Work-From-Hotel Initiatives Pose a Housekeeping Problem

Hotels are getting creative with marketing tactics to fill rooms that have been sitting empty for a very long time. One marketing strategy seems to have caught on among many major brands – offering their rooms as an office space for those businessmen and women who have an important phone call, presentation, or deadline approaching and require the peace and quiet home may not be able to provide.

However, renting out a room for the day poses a housekeeping problem. How so? Most property management systems are set up to trigger cleaning based on overnight stays. If a guest is not staying overnight, how can a hotel ensure that a room is being cleaned? To learn more about this conundrum, HT spoke with Katherine Grass, CEO of Optii Solutions.

When and how do most PMS solutions alert staff that a room needs to be cleaned?

PMS systems are set up to trigger cleaning requirement on the basis of an overnight stay. When a guest is registered to a room, that room will automatically be listed on the cleaning rota which is distributed at the start of every day to housekeeping team for a stayover or check-out clean depending on the booking. One of the problems housekeepers face on a daily basis though is that they don’t actually know when a guest has left. So they often have to call down to the front desk or knock on the door of the room to find out.

How might this be an issue for hotels that are renting rooms by the day or even by the hour?

There is potentially an operationally complex issue here as PMS systems are not set up to automatically trigger cleaning for a daily or hourly stay. To manage these new services, hotels will have to manage a lot of cross-departmental manual communication. Obviously, this is not ideal during any time, especially now when hotels are running lean operations. 

The lack of visibility in most PMS systems due to room status not being updated in real-time also means that people will very likely be interrupted as housekeepers have to check in person if the room is vacant. This is obviously not ideal if people are renting the rooms to do work calls or to hold meetings. This is further compounded by the fact that guests are also notorious for not checking out on time and not going to the front desk to let them know that that they are leaving. Without an accurate and up to the minute view of what the occupancy status of rooms should be, it will be very difficult for housekeepers to deliver an efficient service.

What type of "fix" would be needed for something like this?

Hotels that use static paper assignment to manage their cleaning rotas will find these new initiatives extremely difficult to manage effectively or efficiently. We would strongly encourage them to explore technology options to lift this burden. Software can be introduced that will enable the housekeeping rota schedule to be updated and communicated in real-time. So as a room is due to check out according to what has been booked, the room attendant would be notified immediately of the status change.  Also, if a guest asks for late check out or if a day user extends their stay, this would automatically update on the PMS and be fed through immediately to the housekeeping staff so they know not to try and go into the room until it is the correct time to do so. Technology can also be used to predict precisely how long a room will take to clean depending on the profile of the people booking the room as cleaning times vary significantly between single or group occupancy and business or leisure travelers. Technology can also be used to increase the sophistication of individual profiles over time, meaning that when repeat visitors come, the operations staff will be able to pre-empt not only what their room preferences are but also how time should be allocated to clean the room after that specific person or group leaves.    

Until the PMS can alert staff to clean a room after only daily use, how can hoteliers manage this problem?

Hotels will need to make sure that they have enough staff on hand to clean at the official end of a working day, say 6pm.  They may find that they have too many staff because the lack of accuracy in the way things are managed but given the essential nature of cleaning particularly at this time, this is a hit they will have to take to ensure the job is done properly.

With technology, hotels can leverage data to better understand the day-use guest. For example, if they have the room until 6pm but always depart at 630pm, this may suggest there is an opportunity to book them for dinner at the restaurant or include an afternoon snack and increase the average ticket. 

Any other comments? 

The cleanliness of rooms will play such a central role in reassuring guests that it is safe to travel or work outside of their home so this area should be at the top of the priority list for hospitality management and staff. Efficiency and excellent service are also paramount when serving business customers to minimize disruption and maximize their experience of the environment. Attempting to roll out these innovative and dynamic services without the right back office systems in place to support the initiative could mean unnecessary reputational damage which could easily be avoided for a minimal investment at the outset.