THE HOUSEKEEPERS ROUNDTABLE: Full house

Executive housekeepers discuss the impact low wages have on staffing, the need for career progression and the importance of working with other departments

If you think running the housekeeping department of a busy hotel is centred around checking for dust and keeping the toiletries stocked, you can think again. At a recent executive housekeepers’ roundtable, held at the Grand Hyatt Dubai, the housekeeping managers cited recruitment, grass-roots salaries and slippery suppliers as their biggest bugbears.

Managing large, sometimes understaffed departments, building inter-departmental relations, and clocking face-time with guests keeps executive housekeepers more than busy, but they took some time out of their day to discuss some of the key issues in the housekeeping department.

What would you say are the key issues facing housekeeping executives?

Dilki Cooray: For me the biggest issue is staffing. There are so many hotels opening at the moment and they are all offering a higher salary, so we end up losing our staff to them. We bring staff out, train them and then once they are trained they move on to another hotel.

Tatjana Ahmed: I agree. Hyatt is a company which gives people in housekeeping opportunities, and housekeeping is a hub — people start here and then they go on to other departments but I think that this is a good thing and it is a nice thing to see them grow and go on to new positions — you just have to make peace with the fact that this can be an entry position.

Annette Damz: In the hotel business we talk about retaining guests, but we also have to retain our staff and housekeeping is the base that everybody comes from.

In housekeeping, the staff tends to move on to other departments because of the salary difference. Housekeeping is one of the most hectic departments, it is really demanding, and the salary difference between us and other departments is huge so they move on — which is very good for them but it disturbs your quality of training and standards.

We have to keep re-training and re-training… I think housekeeping should be looked after even more because we are the most demanding department in the whole hotel sector but we are paid the least.

Susana Pereira: I agree, and being in the region for a few years I haven’t seen a growth when it comes to wages for our housekeeping staff. Ten years ago we were paying AED 500, 600 (US $163) per month, and let’s face it, 10 years down the line they are still on AED 1000 ($272) and that’s a mindset we need to look at in the region, where we still have labour that is below what we consider well paid.

Javier Ferre: Hotels don’t see the importance of housekeeping, and the most important thing for the guest is the cleanliness of the hotel! It is a very difficult job, and maybe we are in line with the salaries around the region but it doesn’t mean we are paying people well … the consistency which we try to put in place is quite difficult when you have this sort of turnover because people are looking elsewhere for a better salary.

How much room is there for the housekeeping staff to progress within the department?

TA: It depends how keen they are, how much they want to develop themselves and what their capabilities are — not everyone is able to become a supervisor, but when we see someone who has potential, we will make sure that they reach it.

DC: We do on-the-job training and we have skill school training at Radisson, so when they join, before we put them into the rooms, we give them all the training and then we put them on their own to work.

If they have potential and can be a key room attendant, we give them more rooms and see if they can do that. They get additional pay of AED 300 ($81) which motivates them as well. I don’t hire anybody from outside [for the higher positions] because then the existing staff don’t want to work as hard; they think they’ll never get anywhere.

AD: When you find someone with great potential, you put a training plan in place for this person and coach them to reach the next position. They do the job better because they have been with you for some time — they know your quality, then know your standards, and they have the motivation and it gets them bubbling to show they can really do it.

SP: I promoted six of my staff to be my supervisors because, yes, you need to look at the potential that they have and you push them forward as much as you can and give them the opportunities to grow. That is pretty much a key thing. I don’t wish to see a room attendant for five or 10 years doing exactly the same thing — that is not in my interest either.

JF: What I am trying to do with people with the skills and the potential to move upwards is to develop them as trainers, so that they can start training other people within the department. We also have another course of leadership where people can develop their skills to become a supervisor.

Right now I have five of my room attendants in that process, and then the next step after that is to become an assistant manager in the future, and I think that this is quite motivational. If you have these skilled people with good potential in your department, then this is a way to keep them there — to motivate them with development.

Is outsourcing a viable staffing solution for your department?

TA: We outsource because it gives us more flexibility, so during a low period we lower the outsource staff and when we are getting busier we ask for more — we have to ask for them in advance so that they are trained before the busy season.

AD: Outsourcing is good for your manning and your budget, but at the same time we don’t get the quality or consistency of staff. Today I could train someone who will be with me for just three months, then they will be in another hotel and I will have to start all over again, so the training and consistency is not there.

In the UK, you have an agency that gives you staff who will stay with you for a long period of time, so they know your standards and quality, but in the UAE it is not easy at all… today you get one person, tomorrow someone else.

DC: Outsourcing is useful when someone falls sick, as they will provide you with cover, but I prefer to have my own staff because you spend so much time training them and when we develop them they will stay in our hotel even if they go to another department.

SP: I think that we need to turn the tables on the outsourcing companies. They do provide you with a person, but you have to do all the work of training them. What I have done is said that I will not pay per person; instead I will pay per clean area of the hotel. Some companies have said they won’t do this, but I have two companies who have agreed to it, and it is working very well for me.

What is the most important part of your job?

AD: To retain your staff and to always have an open door for them. If you do this, you will get the best out of them. Being part of the team, interacting with the staff and not always being a boss is important too — sometimes we are bosses with our noses up and we don’t get our hands dirty but you have to be with them, and innovate, to get the best out of them. When you give your staff this kind of attention, they make your job easy because they know who you are.

TA: There are many things that are important — the motivation of staff, guest retention, the owner’s demands. There are so many different factors which are important, whether it is finance or the environment — it all melts together in a big pot. This it is a multifaceted role and you can’t say what the most important part of it is, you just have to play it by ear.

DC: I love meeting people and it is important for me to get feedback from guests because then I can see how we need to improve. If you speak to guests and ask how they want the room done and retain their details, they will be pleased that you have remembered.

SP: For me it is creating an atmosphere of support. Housekeeping is like an octopus — we have our arms stretched everywhere. As a department I think if we have an atmosphere of support, because we interact with every other department, it gives our guests the best comfort and we should give that and never say no. I say to our colleagues and management — I will never say no.

JF: It is to provide support, interact with other departments and it is also very important to be around the hotel. The time I spend in the office is minimal — because for me it is important to interact with staff. I find that walking around the hotel, team members will start talking about things they don’t want to share in morning briefings and it is important to have this interaction.

How much autonomy do you have to run the department as you see fit?

TA: There is a budget to stick to, but as long as you don’t exceed the budget and you keep everything in line then you are very much free to decide what goes on.

JF: Housekeeping is an area where cost management is very important. In the housekeeping department, you have to work with numbers and keep in line with your targets.

It is a bit different with laundry because you can make revenue for the area, but housekeeping is more to do with cost management and you can manage your department in the way you consider to be the best one, but you need to be very close to your numbers because housekeeping doesn’t make revenue.

SP: A lot of department heads have to be involved in the housekeeping department; the general managers need to be involved with what we are deciding and agreeing and so forth. We bring things up and sometimes we have to agree to disagree but the general manager always needs to be fully informed of what we are doing.

DC: For us to run the department properly we really do need the support of people like the front office and the engineering department — and of course they all need our support as well. And laundry — if housekeeping and laundry do not work together then we cannot run our departments so we need their support. That is one of the good things that happens in our hotels — if you have good support from everyone and from all of the departments it makes it easier.

How important are environmental concerns in your role?

Tatjana Ahmed: I think that it is very important to pay attention to the environment — everything from the waste from the hotel rooms to making use of the latest cleaning technologies.

We have become very savvy in using new environmentally-friendly cleaning techniques, whether it is a microfibre cloth or an enzyme cleaner. It is also down to how you educate your staff. There are lots of things which can and should be done and in the UAE certain things can take a longer time to develop and unfold, but I think environmental issues are of the utmost importance.

Annette Damz: We have a system where people can tell us if they want their towels changed or not, and this helps with revenue as well as with environmental costs.

You would be amazed how much some of the guests are concerned about the environment — particularly European guests. As they are very concerned with recycling and so on, and they will actually be upset if you change their towels too often because they want to be environmentally friendly.

Dilki Cooray: Sometimes guests participate, but sometimes guests expect you to change the towel wherever they put it. We don’t change the sheets every day, we do it every other day because we are a responsible business, and there have been no complaints at all.

Susana Pereira: I think we are one of the first five star hotels to have implemented amenities dispensers at our two new properties — we have done this in the shower room and at the vanity counter. The key thing was to bring a brand that is attractive that people will know like Bulgari or Elemis.

So far it has not even been mentioned — maybe in the eight months we have been doing this we have had a handful of people who have mentioned it. It isn’t about the cost; I think it is about looking at the impact on the environment. In most hotels, there are thousands of bottles that go out in the garbage.

Javier Ferre: You can save on paper by using the technology available. We have all of our information on the TV screen in the hotel, so there is no need to use as much paper in the rooms — you have all your information in one place and it is also a way to be environmentally-friendly.

Getting to know you: Hotelier's expert panel

Tatjana Ahmed
executive housekeeper
Grand Hyatt Dubai
Based in the UAE since October 1989, Ahmed has worked as housekeeping manager in several five-star properties in Dubai. In 2001, she joined the Hyatt Regency Dubai, overseeing the housekeeping operation during the renovation of the entire hotel during 2004 / 2005. Ahmed transferred to Grand Hyatt Dubai in July 2006. She is a founding member of the Grand Hyatt’s Green Team as well as the founding member and chairwoman of the UAE Professional Housekeeper Group, which was established in April 2003.

Dilki Cooray
director of housekeeping
Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek
Dilki Cooray joined Sheraton Hotel Abu Dhabi in September 1979 and worked until September 1987 as a laundry manager. She then joined the InterContinental Hotels Group as area laundry manager. In 1996 Cooray joined housekeeping as an assistant executive housekeeper. In less than six months, Cooray was promoted to the position of executive housekeeper and stayed with IHG until September 2006. Radisson took over the hotel in October 2006 and Cooray continued her role with them.

Javier Ferre
executive housekeeper
Hilton Ras Al Khaimah
Javier Ferre has been in the hotel industry for five years. He began his career in Miami, working in F&B then moved to another hotel in Miami as assistant housekeeping manager where he was promoted to housekeeping manager. Ferre undertook a stint in the Seychelles where he took his first job as executive housekeeper with Hilton Seychelles. Ferre then stayed with Hilton and joined Hilton RAK for the opening of the first DoubleTree in the UAE as the cluster executive housekeeper.

Annette Damz
executive housekeeper
Grand Millennium Al Wahda
Originally from Ghana, Annette Damz has been working in the hotel industry for more than 20 years. She began her career with IHG in London and was eventually transferred to Dubai to work on the opening of InterContinental Dubai Festival City. She stayed at the hotel for two years before moving to the Crowne Plaza on Sheikh Zayed Road as executive housekeeper. Damz then moved to Grand Millennium Al Wahda, in Abu Dhabi, for pre-opening.

Susana Pereira
cluster executive housekeeper for Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel and Royal Amwaj Resort & Spa
Susana Pereira began her hospitality career in the United Kingdom in 2003, where she worked for brands such as Hilton, Savoy and Swissotel. In 1997, Pereira moved to the Middle East, where she worked on a number of different hotel openings in various locations, including the InterContinental Beirut, Metropolitan and Ritz Carlton Doha. Prior to undertaking her current role, Pereira worked as the complex director of housekeeping during the pre-opening and opening for The Westin and Le Méridien Mina Seyahi complex in Dubai.

Salary
The housekeeping department is likely to have a high turnover because of the low salary paid to housekeeping staff, the executive housekeepers revealed. The average starting salary for a housekeeper is AED 1000 per month (though accommodation is provided as standard). Housekeepers have a chance to increase this, through promotions or overtime, but many move on to jobs in the front office, or F&B where tips can help subsidise wages.

Housekeepers’ top concerns

• Recruitment and retention
• Low salaries for entry positions in the housekeeping department
• The environment
• Using outsourced staff
• Managing budgets
• Working with other departments