It was July — full peak season — and I had just been given something rare: four days off. My family had flown in to visit me, and for once, the beach was calling.
But walking away from a large property in the middle of peak season is not something you do lightly. It is something you earn — through preparation, through trust, and through the team you have built long before that moment arrives.
By my second year at that property, I had done exactly that. The department was fully staffed. My supervisors were experienced, reliable, and knew what was expected of them. The team had been developed, tested, and trusted.
Before I left, I did my homework. The roster was prepared for the current week and the one ahead. Task allocation lists were out. Notes and memos covering any F&B events were in place. Every moving part had been accounted for.
I went to the beach. And the department ran.
It was busy — peak season busy — and it ran smoothly without me.
Then, as I was parking the car outside the apartment where my family was staying, my phone rang. It was a fellow Housekeeping Manager I knew well, working at another busy hotel in a different city.
I could hear it immediately — the stress, the frustration, and then the tears. Peak season had broken her.
My family looked at me from the car. It was 14:30. Thirty-seven degrees outside. Are you coming or are you staying in the car?
I asked them to go ahead. I needed to take this call.
For 45 minutes I listened. Long hours. Lack of personnel. No support. The feeling that no matter how hard she pushed, it was never enough.
When she finished, I told her the truth — gently, but honestly.
In the middle of peak season, there is not much you can do if you have not done your homework beforehand. In her case, it was not entirely her fault. She had taken over the department just a couple of months earlier and was still learning the ropes. And that takes time. At a large property, it can take four to six months before you truly know every room, every detail, every pain point.
She had inherited a problem. And peak season has no mercy for inherited problems.
Because at the end of it all, peak season survival comes down to a plan — and that plan must be built in winter, not July. Get your budget approved. Fill every position in your department. Train your team. Purchase your equipment, machinery, and linen. Polish your systems, your procedures, the tools that deliver your results day after day.
If that groundwork is not done before the season starts, you will spend the summer firefighting instead of leading.
I told her what I believed — and still believe today. In situations like this, you endure. You support your team. You take the pressure when you can. You face each day with patience and perseverance, and you keep moving forward.
But there was something else working against her. In the middle of peak season, she was trying to introduce change in an environment that had no room for it. High departures, high arrivals, absences, resignations. That is the equation of housekeeping management stress.
In situations like that, you go with the flow. You observe. You note. You change what you can. Whatever requires extra attention — additional training, new procedures — you save for later. You do not fight the current in the middle of the storm.
That conversation stayed with me. It is one of the reasons I built these resources — so that the next manager who finds themselves in a difficult situation has something to hold on to. A system. A starting point. A set of tools that nobody left behind for them.
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