Originally Posted by
joshua362
But does this work in practice given the paper lists I see on the housekeeping carts at 8AM? Say lists are generated and distributed at 7:55AM with the most current checkout status. People continue to checkout gradually between 8-12 and inform the desk at a 1000 room Marriott. How does this info reach the actual person cleaning the rooms? I can't imagine a radio call to a supervisor after every checkout to update the paper.
Just wondering being systems oriented. There has to be an optimal way.
Perhaps a 500 point incentive to call or leave early?
The hotels in which I worked were business-oriented in a major metropolitan area. We almost always had lots of departures be the time Housekeeping started cleaning rooms at 8am (or 9am on weekends). While I never worked in that department, I do remember seeing the Housekeeping Supervisors going between guest room floors and the office all day long. They always went to the office to enter the rooms that were vacant, cleaned, and approved for new check-ins. It was more efficient to use a computer instead of entering them via the room phones. While they were in the office, they'd get an updated list. Upon returning to the guest room floors, they'd tell each Room Cleaner which vacant room to clean next.
Honestly, I don't remember guests due to depart ever complaining about Housekeeping knocking on their door early in the morning. But, I always worked in hotels with excellent Executive Housekeepers. It took a lot of organization. An average or horrible leader wouldn't care and simply let their employees annoy departing guests by knocking.
Today's technology should allow for Supervisors to receive updated lists wirelessly via tablets. As rooms are reported vacant, they can tell the Room Cleaner which room to clean next. Of course, doing that requires hotels to spend money on technology and training. An average or poorly-run hotel probably won't do that unless required by the chain. (Same holds true for incentivizing guests to inform the hotel of departure with points.) I'm not sure that any major hotel chain thinks the problem is large enough to warrant an intervention.