If there are any deficiencies in the properly inspected rooms, they should be pointed out to the room attendant to correct them. If the room is thoroughly cleaned, it should be noted in the floor supervisor’s room report. Similarly, the floor supervisor should inform the housekeeping desk attendant from time to time about the Ready rooms / Vacant rooms. This is because the grand room status report is prepared by the housekeeping desk attendant and is sent to the executive housekeeper’s supervision. After the executive housekeeper’s supervision report will be passed on to the front office department. Accordingly, the receptionist can sell the prepared rooms.

If the room attendant notices a maintenance problem in the guest room, the floor supervisor should immediately notify the relevant departments and resolve the issues. The problem and the progress of the work to solve it should be mentioned in the floor supervisor’s report.

The floor supervisor is solely responsible for the floor keys. (Floor master keys can be used to open the doors of all rooms on the corresponding floor).

If the room attendant notices a lost and found in the guest room to the floor supervisor, he/ she should act on it quickly and correctly according to the lost and found procedures followed by the hotel.

The floor supervisor’s report should be handed over to the housekeeping desk attendant before the end of duty.

The floor supervisor should pay special attention to the special guest request related to his floor and make sure to complete the guest request quickly.

Duties And Responsibilities of room attendant.

A room attendant is a person in the housekeeping department of a hotel who is more concerned about cleaning the rooms and their condition. Room attendants should report to the Floor Supervisor, Assistant Housekeeper, and Executive Housekeeper of the hotel.

Duties and Responsibilities

Must report for duty in a uniform on time. Must attend daily briefings.

A room attendant is a person in the housekeeping department of a hotel who is more concerned about the cleaning of the rooms and their condition.

By participating in the briefing, the room attendant can get a clear idea of the work to be done in his room. There, information such as special functions, events, number of rooms to be cleaned on the day, number of departure rooms, number of occupied rooms, O.O.O. (Out Of Oder) or other problem rooms are discussed here. Likewise, if other notable things are done on the room floors and other places of the hotel, that is also discussed in the briefing. For example, metres rotating in the rooms, pest control etc. Also, explain many things like D.N.D. (Do Not Disturb) rooms, No lagged rooms, late check-out rooms, guest complaints, special guest requests, and other issues related to the previous day or shift, if there are V.I.P. guests in the hotel. Also, appreciation if the staff members did good service to the guest.

The room attendant should get the floor section key, work assignment sheet, room attendant information sheet etc., from the desk attendant and start the shift. The room attendant should sign the key register while receiving the floor section key and handing it back to the desk attendant.

The room attendant trolley should be set up very accurately. It makes it easier to get on with the day’s work. We have explained how to set up the room attendant trolley correctly in another article. Enhance it to get more attention to it.

Before starting the work, it is more helpful to walk around the room floor section related to the room attendant. That way, the room attendant can know how many D.N.D. rooms and Early Makeup rooms are at the moment. D.N.D. rooms should only be cleaned once the D.N.D. board remove from the rooms. But early makeup rooms must be cleaned quickly. It can also be known as the responsibility of the room attendant.

You should read the room attendant information sheet correctly and pay attention to which rooms need to be cleaned quickly. The departure (check-out rooms) should be cleaned and turned into vacant rooms first so the receptionist can sell the room.

If any items are broken in the cleaning room, the room attendant should inform the floor supervisor and desk attendant about them. For example, if the air conditioners/television are not working properly. The room attendant should also inform the maintenance/engineering department, and the broken items should be restored to working condition as soon as possible.

If any lost and found items are found in the check-out room, the room attendant should be informed immediately to the floor supervisor and desk attendant.

If a guest makes a special request, pay attention to it quickly. Inform about that the floor supervisor as well. For example, some guests request additional water bottles, pillows, and tea/coffee facilities.

Inform the floor supervisor and desk attendant about things like no baggage, scanty luggage, sleep-out rooms, room changes etc.

After a room is thoroughly cleaned and set up, quickly notify the floor supervisor to check it.

If an extra bed or baby cot is used in a room, indicate it on the room attendant’s work assignment report.

Safe use of machines used to clean the room and floor is mandatory. For example, vacuum cleaners and carpet shampooers. Similarly, they should be properly maintained and cleaned at the end of the work. It is also mandatory to put it back in the correct places at the end of the work. Likewise, mops and mop buckets should be thoroughly cleaned.

Do not unnecessarily allow soil linen, garbage, etc., to fill the room attendant trolley. If they are unduly full, remove them quickly.

If guests leave food trays, glasses and mugs on the room floor after eating, inform the room service staff and remove them.

Set up the room attendant trolley at the end of the shift for tomorrow’s work. It is a great help in saving time. (It should be done according to the hotel policy).

If there are defects in the room attendant trolley, fix them immediately. For example, things like tires and linen tracks of the trolley.

The floor closet should be cleaned well at the end of the day’s work.

Assist floor supervisor in maintaining guest room supplies, minibar items, and par stock.

Assists with other duties as assigned by Floor Supervisor.

Public Area Supervisor

The public area supervisor is more responsible for the cleanliness and condition of the hotel’s public area. The public area supervisor report to Executive Housekeeper and Assistant Housekeeper.

Duties And Responsibilities of Public Area Supervisor

Must report for duty in a uniform on time. Likewise, it is mandatory to attend the morning briefing.

Public area supervisors should know well about the area to be checked and directed during his/her shift. For example, Places where VIP guests are, and other functions such as weddings, musical shows, meetings, etc.

The public area supervisor should allocate the area where the public area attendants should work and explain the work to be done correctly.

Always pay more attention to the cleanliness of hotel lobbies, public toilets, elevators, glass surfaces, public corridors, meeting rooms, function rooms, etc. If the places are dirty, instructions should be given to the public area attendant to clean them. Those places should be checked frequently.

If there are various maintenance deficiencies in public arias, they should immediately notify the engineering department through the maintainers to work order. Especially in public areas things like light bulbs, air conditioning, and power outages.

The public area supervisor should set aside the area where the public area deacons are to serve and give an accurate explanation of the work to be done.

The public area supervisor should check that the telephones in public areas are properly disinfected and cleaned.

Check whether the floor of the lobby and the floor of the public corridors are clean. If carpets are used, check whether they have been vacuumed well and whether there are any stains on the carpet. If you want to do carpet shampooing or carpet spot cleaning, arrange to do it.

If there are glass doors in public arias, ensure they are clean.

Regarding the master key, apart from the executive housekeeper, the public area supervisor is responsible for its use. Therefore, signing in the key register book should be done when getting the master key and handover.

Arrange training programs regarding public area cleaning.

Before ending your service session, double-check the condition and cleanliness of all public areas.

If a guest needs a special request, pay attention to it quickly.

Maintain the public area supervisor’s worksheet daily and, Hand it over to the housekeeping desk attendant at the end of duty.

Public area attendant

A public area attendant is responsible for cleaning a hotel’s public areas and the cleanliness and safety of those areas. Before starting the work, the public area attendant should report to the public area supervisor, executive housekeeper, and assistant housekeeper.

Duties And Responsibilities of Public area attendant

Must report for duty in a uniform on time. Likewise, it is mandatory to attend the morning briefing.

Before starting the shift, the public area attendant should discuss the day’s work with the public area supervisor. The public area attendant should know the places to pay special attention to and the tasks.

The responsibility for the aria keys should be taken by the public area attendant who cleans the areas.

It is best to work according to a checklist. It avoids missing any work.

It is mandatory to clean all corridors, washrooms, floors, lobby areas, entrance doors, windows, and elevators in public areas.

Soap, hand towels, toilet rolls, and tissue in public bathrooms should be refilled regularly.

If there are floors with carpet arias, they should be vacuumed simultaneously as it gets dirty, and care should be taken for their safety.

The ashtrays in public arias should be cleaned well. If broken, new ashtrays should be placed.

If things like light bulbs, fans, air conditioning, and water taps are broken, they should be notified to the engineering department through the public area supervisor to replace them.

After using the mop, vacuum cleans, scrubber machines, polishers, and carpet shampooing machines should be cleaned and placed correctly. If the machine is not working properly, it should be reported to the public area supervisor.

Tables, chairs, furniture, pictures, walls, etc., in the lobby and other public areas, should be dusted well.

Even if a guest has a special request or another service, it should be provided quickly.

Any other tasks assigned by the public area supervisor should be taken care of.

In places with functions, the floor and the surroundings must be cleaned from time to time.

The dustbin and other garbage places in public areas must be cleaned.

Before finishing the work shift, the public area attendant should check the arias are clean.

Housekeeping Desk Attendant

The housekeeping desk attendant provides excellent service to the housekeeping department and the hotel. Some small hotels do not have a desk attendant, and those duties are performed by a housekeeping supervisor or a person who is more suitable for those duties. Desk attendant Should report to the executive housekeeper and assistant housekeeper.

Duties And Responsibilities of Housekeeping Desk Attendant

Particular attention should be paid to guests’ special service. Guests call the housekeeping desk and request extra pillows, beds, baby cots, special pillows, etc. Moreover, they also request things like decorating the room for the guest’s special occasions. For example, a surprise birthday of a guest. The desk attendant must act to meet those needs very quickly.

Responding to guest complaints as well as resolving those complaints should be done by the desk attendant. Often, guests complain about the television not working in the room, the air conditioner not working, unwanted noise coming from the air conditioner, the unwanted smell coming from the bathroom gully, and if there is a hotel function, it is too loud. Meanwhile, some guests report problems with other guests in the hotel to the housekeeping desk employee. Likewise, in some cases, the guests also report damage to the things in the hotel room. For example, breaking table mirrors in the guest room, damaging chairs and carpets, and writing and drawing various things on the walls are common. But, again, it is the housekeeping desk clerk’s responsibility to resolve these issues promptly.

The floor section key, floor master key and the master key are given and collected again by the desk attendant.

The housekeeping desk attendant should also handle telephone calls.

The desk attendant is also responsible for handling lost and found items.
The desk attendant should give the room checklist to the room attendant and the floor supervisor at the beginning of the shift. At the end of the shift, the checklist, the room attendant worksheet, and the floor supervisor’s worksheet should also be collected.

Assist the assistant housekeeper in preparing the staff’s daily roster.

Information received from other departments is shared with the housekeeping department by the housekeeping desk attendant. For example, in some booking cancellations, a VIP guest suddenly getting a room in the hotel can be announced.

In an emergency, the housekeeping desk attendant should make suitable arrangements as soon as possible. An example is a fire on a hotel room floor. In such a case, the desk attendant should notify the fire brigade as soon as possible to extinguish the fire. If such a situation occurs, it is essential to inform other departments about it and take appropriate measures to protect the lives of guests and staff.

The housekeeping desk attendant also informs the higher ranks about the skills of the staff members.

The desk attendant should communicate the information recorded in the previous shift to the floor supervisor and the room attendant before starting the shift. For example, DND rooms, refused service rooms and late cleaning service.
Inform the assistant housekeeper and executive housekeeper about the staff problems and the department’s problems.

Must be able to perform other work duties as assigned by the executive housekeeper and assistant housekeeper.

Linen Room Supervisor.

The linen room supervisor is responsible for the condition and cleanliness of the linen in the hotel. There is no linen room supervisor in small hotels, and a person suitable for the linen room works there. Other hotels do not have a linen room or laundry, and there are cases where the clothes to be washed are used. Therefore, this rank varies from hotel to hotel.

Duties And Responsibilities of Linen Room Supervisor.

The linen room supervisor must report to the executive housekeeper/assistant housekeeper.
Must report to work in uniform on time and must attend daily housekeeping briefing.

According to the housekeeping log book or the event information sheet, check for any special events and issue the relevant linen.

On the issue of linen, a count should be taken and rechecked to see if they have been thoroughly ironed and cleaned. Linens should also be counted and checked for damage and stretch during re-examination. If damaged, count them separately and send them to the tailor immediately. They should be reprocessed and used.

The linen room supervisor should inform the executive housekeeper before removing the unusable linen. A note about it should be made in the logbook.

According to the request, things like table clothes, napkins and dusters should be issued for restaurants, office rooms, and function rooms.

The linen room supervisor handles the lost and found items in hotels without a housekeeping desk attendant. Therefore, it is mandatory to know about the lost and found procedure.
The linen room supervisor is responsible for receiving and returning the staff uniforms to be cleaned.

The linen room/laundry should provide cold towels/hot towels daily to the front office department. They are used to welcome guests. Cold towels/hot towels should be counted and recorded when given and retrieved.

The linen room supervisor is responsible for issuing bed linen, bathroom towel, face towel, hand towel, bath mats, shower curtains, bath robes etc., for rooming attendants.

The Linen Room Supervisor must allocate Linen runners to the correct room floor. Because the dirty linen removed from the rooms should be brought to the linen room quickly through the linen runners.

The linen room supervisor should be responsible for guest laundry. The guest’s clothes should be washed and delivered on the correct date. The linen room supervisor should check whether the clothes provided by the guest are in good condition without damage. If there is any damage, the linen room supervisor should inform the guest before washing the clothes. The linen room supervisor should also check whether the number of clothes mentioned in the guest’s laundry form is correct.

The linen room supervisor should take linen room inventory at the end of the month and the end of the year.
If the hotel wants to hire a new member for the laundry department/linen room, it should be communicated to the executive housekeeper.

If the hotel uses a linen shooter, check daily whether the linen shooter is in good condition. The linen shooter delivers the soiled linen on the room floors directly to the linen room. If it is damaged or jammed, it can damage all linens during all linen shooting. Therefore, if there is such a problem, it must be fixed quickly. During that time, linen runners can be brought soil linen from the room floors to the linen room.

The linen room supervisor is responsible for solving linen room/staff problems and preparing the staff roster.

Training programs should be implemented to train the staff.

If there is any special information, it should be mentioned in the log book before the end of the session.

Seamstress

Seamstress is responsible for sewing and knitting in the hotel. Report to Seamstress linen room supervisor / Laundry supervisor, Landry manager, and Executive housekeeper. Some hotels do not have this position and are outsourced when things like tailoring are required.

Duties And Responsibilities of Seamstress

Must come to duty daily in a uniform and attend housekeeping briefings and meetings.

If there are any defects in the staff uniform or guest’s clothes, they should be repaired. When taking and handover the clothes, the number of clothes should be counted correctly, recorded in the log book, and signed.

Some of the linen in the restaurant and the guest room may have been damaged too much. In such cases, if it is difficult to reset them, let the linen room supervisor know about it.

The new trainers must train on their subject, and arrangements should be made to organize training programs.

Safety and correct use of sewing machines and other equipment is required.

To use new technical machines, it is mandatory to know them well. Otherwise, the machine may be damaged.

If a machine breaks down, it should be fixed quickly. The seamstress should inform the linen room supervisor about it.

Must support month-end and year-end inventory take.
Sewing work related to decorations for seasonal functions such as Christmas and winter festivals should be done with the linen room supervisor.

Florist

The florist is responsible for designing and arranging flowers in a hotel. They provide their latest flower arrangement ideas and designs to other hotel departments, such as restaurants, housekeeping, front office, spas etc., based on their needs. The florist should report to Executive Housekeeper / Asst Executive Housekeeper.

Duties And Responsibilities of Florist

The florist is responsible for ordering flowers. When ordering flowers, they must be in good condition.

New floral designs and technology should continually be updated.

Floral designs should be prepared for the events in the hotel. Examples include weddings, product launches, birthday parties, etc.

Must be able to create a flower bouquet according to the special request of a guest or a department. It should be done according to the written document received from the housekeeper.

Always have an excellent and cordial relationship with the flower suppliers.

The stock should be obtained monthly and annually. Likewise, a par stock should always be maintained.

The florist should maintain fridges, carts, and racks where flowers are packed. Likewise, Florists should pay more attention to their safety.

Trainers should be encouraged to train.
A separate inventory should be obtained for all flower pots. If they are damaged or broken, they should be repaired or replaced with new ones.

This article explained the duties and responsibilities of the Housekeeping department in the hotel. If you want to add your opinion about it, comment below.