In previous episodes, we have gone through systems you can apply, procedures, pro tips, training techniques, cleaning schedules, budget management, and so much more. There is, however, a starting action that, if not done at the beginning of your working day as a housekeeping manager, will diminish your efficiency by 60%. What is this? A walkthrough of the property — a full check of all front-of-house and back-of-house areas — before you start reading emails.
When you start your working day, have a quick read of your log books and checklists, note down the urgencies, and do not read 100 emails — maybe only 8 are important. Then hit the road. Start from the hotel parking areas, then the hotel entrance, banquet halls, public WCs, hotel public areas, check your laundry areas, then hotel corridors and hotel pantries. Say good morning to your personnel along the way, and return to your office with an up-to-date view of the property — notes and photos in hand — about what needs to be done urgently. Your notes and remarks are then passed to your cleaning schedule.
Only then can you review your emails, conduct your personnel briefing, and so on. Otherwise, you are blind. You see, assigning, planning, and executing is a process — and the checkpoint is the walkthrough. You need to evaluate results constantly: at the beginning of the shift and at the end of the shift. This is the cycle that keeps you up to date on the progress of your plans. Circulation over paperwork — always.
You can be as computerised and up to date as you can be, use the latest technology, read all the reports and checklists — thinking you have it all covered with your supervisor supporting you — and this may be true to an extent of 80%, if you are lucky. But that 20% of uncovered details, the ones you miss because you are not personally walking the areas, can cause significant damage to your cleaning results and your personal reputation as an effective housekeeping manager. Details that go unchecked and uncontrolled stack up — and then they bring remarks from GMs and owners. Do not let this happen. Set the systems running, but control the systems yourself.
Having said that, there is the opposite side of the coin. You can be doing the checks and the walkthroughs, but if you do not have the right systems in place to channel your remarks, you will end up with a list that keeps growing — adding more and subtracting less. The walkthrough without the system is just a walk.
In the product directory below, you can review Products 01, 02, 05, 07, 08, and 09 — the tools that will help you put the right systems in place.
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