HOTEL GUESTROOMS: ENCOUNTERING THE UNEXPECTED PART 2

While celebrating good hotel housekeeping, attention has so far been drawn to unique challenges faced by personnel working in the housekeeping department of hotels in Ghana. These are diverse including the unavailability of appropriate equipment and tools to work with, the scope of housekeeping tasks and the pressure to deliver high standards even when the facility looks 'worn out' and require renovation.

This is a continuation of the discussion on security and safety hazards housekeepers encounter when they enter a guestroom to service it. How prepared are they when they encounter the following?

Guest wants to stay in the room during cleaning: The general procedure is that housekeeping knocks to check whether the guest is in the room first.  If the guest is in, the guest is asked whether s/he wishes to have the room cleaned now or whether housekeeping should come back to clean later; the guest is given the option. Some guests insist on being in the room during the cleaning. The issue is, are there clear guidelines and or policies to guide housekeepers? Some properties have two room attendants work together whenever a guest is in the room.  Are we mindful of the safety and security of our housekeepers?

Guest who suggests a romantic encounter: Not too long ago a known world figure was accused of assaulting the housekeeper who was sent to clean his hotel room. A veteran of the hotel industry wrote that housekeepers are assaulted by guests “more often than you’d think”. Erroneously you may think this is unique to the western world.

How seriously is sexual harassment taken in Ghana?’ Are hotel managers hiding behind ‘there is little that hotels can do to prevent some of the incidents’? Will managers of hotels dispassionately discuss such incidents or allow hotel guests who sexually abuse hotel housekeepers get away with it?  

Ghanaian hotel housekeepers may not feel that they should report such incidents. They may be embarrassed to talk about it or are afraid to lose their jobs. Unfortunately, others misunderstand the hotel mantra, the guest is always right, and assume that management tolerates such misbehavior.

Abused guestroom. Some guests leave their rooms in a real mess, almost destroying them by the time they are checking out. While working at the front desk of a hotel here in Ghana, I worked with a group list and a list of individuals who had been blacklisted for abusing their rooms.


For the housekeeper who has to clean the room(s), it can be a nightmare as well as taking much longer to have the room cleaned up. How should hotel managers handle these matters in Ghana?

Perhaps now you understand why you need to put in a special word  for the housekeeper who practices good housekeeping. Ayee-koo!

HOTEL GUESTROOMS: ENCOUNTERING THE UNEXPECTED PART 1

Too often operational hotel housekeeping personnel are not appreciated. Many people underestimate what efforts are required for good housekeeping in a hotel, leading to poor orientation of the personnel hired to work in the department. Encountering the unexpected (if it is negative) can be traumatic and this is just one of many reasons I ‘stand up’ or give a ‘thumps up’ for good hotel housekeeping. Ayee-koo!

When I was a student, majoring in hotel administration, I always went for hotel housekeeping jobs during the summer holidays because it was the easiest of the hotel jobs to find then. Fellow housekeepers shared bizarre stories of what they found in guestrooms. Their stories are no different from the encounters of housekeepers behind hotel guestrooms in Ghana. While we cannot predict everything, how are housekeepers prepared for the following encounters?

A Sick guest: Guests can get sick at any time. Some may be knowledgeable about what to do and give the housekeeper specific instructions such as providing contacts of a doctor, a relation or a drug to buy.  On the other hand, many other guests may not be that knowledgeable. How well informed are hotel housekeepers on what to do when they come across such sick guests? What safety procedures are expected of them to follow when cleaning up vomits or the running stool of guests suffering from serious diarrhea? What do our housekeepers know about blood borne pathogen safety procedures?

Dead guest: Deaths in hotels are not quite as rare as guests may think. It may be a suicide or of natural cause. In either case, discretion and tact are required. Unfortunately, many are ignorant of the first responsibility to check the body to determine that the guest is actually dead and not merely asleep, suffering a stroke or heart attack, or has lapsed into a state of unconsciousness. Reading the report of incidents (usually badly done) by hotel security, one wonders what to expect from hotel housekeepers who are hardly trained to do so, much more when they are traumatized. Would they be in a position to explain how and when they found the body? How sharp are their observation skills?  Would they be able to describe in a coherent manner what steps they would undertake to ascertain the guest is no longer alive? Take note of peculiar observations or even remember what items in the guestroom or general area they touched?

Be thankful for good hotel housekeeping. Ayee-koo!

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.