Doha Housekeeper Group launches in Qatar

InterContinental Doha the City executive housekeeper Prabhat Shukla has recently launched the Doha Housekeeper Group with the goal of providing housekeepers across the country with a platform to share information.

The new endeavour has a sister group in Kuwait, which Shukla launched over two years ago, after experiencing difficulty in connecting with other executive housekeepers.

He explained: “Everybody is from different genres, different areas, everybody has their expertise but the chances were very limited to actually speak to each other. It was very successful [in Kuwait].”

After moving to Doha, Shukla — who won Hotelier Middle East’s Housekeeper of the Year Award in 2012 — saw the same need in the city.

The Doha group has already had their first meeting, which was attended by 31 executive housekeepers from both established and pre-launching properties.

The group have also started using online channels to communicate. Shukla stated: “On average, every other day we are talking to each other on a common group, sometimes we are looking for a supplier, sometimes we are looking for any amenities or any technicalities.”

“We made a group on our Gmail called the Doha Housekeepers, all housekeepers are there and on Facebook as well we have a Doha Housekeepers group which is a closed group,” he continued.

Shukla is gearing up for the second meeting, to be held in December, at which the group plans to establish a yearly calendar of events. Potential future events include a Housekeeper Conclave and the Housekeeping Olympics, both of which were held by the Kuwait chapter successfully.

A new innovation Shukla is looking to add to the group is site visits to the various participating hotels. He commented: “We are hoping one of our colleagues will take initiative this time so we will go to any other hotel, so we can have property rounds. We are looking forward to the property rounds because the teams know about the different properties but they don’t get, unfortunately, to see the rooms or facilities.”

The group is open to all executive housekeepers based in Doha, Qatar.