As I write this episode, I can picture many of you — housekeeping managers, supervisors, reception personnel — taking a much-needed breath after the heavy check-ins and check-outs of another Sunday. You're staring at next week's climbing room occupancy, wondering how on earth you'll keep up with this pace: the lack of personnel, the absences, the functions coming in. And it's only just beginning.
If you were lucky enough to have worked at this property for at least one year, you know the ropes — the ups and downs — and you prepared for it, even though you can never truly feel prepared during peak season.
A new sale of an extra group of 50 rooms for one week, starting next Friday, on top of the already increased occupancy and a couple of F&B functions, will definitely stretch your housekeeping personnel — who are already complaining about the increased workload. Sometimes you can push your housekeeping team to the maximum and still they won't be enough to cover room cleanliness and quick check-ins, despite your best efforts. There comes a point where it is simply not humanly possible to clean so many rooms within such tight deadlines — and that is where pressure escalates dangerously.
You can feel it in the daily briefings — nobody feels like talking, everyone just wondering how they will cope with the excess workload and the lack of personnel to serve guests quickly.
So how do you deal with this? There is no magic recipe, no magic filter — you will not become Obélix. In my opinion, you need to focus on urgencies and put on hold any time-consuming office tasks. For instance, the 104 emails waiting to be read can wait — just scroll and identify what is urgent. Most of the time, only 7 or 8 are worth replying to; the rest can wait.
Prepare your personnel for the trenches. Talk to them before the stormy week ahead. Put everyone on one day off, including supervisors. Fill your shifts to the maximum. Plan for absences — you will always have a couple of deserters calling in sick exactly when you need them the most. Use job combinations: laundry attendants covering houseman duties or vice versa, public area cleaners doing bulk cleaning and helping room attendants.
Work closely with Reception to find ways to move check-outs one or two hours earlier than the regular time where possible. Sometimes this can work with groups. Plan everything down to the last detail — inspections, afternoon shift coverage, your own presence on the floor to empower your team. And yes, it may mean doing overtime yourself if you want to stay on top of things. This may sound old school, but in difficult situations you simply need to take the lead, inspire, and help your personnel.
If you do not take the lead in such difficult situations — to control morale, to ease down hot tempers that tend to flare when pressure escalates — prepare for shortages and mistakes that generate guest complaints. And you do not want that.
This is the time you prove yourself. When everything runs at 70% occupancy and you have your full manpower, it seems easy. The difficult part is when it stretches — and it will stretch.
Help your personnel. Make things easy for them so they can concentrate on excellent room cleaning. Keep their linen stores filled, the detergents stocked, their guest amenities topped up — and above all, keep them smiling.
I remember working at a property that was extremely busy, and when the room attendants came to collect their guest supplies, I would joke with them: "The supermarket is open and we have discounts — please hurry!" Humour will always help in a difficult situation. But humour alone is not enough — you need systems working for you.
The tools that support each area are all in the Product Directory: Product 02 — shift scheduling, Product 05 — cleaning supply & inventory tracking, Product 07 — task allocation, Product 11 — room configuration, Product 16 — budget control, Product 17 — laundry management, Product 33 — afternoon shift planning. Combine solid systems with your personal effort and commitment, and you will be able to cope — and cope well.
My final point, and please consider this: if you work without systems and just run around reacting to everything, you will end up burning yourself out. Peak season will always come. The question is whether you face it prepared — or exhausted before it even peaks.
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