If you asked a guest what their favourite part of a stay with you was, it’s unlikely that they’ll respond with comments on dust-free surfaces, white linen and spotless floors. These are facets that often go unnoticed by guests during their stays, taken for granted as the norm. But that doesn’t make them any less important. In fact, with Direct365 noting that 80% of Britons would leave a hotel if their room wasn’t clean enough, it’s clear as freshly polished crystalware that, while a spotless room won’t necessarily garner comments, an unkempt, untidy or unclean room is damaging to a property’s reputation.
It can be difficult to keep every available room perfectly spotless, and not every property has the time or resources to implement a 99-point cleaning process, but these three key areas can help you to maintain a sparkling reputation that complement those sparkling surfaces.
If you’re starting from scratch or preparing for a total rehaul, Hotel News Now point out that taking the cleaning process into account when considering how your rooms will be designed or laid out can not only save your housekeeping staff time, but can increase your REVPAR and your turnover.
“They’re willing to pay more but also the guest satisfaction among the guests who’ve stayed in our WoodSpring Suites rooms have been higher than our comparable Value Place rooms that don’t have those design elements.” — Mike Varner
Consider, for instance, your flooring. There’s nothing like kicking off your shoes and letting your feet sink into a soft carpet, but when it comes to cleaning them, it can often be time-consuming and costly, particularly when the cleaning is thorough and includes shampooing, airing and drying, during which the room needs to stay empty and therefore revenue-less. Then there’s the fact that, since most properties don’t go through the efforts of shampooing carpets after each guest’s stay, even if you do make the effort and your carpets are pristine, the efforts will go unrecognised by guests who assume that there’s inherently something slightly unhygienic about carpets. Perhaps it would be better to look at an alternative that is quicker and easier to manage, like WoodSpring Suites and Peachtree Hotel Group decided to. While they both went the luxury vinyl tile route, options range from tiles, to laminate, to recycled materials.
But it’s not just the flooring that should be considered. Even when you’re already taking every effort to meticulously clean every surface, making conscious decisions about furniture, fabrics and fitments can result in your rooms looking fresher and cleaner. White linen, for example, can give guests an impression of cleanliness more than the most beautiful and perfectly laundered patterned bedspread ever could. And while your guests may not leave online reviews applauding how perfectly white and clean their linen was, Mike Varner of WoodSpring Suites knows that these small changes have resulted in higher levels of guest satisfaction.
“They’re willing to pay more but also the guest satisfaction among the guests who’ve stayed in our WoodSpring Suites rooms have been higher than our comparable Value Place rooms that don’t have those design elements,” he said.
So next time you’re designing or renovating your rooms, consider these design elements that can help with your housekeeping:
While design can help you get the larger elements of your hotel rooms spot on when accommodating for cleanliness, the devil is always in the details.
“Guests expect hotel rooms to be clean, but they look for clues that it’s not clean.” — Michael Varner
It’s not enough for a room to look spick and span from a distance – your guests will be getting up close and personal with their accommodation. As Michael points out: “Guests expect hotel rooms to be clean, but they look for clues that it’s not clean.”
It’s not enough for linen to look perfect, but feel uncomfortable. It’s not enough to have inviting armchairs that are too heavy to move, and so have dust forming at their feet. It’s not enough for a bathroom to be beautifully tiled, but with grouting that is filthy; or to have a beautiful, porcelain bathtub, only for the drain to be rusted or filled with hair. It’s not enough to invest in top-of-the-range air conditioners or ventilation systems and then leave the filters uncleaned for months or years at a time.
Design will only take you so far, but having a clear procedure for housekeeping will help to attend to the details, and ensure that everything is perfect. And while some properties, like Michael’s WoodSpring Suites, have a 99-point list that their housekeeping team have to adhere to, you can start with the basics. Some starting points could include:
Housekeeping is not a glamorous job. Staying motivated when faced with a position where you are required to clean up day-in and day-out can be demotivating to say the least, but keeping staff morale high can often involve the simplest changes to the way that you operate.
Housekeeping may often be taken for granted by your guests, but that doesn’t mean that it should be a thankless task. As a foundational aspect of managing any property, from a budget backpackers in Budapest, to The Ritz in Paris, housekeeping should not be undervalued, underestimated or underappreciated. After all, it could be the difference between a guest booking with you, or your cleanlier competitor.