Understanding Hospitality Resource - Term Paper Example

Housekeeping Manager/Supervisor A housekeeper is a person who does the job of keeping the house in terms of cleanliness, the safety of the people saying in the house and their wellbeing, and the security of the house (John R. Walker, 2009). Housekeepers may be allocated to manage one room or several rooms as in the case of hotels; hence they have to carry out their roles to their best abilities. In the hotel industry housekeeping, is a key department to the success of the hotel. At the same time, statistics indicate that this department has got many untrained workers who are flooding the market on a daily basis. It is, therefore, extremely crucial for hotels to keep their employees up to date and well trained on the current housekeeping issues, since housekeepers are always in contact with the hotels’ guests. Housekeeping also plays a key role in the client-hotel relationship since the clients will come to the hotel not only from the hotels’ food but also through the house keeping quality of the hotel. Housekeeping also plays a crucial role in the record keeping of the hotels’ guests and the preparation of the inventory of the house keeping supplies. Hotels have got people who supervise the rest of the housekeeper. These people are known as housekeeper supervisors. The job description of the housekeeper supervisor is mainly to inspect the quality of the housekeeping job that has been done in the hotel rooms. The supervisors are also required to take part in the procurement process of the hotels’ laundry and other housekeeping equipment. The supervisor should be able to lead his housekeeping team well and unit the team in order to perform a quality job. The housekeeper supervisor should be able to have excellent communication skills. They should be able to have the ability to teach other housekeepers on their roles. They should be able to fully understand what the needs of the hotels clients are. The housekeeping supervisors should be able to encourage and motivate other housekeepers to keep on doing a better job in carrying out their duties. Housekeeping supervisors should be able to delegate assignments to the housekeeping workers well in a manner that does not discriminate anybody. This will in turn motivate the workers to do a terrific job. Housekeepers should always have an enterprising mind. They should be able to initiate new and creative projects that will be profitable both to the hotel and to the clients. They should be ready to pass on the rules and conventions of the hotel, this will in turn show the housekeeping workers the way. The supervisors should also be realistic in decision making. They should be able to handle different types of people and clientele. Housekeeping supervisors need to have certifications of some of the several housekeeping associations. This in turn, enables them to gain experience from seminars and the trainings that come with these associations (Cathy H. C. Hsu, 2002). An excellent housekeeping supervisor should be able to know all information about the hotel that they work for (Robert D. Reid, 2009). They should be able to know the kinds of products and services that are being offered at the hotel and even the packages that the hotel offers. This is to enable them communicate and answer any queries regarding to the hotel to anybody who wants to know the information. The supervisor should be able to know the safety of the hotel incase of any emergency, for example, they should be able to tell where the fire exits points of the hotel are located. They should be able to tell the advantages of the hotel they work in over other hotels; this should be known by all the hotel employees for marketing purpose of the hotel. The hotel supervisor should be able to know about the hotel policy and be able to enforce this policy well. Housekeeping supervisors should be able to know the importance of safety and maintain a healthy environment in a hotel. Clients will love to visit a hotel with a clean environment. The housekeeping supervisor should be able to maintain a remarkably clean and conducive environment for customers to be able to enjoy their stay in the hotel. Hence the housekeeping supervisor must possess the ability to manage a clean and healthy environment by motivating the housekeeping workers to perform a daily cleaning service of the hotel and maintain the cleanliness throughout the day (Clayton W. Barrows, 2008). The housekeeping supervisors should also be able to provide security for their clients. They should make sure that a client’s property will be taken care of well. This means that even if the client had misplaced the property. Some clients come into hotels with expensive and sensitive properties; part of the work of the housekeeping supervisors is to ensure that these properties are well and that there is no intrusion by robbers or burglars in to the hotel. The housekeeping supervisor can manage to do this by hiring guards to take care of the security of the hotel and the clients. Another way is by hiring a specific hotel security that will be solely responsible for the security of the hotel at all costs. Housekeeping supervisors should be able to operate the hotel machinery and equipment. This is because, despite the fact that a hotel has got an engineer, there are basic tasks that a housekeeping supervisor should be able to operate. Some of these equipments are; the air conditioner, the supervisor should be able to operate and do an emergency repair of the air conditioner incase the machine stops working when it is highly needed. The supervisor should be able to fit the hotel lights; this is a real basic job that can be done instead of calling the engineers (Jerry J. Weygandt, 2008). The housekeeping supervisor must be able to have the ability of operating most of the computers in the hotel. He/she should be familiar with the hotels software and should know how to operate this machinery. Housekeeping supervisor should be able to familiarize him/herself with the current methods that are used in the cleaning procedure of the hotel. They should also possess the power and ability to lead and manage a large group of employees and the many customers in the hotel. An excellent housekeeping supervisor is able to grasp all the above details and even have the ability to possess many other skills. An excellent housekeeper should be able to have a human relations skill, they should be able to recruit a new employee and should also have the ability to spot the strengths and weaknesses of these employees. An excellent housekeeping supervisor should be able to handle the security of the hotel and clients in general. He/she should be able to take regular tours in the hotel to check whether the housekeeping job has been done well and to confirm that customers are utterly satisfied with the services of the hotel (John R. Walker, 2009). References Cathy H. C. Hsu, T. F. (2002). Marketing hospitality. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Clayton W. Barrows, R. H. (2000). Hospitality Management Education. London: Routledge. Clayton W. Barrows, T. P. (2008). Introduction to Management in the Hospitality Industry. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Conrad Lashley, P. L. (2006). Hospitality: a social lens. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Hay, L. A. (2006). Hospitality: The Heart of Spiritual Direction. New York: Church Publishing, Inc. Jacques Derrida, A. D. (2000). Of hospitality. Palo Alto, California: Stanford University Press. Jerry J. Weygandt, D. E. (2008). Hospitality Financial Accounting. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. John R. Walker, J. E. (2009). Supervision in the Hospitality Industry: Leading Human Resources. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Josef Ransley, H. I. (2004). Developing hospitality properties and facilities. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Robert D. Reid, D. C. (2009). Hospitality Marketing Management. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Read More