HOUSEKEEPING: YOUR ATTITUDE IS SHOWING PART 2

First impressions count in hotel business. 
 I cannot imagine any hotel not making any effort to create a good first impression.

Yet quite a number of hotels in Ghana seem to give their guests reasons to nitpick and complain about their rooms as you will see in the following pictures.

Careless hanging of window curtain

Where is the sense of security when a guest enters this room?

A dead cockroach on a well laid bed

A bed laid with one bed sheet

Inappropriate clothes hangers

Molds developing in wardrobe drawer which also holds loose fittings

An empty refrigerator in guestroom

 Toilet roll 'stuffing' for a leaking A/C

A broken tile in the shower cubicle

Molds around shower tray

T-roll placed on the cistern. A blue lit bathroom

Untidy finish of plumbing works

Making a good first impression on guests and sustaining it begins with the hotels' leadership.

Hotel leadership betrays itself and unfortunately, housekeeping operational personnel often bear the brunt.

HOUSEKEEPING: WATCH OUT, YOUR ATTITUDE IS SHOWING

Hotel housekeeping is often mistakenly limited to the cleaning of guestrooms.
A few people consider the cleanliness of public areas as well.

What if it is suggested that since enforcement is generally an issue here in Ghana, hotel housekeeping be stretched to the cleanliness and maintenance of directional signs and bill boards advertising the hotel?

 Could unpleasant sights and sounds created by commercial activities (bus terminals, mechanic shops, petty traders) around the immediate environs of the hotel be a responsibility of 

back-of-housekeeping?  

 Whether or not housekeeping develops a critical eye, watch out, housekeeping your attitude shows.

Unkempt building with a hotel's bill board

Rusty Banisters

Worn out floor carpet

Floor carpet with loose strands

 

 Cats loitering around

 High tension cables through a hotel compound 

Algae growth

Clutters at hotel frontage

Clutters at hotel frontage

AYEEKOO HOTEL HOUSEKEEPING

A Hotel Room

                                                         

The past few days have witnessed many people receiving diverse wishes for 2017; wishes for happiness, joy, peace, love, good health, prosperity, long life, God's grace and progress. It is not too late to wish you the same.

GH. Hospitality has been dormant for a while and is using the New Year as a comeback to get the attention of the hospitality industry in Ghana, since this blog is intended for its benefit. January and February have been blocked to focus on hotel housekeeping in Ghana.

Generally hotel housekeeping is considered to be the heart of a hotel. It is only when something goes wrong that it is recognized – just like our hearts. Hotel housekeeping may also be considered to be the most thankless job at any hotel. Room attendants, now referred to by many as housekeepers perform the most physically demanding tasks, cleaning an average of 13 to 15 rooms a day and they are hardly seen by the typical guest to thank them. GH Hospitality's dedication of the first two months of this year to hotel housekeeping and all involved in it is its way of honoring them. Ayee-koo!

Hotel rooms are getting more and more sophisticated: there are the different room types depending on the bed size (studio room, single, double, double-double, twin bed, hollywood twin, queen and king), different room structures(suite, interconnecting room, duplex, efficiency room and presidential suite among others), different bathroom designs/styles and a variety of surfaces all of which pose a challenge to good housekeeping in Ghana, not to mention sensor lighting systems, electronic key system and the list goes on! Meanwhile the traditional challenges in cleaning hotel rooms still persist in many hotels in Ghana today: gathering cleaning supplies in baskets or plastic bowls instead of service trolleys/carts and making beds hotel style on bed frames (commonly used in our homes); not structured for laying beds using the same technique in hotels.

Among hotel products, the highest expectation held by guests is in the guestroom; it must be so clean (look clean, feel clean, smell clean) that the guest must think s/he is the first to sleep in the room since it was built(everyday the guest enters the room during the duration of stay)!

Where should the first point of call be to get customized hotel furniture(particularly bed frames), equipment and tools (particularly room cart/trolley) to revolutionize hotel guestroom cleaning/servicing to enhance efficiency and instill pride in working in hotel housekeeping in Ghana? - the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI)? Wood Workers Association of Ghana (WAG) ?or the Furniture industry? All must be working together with stakeholders of the hotel industry, particularly executive housekeepers. Perhaps this should serve as a clarion call to have a professional association for hotel housekeepers.