After the years passed and the economic situation changed it was financially more
important for women to go back to work. Their independence was a lot more
important to them than taking care of the home. Instead of taking care of the home
themselves they would hire housekeepers to take care of the daily running of their
homes. These housekeepers would clean the house; do the shopping and also
take care of the children. Housekeepers today are more found working in hotels
around the world in the hospitality industry or for the rich and famous taking care of
their homes.
3.2 Typical housekeeping day
This description of a typical day is based on the experience from the author of the
thesis, who worked as the executive housekeeper in the housekeeping department
of a large resort for two years.
Today housekeeping is still used in households especially people who are rich and
famous but it is now better known in hotels and resorts around the world.
Housekeepers have a wide array of tasks they have to take care of in a day’s work.
The housekeeper is one of the most important employees in a hotel, some
departments think that the housekeeping department is not worthy of even
mentioning but without the housekeepers the hotel would not have anything to sell.
The work that they do is variable and changes daily. Housekeepers typically work
8 hours per day and the work shift is usually from 9am to 5pm or 10am to 6pm, but
in some big hotel resorts the days can be significantly longer. The work day starts
with picking up their charts for the day. The charts tell them how many rooms they
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will be completing that day, what floor in the hotel they will be working on and
whether or not they are leaving rooms or stay over rooms. The average rooms per
day changes between twenty and thirty, this number also includes stay over and
leaving rooms. The charts also show how many extra beds are needed to be
placed in the rooms and if the customer requires something extra to be done. This
could be allergy covers or a baby cot in the room.
Once the charts have been collected and the orders for the day are understood the
housekeeper moves from the office to the storage part of the department. The
storage part is where all the cleaning products and carts are stored at the end of
the day. The housekeeper will collect the buckets, mops, cleaning cloths, cleaning
products and all the other pieces of equipment that are needed for the day. The
housekeeper also has the task of putting information booklets, offers in the hotel,
safety cards, notepads and pens, soaps, chocolates and drinking glasses in the
rooms.
The housekeeper then goes to the floor that they have been assigned. They also
need to take to the floor the linen that they will use for the day. This includes
sheets, duvet covers, pillow cases, towels and bathrobes. Only when the floor has
been set up for the day then the housekeeper can make a start on the rooms for
the day. The check out in most hotels is usually 12:00 noon. This means that the
customer has the right to stay in the room until that time. That is a great thing for
the customer as they do not have to rush in the morning and can enjoy a long
breakfast or sleep in late. For the housekeeper this is not a good thing as she has
7.5 hours to complete the whole list of rooms in that time. If no rooms have left the
housekeeper will make a start doing the stay over rooms. This means the hotel
customer is staying for more than one night. In big resorts and hotels this means
that the housekeeper has to knock on the door and ask the customer if they want
their bed made, trash taken out and floors wiped. If the customer does not answer
the door, then the housekeeper has the right to enter the room, unless there is a
do not disturb sign on the door. Once going inside then the housekeeper has to
make the beds, take out the trash, wipe the handles, change the glasses and
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towels, wipe the floors and update any supplies such as toilet paper, coffee, tea,
sugar, water bottles and the minibar. If the stay over guest is staying for a longer
period of time most hotels have a policy of changing the bed sheets every two or
three days. This is to of course keep the customer happy, with fresh sheets but it is
also to minimize any possible bed bug or lice infections.
Once the housekeeper has taken care of the stay overs it is then time to see if any
of the leaving rooms have left. When the customer has left then the next stage is to
take out of the room all the dirty and used items, such as bedding, towels and
glasses. All these items need to be brought back into the room for the next
customer so time is spent making the beds and adding the new items. The last part
of making the room is the cleaning. This starts with the bathroom, where
everything is washed and wiped clean. After that in the sleeping/living area all
surfaces and handles are wiped to stop any germs sprea