CARE & MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS: First Impressions Count
by Debbie Minke

Cascading flowers and vines, neatly displayed in planters, catch your eye as you approach. The sparkling glass doors open automatically to the spacious slate-tiled entrance, inviting you inside. The crackling fire in the rustic stone fireplace, surrounded by comfortable lounge chairs and gleaming polished tables resting on a richly coloured and spotless rug, beckons you to sit and relax for a moment. The reception desk, paneled with richly-hued mahogany and topped with a beautiful, flawless granite counter and artfully arranged flowers, gives an impression of tasteful elegance. You have arrived, and all is well!

How much value should hotels place in their appearance? Lots! From parking facilities to front-door or front-gate appearance, guests form early impressions of a hospitality property. Continuing that initial satisfaction throughout a guest’s stay is critical, and the care and maintenance of public areas is a major contributing factor. Happy guests are more relaxed and easy to please, and if their experience with your establishment is good (or hopefully excellent), they’ll not only be back, they’ll tell their friends.

So how can we create a great first impression? If you don’t have a fairy godmother with a magic wand, it will require a lot of work by a dedicated crew. Is your lobby free of clutter and sparkling? Are the elevators clean and working properly? What about the stairwells and hallways? Are there spots on the carpets, marks on the walls, discarded candy wrappers in your parking lot, or light bulbs that have burned out and not been replaced? Is the carpet and paint fresh? Guests may not notice when facilities are well-tended, but they will notice when they’re not.

“Our guests have told us that we have the cleanest bathrooms they’ve ever seen,” comments Darla Lee Slater, General Manager and Owner of the Cariboo Lodge in Clinton. “We strive to achieve the highest standards possible in every area, so a maintenance schedule helps us remember important tasks when we get so busy that the days run together.”

Eleanor Tardi, Director of Special Services and Guest Relations for the nine Prestige Hotels and Resorts and two Best Western properties in BC’s Interior, comments that “It was important to initiate our own care and maintenance program, because our guests are our guests, and we value them as such.”

So how does a hotel property develop a maintenance schedule that works? If you don’t already have a system in place, bring together the key players, such as the general manager, facilities/maintenance manager, executive housekeeper, and even staff members to formulate your schedules and standards. Consider questions like these: How often do cleaning tasks need to be performed? How long does a particular job take? What chores are considered daily, weekly, monthly, or seasonal tasks? When should these cleaning jobs take place? Do we have enough staff? What equipment needs to be serviced, and how often?

Daily cleaning tasks might include: vacuuming, sweeping, scrubbing, waxing, and/or polishing floors, using vacuum cleaners, brooms, mops, and/or powered scrubbing and waxing machines; dusting and polishing furniture and fixtures; emptying wastebaskets, emptying and cleaning ashtrays, and transporting other trash and waste to disposal areas; removing debris from driveways, garages, and swimming pool/fitness areas; cleaning public restrooms (toilets, sinks, mirrors, floors); and polishing brass or silver accessories and metalwork such as fixtures and fittings. Some jobs, such as restroom cleaning, might need to be completed more than once a day. Tasks such as washing windows, walls, ceilings, and woodwork; waxing and polishing; cleaning of rugs, carpets, upholstered furniture, and/or draperies, using vacuum cleaners and/or shampooers could be classified as weekly or even monthly chores.

Daily general maintenance chores could include sweeping parking lots, washing outdoor windows, checking chemical levels in pools and whirlpools, and vacuuming pools, while weekly tasks might entail changing of filters, inspection of machines and equipment, care for grounds and plants, etc.

At each Prestige Hotel and Resort, the general manager is responsible to do a daily inspection of all public areas - the entrance, lobby, hallways, pool/fitness facilities, outside areas, parking lot, etc. He completes a daily inspection form, noting any issues. Problems and maintenance issues are addressed immediately. Once a month a corporate office representative will visit the property, and do a complete walk-through with the general manager. They discuss issues and possible changes in décor, furniture, or other assets. Three times per year Eleanor Tardi makes an anonymous visit and inspects all aspects of each Prestige property, ensuring that the highest standards are met.

Various software or web-based programs are available to provide tools hoteliers can utilize to streamline maintenance operations and assure that everything is running smoothly. Features such as task scheduling help hotel managers to stay on top of work flow, and work request systems help them respond promptly so that disruption is minimized. Reports enable managers to fine-tune the maintenance processes so that they can continue to improve efficiencies. These programs can also provide preventative maintenance scheduling, track assets and control inventory as well as forecasting asset replacement.

The best maintenance system is only as good as your staff. With today’s highly competitive labour market, hoteliers are finding it increasingly difficult to retain good workers. Invest in your staff, providing incentive programs, extra training, and benefits that keep them coming back to work day after day, year after year.

“We have excellent staff, and they take pride in their work,” says Marlene Bruce, Executive Housekeeper for more than 30 years at Prince George’s Coast Inn of the North. “We’ve involved them in the process of setting criteria and developing cleaning schedules so that Coast standards are always upheld. Our janitors cover the public areas 24 hours a day, so there’s always someone available to take care of needs.”

Be sure to invest in the best quality, dependable, and high performance cleaning equipment and products you can afford. Staff will do their work better, more efficiently, and less often. Incorporate preventative maintenance to keep equipment running smoothly, and for a long time.

Make customer comment cards or surveys available to your guests, and consider all remarks. Occasionally invite guests to tour your facilities and offer their impressions, observations, and suggestions for improvement, perhaps offering them a free appetizer at your restaurant in appreciation.

Try to schedule most of the noisy cleaning chores in the public areas during the night when there is little traffic, but have a janitor available all the time to handle emergencies and ongoing jobs such as public washrooms.

The proper care and maintenance of public areas in hospitality properties is essential to starting and maintaining a good relationship with guests. What does your hotel’s appearance say about your values? As the saying goes, you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression.