Housekeepers are always on the move in a hotel, and traditionally have long relied on pre-printed reports from their property management system (PMS) to help them keep track of which rooms to clean and what type of service to provide. The problem with these housekeeping reports is that they are often stale as soon as they are printed.
Consider this common scenario. A guest forgets to hang the “Do Not Disturb” sign on their hotel door. Housekeeping, trusty clipboard in hand, knocks only to get an understandably irritated response from the guest. After knocking on a few more doors like this, housekeeping calls the front desk for help. Meanwhile, another guest in the process of checking-in must wait for the front desk to give directions to housekeeping.
Now, imagine managing housekeeping functions with a simple click instead of an awkward clipboard, and doing so in real-time. When a housekeeper is finished cleaning a room, he or she just taps a button on their smart phone or tablet to mark the room as clean and ready for inspection.
When housekeepers can use mobile technology in this way to access the needed information instead of a printed report, it helps them to not only avoid the issues with stale data, but helps to improve overall productivity. If the housekeeper discovers any kind of a discrepancy or a need for maintenance, they can make a note of it and flag the room for follow-up. And by accessing the housekeeping function within their mobile-enabled PMS, hotels can view real-time information on important room metrics and engage in two-way communications, flagging any issues that the front desk or hotel management might need to address. Ultimately, the hotel staff gets a quick snapshot of current room status and conditions to help keep business moving forward.
This mobility translates to the supervisors as well. Using mobile housekeeping capabilities, a supervisor can conduct room inspections directly from a smart phone or tablet without having to keep notes or call the front desk. For example, if a leaky faucet was discovered in a room, the supervisor could immediately open up a work order to fix it, avoiding the risk (and embarrassment) of the room being inadvertently assigned to a guest before the faucet was fixed.
Hotels utilizing mobile housekeeping management also achieve a positive effect when it comes to operational efficiency which translates into better guest satisfaction. Rather than unnecessary time spent knocking on doors, housekeeping gains the advantage of turning over more rooms. When rooms are turned around faster, guests are happier and more satisfied. And with fewer interruptions from housekeeping related to room readiness, the front desk can better focus on serving guests. On-premise issues are addressed more quickly, and your property may yield more positive reviews and customer service rankings resulting from the streamlined mobile housekeeping management approach. By using mobile housekeeping to its best advantage, communication and efficiency can improve, frustrations can go down, and delight—for your guests and staff—can go up.
