5 Reasons to Arm Your Housekeeping Department with Hotel Technology

The Housekeeping Department is the heartbeat of a hotel. 

Responsible for supporting all other functions, the housekeeping department sets the tone to ensure the day-to-day runs smoothly. From cleanliness, sanitization, uniforms, flowers, towels, linens, public areas, and back-of-house cleaning, we rely on housekeeping staff for more than just guest room cleanings. 

You’ll rarely see housekeeping team members in the office as they're always on the go! Due to their mobility and dynamic role, a strong communication solution must be in place to give the housekeeping teams the necessary tools. Wherever they may be in the hotel, it’s crucial they have access to all changing information in real time. Immediate, mobile communication is the only solution to keep your hotel running smoothly.

Housekeeping managers also have a lot to juggle, from assigning rooms to making changes on the fly. They need an effective system to help them make informed decisions, optimize operations, identify trends, and adjust to enhance profitability and overall satisfaction of hotel guests.

In this article, we’ll discuss five ways technology can improve any housekeeping department to be more efficient and to make the day-to-day much easier for all team members:

• Eliminate Miscommunication
• Improve Team Productivity
• Enhance Guest Experience
• Automate Housekeeping Duties
• Leverage Data to Inform Decisions

Eliminate Miscommunication

As previously mentioned, your team members are always on the go. This means they need a hotel operations communication tool that works everywhere and immediately connects them to a hub of all necessary information. This communication tool is also necessary for the time-sensitive, ‘pop-up’ guest requests that are texted to the housekeeping department throughout the day asking for “more towels for room 32B” or “extra linens in room 102”.

Alice by Actabl Guest Services and Guest Messaging allows guests to contact your teams directly to submit requests. It also allows your housekeeping staff to respond very quickly to provide the best experience to guests. There is no need for a housekeeper on the other side of the hotel to run linens to the opposite wing— Alice can auto-assign tickets to specific team members or a general ticket feed, allowing team members to complete the tasks they are closest to.

With a hotel operations platform like Alice, your hotel’s departments are streamlined. Every department can collaborate with each other, relieving some much-needed pressure from the front desk. Utilizing the 2-way integration with Transcendent, housekeeping can send maintenance concerns directly to engineering, and nothing is lost along the way!

Improve Team Productivity

No two days are the same in housekeeping management. Whether there is an influx of reservations or staff call-outs, you need a toolkit that empowers your team to do more with less. 

Your housekeeping staff is probably already juggling multiple responsibilities, but there are ways to optimize their tasks and increase efficiency. By utilizing Alice's flexible user permissions, managers can inspect rooms when they are short on supervisors while still having big-picture oversight. Additionally, room attendants may need the ability to inspect their own rooms on particularly busy days.

With modified roles, more employees have visibility into all of the active tickets at the hotels. Housekeeping employees can act as lobby attendants, room attendants, and runners, all in one day, depending on where they are needed at that moment.

Enhance Guest Experience

From the second guests walk through the door, every interaction matters. Building a knowledge base of your valued guests enables your hotel staff to consistently go the extra mile in each guest journey.

Integrating your PMS data with Alice by Actabl will notify your housekeeping staff of any special requests or guest preferences. From the smallest details to the essential requests, your staff will be well-prepared to cater to your guests' needs. For instance, if a guest has an allergy to down feathers, the housekeeper assigned to the room will be informed in advance and can ensure the right linens are provided in the room.

Moreover, if a guest needs to make an additional request after check-in, Alice allows your employees to work as a united team to ensure that all requests are met promptly and consistently without relying on radios or pen and paper.

Automate Housekeeping Duties

Assigning rooms is often done manually or semi-manually. This is a very time-consuming task; if not done correctly, it results in unhappy room attendants and guests. Having to assign rooms manually also forces room attendants to monitor their floor sections and walk the corridors frequently, resulting in wasted time and energy.

You wouldn’t want to spend any more money than you have to, especially with leaner teams and tighter budgets. With Alice, room assignments are centralized and completely automated. Once the rules are configured and tested, the system can accurately auto-assign and save your hotel time and money.

By having a centralized housekeeping room attendant solution through a platform, Alice also automates the sequence of rooms. For example, if a specific VIP changes their room request or is added as a “rushed room,” it moves to the top of the room assignments so that the room attendants can prioritize the rushed room. 

Leverage Data to Inform Decisions

Since most housekeeping departments work under tremendous pressure to reduce costs yet increase consistency in cleanliness, sanitization, and service, they must constantly review and change their efficiency output. This can be done through process changes and efficiently utilizing housekeeping technology to gather data. 

It’s common for hotels that are not using data to say that it’s not reliable or it is not easy to obtain. This is where Alice can transform your housekeeping department with its multi-functioning operations platform. Alice’s reporting and the flexibility to request custom reports provide advice and guidance to your team. This advice and data are invaluable for the Executive Housekeepers and their teams and bring many benefits to daily productivity.

Alice's reporting can help evaluate the impact of decisions taken. For example, you are a 200-room hotel and may have considered removing toothbrush kits in your rooms. The immediate result could be a cost-saving; however, if your Alice report now shows that in the past four weeks, you had 155 guest requests for a toothbrush and a colleague had to physically run to get the kit and then deliver it to the guest room, you can calculate the cost of labor vs. the cost savings of toothbrushes vs. guest satisfaction.

Transform your Housekeeping Department

Now is the time to arm your housekeeping department with the right technology to ensure every aspect of a guest’s stay is seamless and satisfactory. By embracing technology, such as Alice by Actabl, hotels can eliminate miscommunication, improve team productivity, enhance guest experiences, automate duties, and leverage data to make informed decisions.

This innovative approach streamlines operations and empowers housekeeping staff to deliver exceptional service. With real-time communication and task management, housekeeping teams can respond swiftly to guest requests, adapt to daily challenges, and maintain the highest standards of cleanliness and hospitality. Ultimately, integrating technology in housekeeping is not just about maintaining efficiency; it’s about elevating the entire guest experience to ensure that every stay is memorable for all the right reasons.