CHAPTER 2
The Role of Housekeeping in
Hospitality Operations
Objective: describing the role of housekeeping
within the hotel + explaining its relationship with
the other departments
Types of Hotels
Three Basic Service Level Categories
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Economy/limited-service Hotels
Mid-range-service hotels
Suite Hotel
 Executive Floor
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World-class-service hotels
Economy/limited-Service Hotels
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provide clean, comfortable, inexpensive rooms and
meet the basic needs of guests
appeal to budget minded travelers e.g. families with
children, bus tour groups, business travelers,
vacationers, retirees, groups of conventioneers
has limited food & beverage service, do not offer room
service, uniformed service, banquet rooms, health clubs
the staff consists of owners as managers, room
attendants, front desk agent, sometimes a maintenance
person
Mid-range-service hotels
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provide modest but sufficient service
appeal to the largest segment of the traveling public e.g.
business travelers on expense accounts, tourists or
families taking advantage of special children’s rates
offer uniformed service, full food and beverage
facilities (e.g. specialty restaurants, coffee shop, lounge
etc)
has management staff consists of a general manager
and several department managers
Mid-range-service hotel
“Suite Hotels”
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provide a small living room and a bedroom with a kingsize bed, some provide a kitchenette
serve for frequent travelers, families interested in
nonstandard hotel accommodations, preferred by
executives
housekeeping labor expenses may be higher because of
the larger size of rooms.
have less public space and fewer guest services than a
typical mid-range-service hotel
World-class-service hotels
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provide upscale restaurants, exquisite decor,
concierge service, luxurious meeting and private
dining facilities
serve for top business executives, entertainment
celebrities, high ranking political figures, wealthy
people
provide exclusive housekeeping services e.g.
turndown service
World-class-service in mid-range-service hotels
“Executive Floor”
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some-mid-range-service hotels may dedicate
certain floors (usually the top floors) to worldclass service
has large and deluxe rooms
has upgrade furnishings, decor and amenities
Sample Organization Chart for a
Midsize Rooms-Only Hotel
Manager
Assistant
Manager
Front Office
Auditor
Housekeeper
Security
Clerks
Clerks
Night
Auditor
Switchboard
Operators
Laundry
Inspectors
Room
Attendants
Repair and
Maintenance
Sales
Yardkeeper
Secretary
Sample Organization Chart for a Large Hotel
Board of
Directors
General
Manager
Administrative
Assistant
Resident
Manager
Human Resources
Director
Chief
Engineer
Asst. H.R.
Director
Asst. Chief
Engineer
Security
Director
Controller
Purchasing
Manager
Assistant
Controller
Food/Beverage
Controller
Auditor
Storeroom
Manager
Credit Mnager
Accounts Receivable
Manager
Account Payable
Manager
Paymaster
Head Cashier
Food&Beverage
Director
Director of
Marketing&Sales
Rooms Divison
Manager
- continued
Resident
Manager
Food&Beverage
Director
Exec. Chef
Asst. F6B
Director
Sous Chef
Personnel
Manager
Banquet Chef
Restaurant
Manager
Pastry Chef
Rooms Service
Manager
Director of
Marketing&Sales
Exec. Steward
Beverage
Director
Asst.
Steward
Asst. Bev.
Director
Catering
Director
Banquet
Manager
Asst. Banq.
Manager
Catering Sales
Manager
Sales
Director
Rooms Division
Manager
Front Office
Manager
ExecHousekeeper
Public Relations
Manager
Reservations
Manager
Asst.
Exec. HK.
Convention
Service
Manager
Chief
Operator
Asst.
Housekeeper
Night
Manager
Service
Mnager
Garage
Manager
Asst. Garage
Manager
Hotel Divisions and Departments
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Revenue Center: areas that sell goods and services to
guests, in other words, generate revenue e.g. front
office, food and beverage outlets.
Support Center: areas that does not generate revenue
directly, but play a supporting role to the hotel’s revenue
centers. e.g. housekeeping, accounting, engineering and
maintenance, human resources.
Hotel Divisions and Departments
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Front-of-the-house: areas in which employees
have guest contact e.g. front office, food and
beverage outlets.
Back-of-the-house: areas in which employees
have less direct contact e.g. accounting,
engineering and maintenance, human resources,
housekeeping.
Hotel Divisions and Departments
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The Rooms Division - front office (front desk, cashier, mail and
information section), housekeeping, reservations, telephone, uniformed
service.
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The Engineering and Maintenance Division
The Human Resources Division
The Accounting Division
The Security Division
The Food and Beverage Division
The Sales and Marketing Division
Housekeeping and the Front Office
Communication between housekeeping and front office
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Written Communication
occupancy report
 housekeeping rooms status report Ex. 5, pg. 15
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Mechanical Communications
Computerized Communication
Written Communication
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Occupancy Report: prepared by a front desk agent every
night, lists the occupied rooms that night and indicates
the rooms expected to check out the following day (due
out).
The executive housekeeper gets this list in the morning
and schedules the rooms for cleaning.
Housekeeping Status Report: prepared by the housekeeping
department at the end of the shift, indicates the curent
housekeeping status of each room (the rooms that have
been cleaned that day)
based on a physical check of each room.
 Room Staus Discrepancy: is a situation in which the
housekeeping department’s description of a room’s
differs from the front desk’s description of a room.
 Keeping room status information up-to-date
requires close coordination between the front desk
and the housekeeping department. The two most
common systems for tracking current room status
are mechanical room rack systems and
computerized status systems.
Mechanical Communication
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A room rack may be used by the front desk to track the
status of all rooms. A room rack slip is filled at the
registartion process with the guest’s name and other
necessary information and placed in the room rack slot
corresponding to the assigned room number. The
presence of a room rack slip indicates that the room is
occupied. When the guest checks out, the rack slip is
removed and the room’s status is changed to an onchange.
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This sytem may lead to mistakes and delays in the
room status information between housekeeping and
front desk. For example, if a room rack slip is
mistakenly left in the rack after the guest’s ckeck out,
front desk agents may think that a vacant room is
still occupied (sleeper).
Here, the communication between housekeeping
and front office may be spoken (on the telephone),
written (through the usual reports) or telewriter.
Computerized Communication
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In a computerized room status system, housekeeping
and front desk uses a computer terminal which ensures
instant access to room status information. When a
guest checks out, a front desk agent enters the dparture
into the computer which alerts housekeeping that the
room needs cleaning. After the rooms is cleaned and
inspected, housekeeping enters this information into
the terminal. This is how the front office is informed
that the room is available for sale.
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When the computer systems is connected to the
guestroom telephone system, the supervisors can enter
a designated code on the room telephone to change
the room’s status in the hotel’s computer system to
inform front desk that the room is ready for sale. This
saves time and energy in informing the front desk
about the status of rooms.
Rooms Status Definitions
(Rooms status definitions ex. 6, pg 16)
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Occupied: A guest is currently registered to the room.
Complimentary: The room is occupied, but the guest is
assessed no charge for its use.
Stayover: The guest is not cheking out today and will
remain at least one more night.
On-change: The guest has departed, but the room has
not yet been cleaned and readied for resale.
Do not disturb: The guest has requested not to be
disturbed.
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Sleep-out: A guest is registered to the room, but the
bed has not been used.
Skipper: The guest has left the hotel without
making arrangements to settle his/her account.
Sleeper: The guest has settled his/her account and
left the hotel, but the front office staff has failed to
properly update the room’s status.
Vacant and ready: The room has been cleaned and
inspected, and is ready for an arriving guest.
Out-of-order: The room cannot be assigned to a
guest. A room may be out-of-order for a variety of
reasons, including the need for maintenance,
refurbishing, and extensive cleaning.
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Lock-out: The room has been locked so that the
guest cannot re-enter until he/she is cleared by a
hotel official.
DNCO (did not check out): The guest made
arrangements to settle his/her account (and thus is
not a skipper), but has left without informing the
front office.
Due out: The room is expected to become vacant
after the following day’s check-out time.
Check-out: The guest has settled his/her account,
returned the room keys, and left the hotel.
Late check-out: The guest has requested and is
being allowed to check out later than the hotel’s
standard check-out time.
Housekeeping and
Engineering/Maintenance
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Routine maintenance
Preventive maintenance
Scheduled maintenance
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maintenance work order Ex. 7, pg. 19
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Routine Maintenance: activities are those which
occur on a regular (daily or weekly) basis for the
general upkeep of the property. E.g. Sweeping
carpets, washing floors, cleaning windows, replacing
burned-out light bulbs, cleaning guest rooms. Many
of them are handled by housekeeping.
Preventive Maintenance: consists of three parts:
inspection, minor correction and work order
initiation. Every day, the rooms are routinely
inspected for any leaks, cracks etc. If there are
some minor problems, engineering is informed
through the telephone and they are corrected while
the room attendant is cleaning the guestroom.
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However, preventive maintenance sometimes
identifies major problems for which work orders are
initiated. Then, this type of work is referred to as
scheduled maintenance.
Scheduled Maintenance: activities are initiated at the
property based on a formal work order. Work
orders are the key in the communication between
housekeeping and engineering. When a work order
is filled by the housekeeping, one copy is kept in the
department and two copies are sent to the
engineering to inform them. One of those copies is
kept by the chief engineer and the other is given to
the enginnering and staff who will fix the problem.