Introduction to accommodation in hospitality

In this context, we have to go back to the definition of a hotel which originates in France from the the word hospital or a place where people frequently visit. 

 

Hotel accommodations may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator, and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a flat-screen television, and en-suite bathrooms.

 

Small, lower-priced hotels or motels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities than larger higher-priced hotels which provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pools, a business center with computers, printers, and other office equipment, childcare, conference, event facilities and leisure facilities such as tennis or basketball courts, gymnasiums, restaurants, day spas'.

 

Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller facilities to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms which are uniquely different from each other. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement.

Types of hotels

 

Hotels and the accommodations offered have now evolved to offer different levels and standards depending on price, location and reasons for the stay. These include the  following:

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• International Luxury hotels 

 

International luxury hotels offer high-quality amenities, full-service accommodations,

on-site full-service restaurants, and the highest level of personalized and professional

service in major or capital cities.

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International luxury hotels are classified with at least a Five Diamond rating or Five Star

hotel rating depending on the country and local classification standards.

Example brands include: Grand Hyatt, Conrad, InterContinental, Mandarin Oriental,

Four Seasons, JW Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton.

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• Lifestyle luxury resorts

 

Lifestyle luxury resorts are branded hotels that appeal to a guest with lifestyle or

personal image in specific locations. They are typically full-service and classified as

luxury.

A key characteristic of lifestyle resorts is focus on providing a unique guest experience

as opposed to simply providing lodging. Lifestyle luxury resorts are classified with a Five

Star hotel rating depending on the country and local classification standards. Example

brands include: Waldorf Astoria, St. Regis, Shangri-La, Oberoi, Belmond, Jumeirah, Aman,

and Taj hotels.

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• Luxury Safari Lodges

 

Luxury safari lodges (also known as a game lodges) are  typically found in rural areas of

southern and eastern African countries and are typically located in or near national

parks or game reserves. They offer on-site full-service restaurants, and the highest level

of personalized and professional service.

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The unique selling points here is nature, wildlife, adventure and in many respects

conservation which is a huge issue in itself.

They offer activities such as hiking, hang gliding, bungee jumping, white water rafting

and game viewing drives. Unlike city hotels, which typically consists of one building with many rooms inside, the dwellings in safari lodges are often stand alone units or separate buildings with a bedroom, a bathroom, a terrace and sometimes catering facilities such as kitchens. 

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Although luxury safari lodges are not officially given hotel star ratings, many can be classified with Five Diamond ratings or Five Star ratings. Examples include:  Londolozi Private Granite Suites, Kruger, Angama Mara, Masai Mara, Puku Ridge, South Luangwa, Thorntree River Lodge, Vic Falls, ingita Sasakwa Lodge, Serengeti, Jao Camp, Okavango Delta, ingita Kwitonda Lodge, Volcanoes National Park, Little Kulala, Sossusvlei and Singita Pamushana Lodge, Malilangwe.

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• Upscale full service hotels

 

Upscale full-service hotels often provide a wide array of guest services and on-site

facilities. Commonly found amenities may include: on-site food and beverage

(room service and restaurants), meeting and conference services and facilities, fitness

center, and business center.

 

Upscale full-service hotels range in quality from upscale to luxury. This classification is

based upon the quality of facilities and amenities offered by the hotel. Examples

include: W Hotels, Sheraton, Langham, Kempinski, Pullman, Kimpton Hotels, Hilton,

Swissôtel, Lotte, Renaissance, Marriott and Hyatt Regency brands.

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• Boutique Hotels

 

Boutique hotels are smaller independent non-branded hotels that often contain

mid-scale to upscale facilities of varying size in unique or intimate settings with

full-service accommodations. 

The unique selling point of boutique hotels is primarily art. From the interior decoration

to the furniture within the. In most case famous designers and artists are employed to

create a unique environment which cannot be experienced elsewhere.

 

These hotels are generally 100 rooms or fewer. Examples include Latitude 15, Lusaka,

Chateau Denmark, London, Roxy Hotel, New York, Hotel K5, Tokyo, Hotel des grands boulevards, Paris and the IL Palazzo Experimental in Venice

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• Timeshare & destination clubs

 

Timeshare and destination clubs are a form of property ownership also referred to as a

vacation ownership involving the purchase and ownership of an individual unit of

accommodation for seasonal usage during a specified period of time.

 

Timeshare resorts often offer amenities similar that of a full-service hotel with on-site

restaurants, swimming pools, recreation grounds, and other leisure-oriented amenities.

Destination clubs on the other hand may offer more exclusive private accommodations

such as private houses in a neighborhood-style setting.

 

Examples of timeshare brands include Hilton Grand Vacations, Marriott Vacation Club International, Westgate Resorts, Disney Vacation Club, and Holiday Inn Club Vacations.

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• Motels, lodges & guest houses

 

A motel, an abbreviation for "motor hotel", is a small-sized low-rise lodging

establishment similar to a limited service, lower-cost hotel, but typically with direct

access to individual rooms from the car park. Motels were built to serve road travelers,

including travelers on road trip vacations and workers who drive for their job

(travelling salespeople, truck drivers, etc.).

 

Common during the 1950s and 1960s, motels were often located adjacent to a major

highway, where they were built on inexpensive land at the edge of towns or along

stretches of motorways.

New motel construction is rare in the 2000s as hotel chains have been building economy-priced, limited-service franchised properties at freeway exits which compete for largely the same clientele, largely saturating the market by the 1990s. Motels are still useful in less populated areas for driving travelers, but the more populated an area becomes, the more hotels move in to meet the demand for accommodation.

 

While many motels are unbranded and independent, many of the other motels which remain in operation joined national franchise chains, often rebranding themselves as hotels, inns or lodges. Some examples of chains with motels include EconoLodge, Motel 6, Super 8, and Travelodge.

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Motels in some parts of the world are more often regarded as places for romantic assignations where rooms are often rented by the hour. This is fairly common in parts of Latin America and Africa.

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• Micro-stay or short-term visit hotels.

 

Hotels may offer rooms for micro stays, a type of booking for less than 24 hours where the customer chooses the check in time and the length of the stay. This allows the hotel increased revenue by reselling the same room several times a day. They first gained popularity in Europe but are now common in major global tourist destinations.

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Of course, there are many more options and all venues do things slightly differently, so there are plenty more examples in addition to these. These include unique and one -off type of accommodations such as underwater hotels at sea, capsule hotels, ice, snow and igloo hotels. The themes are almost endless

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Housekeeping

 

Integral to all hotel accommodation services is the housekeeping department.

 

The housekeeping department plays an important part because it is responsible for generating the first impression of the facility for guest’s. The housekeeping efforts clearly show how the hotel will take care of its guests.

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In any hotel business, housekeeping contributes a major amount of profit though it is considered as an ancillary service. The simple reason being, a customer demands a clean, tidy, and pleasing ambience.

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What is Housekeeping?

 

Housekeeping means performing all the duties towards cleaning, maintaining orderliness, and running a house or a business property. In case of hotels, the housekeeping duties involve maintaining the hotel to the best possible state in terms of cleanliness, and keeping it at a highly desirable ambience.

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Objectives of housekeeping

 

The main objectives of hotel housekeeping are:

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• To maintain overall cleanliness of the entire hotel at all times.

• To perform cleanliness duties most efficiently and effectively.

• To use good quality, safe cleaning equipment and chemicals.

• To manage laundry and linen.

• To control pests.

• To keep up the hotel with classy interior decoration.

• To take care of the furniture, fittings, and fixtures of the entire hotel.

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Housekeeping structure in Hotels

 

The structure of the housekeeping department depends on the total number of Guestrooms, Outlets, and Required Staff.

 

The following areas of the department are the most prominent from the highest position to the lowest:

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• Office of the Executive Housekeeper − The administrative work of the department is carried out here.

• Housekeeping Control Desk − This is the command center. It is accessible and operational 24 hours a day. The housekeeping staff report at the start and end of the shift here. There are notice boards, storage shelves, registers, lost and found cupboard, and key-hanger matrix.

• Laundry Area − Washing, ironing, dry cleaning, folding of linen and staff uniform takes place here.

• Linen Room − Here, the linen of the hotel such as bed-sheets, towels, pillow and cases, are stored, collected, and carried to the required places in the hotel.

• Uniform Room − The staff uniforms are collected, stored, and distributed from here.

• Tailor Room − Here, stitching and repairing of linen, uniforms sometimes even guests clothing takes place.

• Housekeeping Stores − It is a storage area where the cleaning equipment and items, and guest supplies are securely stored.

• Flower Room − It is an air-conditioned room with worktables, sink and water supply, cupboards to store vases and stones, and a counter.

• Lost and found −stores all the items left by the guests. It directly communicates with the front office desk, as there the guests tend to first enquire about their lost articles.

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Housekeeping − Areas of Responsibility

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The housekeeping department is responsible to keep the following areas clean and tidy.

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• Guest Rooms

• Guest Bathrooms

• Public Areas such as Lobby and Lifts

• Banquets and Conference Halls

• Parking Area

• Sales and Admin Offices

• Gardens

 

Apart from the cleaning task, the housekeeping is also responsible for handling keys of each floor. In addition, it manages the laundry, which is often at some places considered as a sub-department of housekeeping.

Roles and responsibilities in housekeeping

 

There is a huge workload on the hotel housekeeping staff. The housekeeping work is carried out at various levels such as managerial level, supervisory level, and operational level.

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Structure of Housekeeping Staff

 

Executive Housekeeper / Manager of Housekeeping

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The Executive Manager is the chief of housekeeping department. The Deputy Housekeeper and Assistant Manager of Housekeeping report to him. Their responsibilities include:

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• Ensuring overall cleanliness and aesthetics of the hotel.

• Ensuring overall sanitation, comfort, and ambience of the hotel.

• Training the new joiners and motivate the existing employees.

• Modelling and establishing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for cleaning and decorating.

• Monitoring regular inventory of guest supplies and linen.

• Monitoring housekeeping equipment and hotel property.

• Evaluating employee performance, and handling their training, promotions, and transfers.

• Organize flower arrangements for events.

• Presenting the estimate of the required budget to the General Manager of the hotel.

 

Supervisors of Housekeeping

 

The supervisors report to the Assistant Housekeeper. Their positions and their respective responsibilities include −

 

Floor Supervisor

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• Issuing keys to the room attendants.

• Coordinating floor operations and tray clearance with room attendants.

• Inspecting rooms for readiness and reporting to the front office for the same.

• Catering for VIP facilities and providing special supplies such as hot drinking water, baby-sitting provision.

 

Public Area Supervisor

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• Ensuring that cleanliness is maintained at all times in public areas such as lobby, lifts, parking, swimming pool, coffee shop, conference hall, banquet hall, and restaurant.

• Ensuring banquet and conference halls are well kept and ready.

• Ensuring the concerned operating staff is available as per the schedule.

 

Night Supervisor

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• Ensuring provision of guest supplies such as water, extra bed, fans, or towels.

• Ensuring the operating staff working at night is following all cleaning SOPs.

• Supervising hotel area at night and ensuring cleanliness in all areas of hotel.

 

Uniform Room Supervisor

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• Providing clean, ironed, and fresh uniforms to the hotel staff.

• Suggesting procurement of any uniforms required.

• Checking repaired linen from tailor room.

• Keeping track of number and condition of uniforms.

 

Linen Room Supervisor

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• Inspecting linen and sending it to the laundry.

• Checking linen from laundry and sending it for ironing.

• Maintaining linen influx and out flux register.

• Checking repaired linen from tailor room.

• Suggesting linen replacements if required.

 

Operating Staff / Attendants

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The positions and responsibilities of the Operating Staff/Attendants are explained below.

 

Uniform Room Attendant

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• Collecting uniforms of staff at the end of every shift and maintaining them to be used for the next time.

• Maintaining the shelves of uniforms and linens clearly.

• Giving and taking back the uniforms from the staff.

 

Linen Room Attendant

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• Segregating the dirty linen according to its type and sending it to the laundry.

• Keeping the track of linen count before and after laundry.

• Stacking towels, bed sheets, pillowcases, table napkins separately into different sections of shelves.

 

Guest Room Attendant

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• Reporting to the floor supervisor.

• Cleaning the guest rooms, guest bathrooms, and the corridors.

• Changing the linen of the guest room and guest bathrooms.

• Topping up the guest supplies.

• Making guest-room beds.

• Replenishing the hotel cleaner’s trolley with supplies and linens for the next shift staff.

 

Storekeeper

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• Reporting to the floor supervisor.

• Keeping the count of cleaning equipment and items such as cleaners and detergents.

• Generating requisition to purchase the required material.

 

Public Area Attendants

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• Reporting to public area supervisor.

• Keeping the parking, lobbies, guest rooms, lifts, and corridors in best maintained status.

• Keeping these areas smelling fresh and clean.

 

Night Shift Attendants

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• Reporting any hotel safety issues to the night supervisor.

• Performing housekeeping duties during night.​

Housekeeping services: summary

 

The food and beverage industry is a fundamental part of hospitality. Not only does the food service industry help increase offerings to customers, but it can also be a major source of income for many hospitality venues.

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This can be a very rewarding service for hotels, resorts, and other venues to offer. With the increase in importance of business meetings, a range of personal and social events, a large number of customers have begun to visit conferencing facilities and catering establishments more frequently.