Efficient Housekeeping Department At Pullman Sydney Hyde Park Ensures Cleanliness.

Luxury Stay at Pullman Sydney Hyde Park

Question:

Discuss about the Accommodation Management of Pullman hotels.

Pullman hotels and resorts is a group that has 5-star rated hotels all over the world. Staying at the Pullman is like an experience in itself as most of the hotels are an exquisite example of luxury and comfort. The hotel that is going to be discussed in this assignment is Pullman Sydney Hyde Park. The place is established in 2010, situated in 36 College Street, Sydney, NSW.  The hotel is perfect for both business as well as leisure as there are not only contemporarily designed rooms for the guests there are also conference rooms and business centers facilities. The location is perfect for the guests as the most of the tourist attractions of Sydney is situated nearby and it is also close to the airport as well, this makes the location of the hotel perfect for the guests. There are 241 rooms and suites, which are well equipped with commodities which will add to the convenience of the guests. There are also special executive accommodation for the people who want to book for business purposes. There are seven conference or function rooms and the largest conference room can accommodate up to 250 people and there are also provisions for hosting an outdoor event. The conference rooms are all loaded with latest technology to facilitate conferences and meetings. The group of Pullman hotels is owned by the Accorhotels group (Pullmansydneyhydepark.com.au 2018).

The quality of housekeeping is one of the most important aspects that are inspected by a visitor before checking into a hotel. On research, it was found the major issues of customer dissatisfactions were related to the housekeeping department. If the customers were dissatisfied with the housekeeping department then there is high chance of them not coming back or recommending to others. Despite of the tremendous cost incurred in the operations or the housekeeping department it was found that the efforts were not enough to please the customers. Majority of operations are involved in this particular department (Wood 2017). These operations require both finance and human resource. In other words, it can be said that the housekeeping department needs to coordinate with the finance as well as the human resource department for its daily operations. It is the responsibility of the department to achieve 100 percent efficiency. The role of the workforce and the entire department is to ensure that the standards of cleanliness are maintained in all the areas where the customers move. They provide linen to all the rooms, dining area, guest lounge and waiting areas (Wood 2017). They ensure that all the staff members get clean uniforms. They are accountable for the laundry requirements of hotel linen, uniform of the staffs and clothing of the guest. They take care of the decorations of the entire hotel. The housekeeping department Pullman Sydney Hyde Park takes the responsibility of renovation and refurnishing the property after seeking proper consultation from the management and interior designers. They take the responsibility of providing training to all the staffs of the hotel. They coordinate with other departments of the hotel for carrying out the daily operations (Wood 2017).

• Providing necessary supplies to the rooms
• Mopping, cleaning and setting up the basic requirement for the guests
• Cleaning and the washrooms and the bathrooms
• Arranging the rooms
• Decorations of the rooms and customer areas
• Cleaning the windows and the glass
• Linen and Laundry services (Yildiz2015)

Conference Facilities and Executive Accommodations

The housing department takes responsibility to keep the venue clean and maintain proper sanitation as it determines the service quality. There is fitness center, Jacuzzi, sauna facilities in the hotel where sanitation and hygiene is of utmost importance and this is taken care by this department. They use department with the vacuum cleaners for cleaning clean the rugs, carpets in the rooms, hallways and dining area. They dust the furniture of the hallways, public areas and rooms of the guests. Their duty is collect trash from the rooms (Wood 2017). They ensure that the trash cans of the entire hotel are emptied. The bed sheets are changed. It is there responsibility of the housecleaning checks the supplies of the guests, toiletries and toilet paper are to be placed whenever there is requirement. They provide room services to the guests. They cater the special needs and requests of the customers (Walker 2016). The restaurant and the lounge area have different set of staffs as they are not responsible for cleaning these areas. The housekeeping department also assists the audiovisual team in setting up the requirements of the client during a meeting or conference.

The first line supervisors take the charge for organizing and coordination of cleaning related activities. They identify the areas that is required to be attended they also keep track with the reception to find out the guests who are leaving to keep the rooms ready for the next person who checks in (Pullmansydneyhydepark.com.au 2018). They maintain coordination in all the activities also with the other departments of the hotel. It requires proper scheduling. The first line of the managers under the supervisory functions assigns tasks to the staffs. The supervisors of the housekeeping department ensure that all the necessary equipment of the housekeeping department like the vacuum cleaners and floor polishers are properly maintained. One of the main responsibilities of the managers is to see that all the expectations of the customers are met (Nayak et al. 2016). They resolve issues and address the issues faced by the guests with proper solutions.

As Pullman is a 5-star rated hotel there is a prominent housekeeping management department who are in charge of the staffs working in the department from an administrative perspective. The managers of the housekeeping department of Pullman Sydney Hyde Park take care of the procurement of the resources. They plan budgets and allocate resources for carrying out the operations.  They set the housekeeping standards and make sure that the set standards are followed. They provide training to new recruits. Managers conduct in-service sessions where they communicate the company policies, procedures, strategies, goals and objectives of the organization. They also train the staffs so that they can effectively and efficiently use the equipment. They track the inventory of the supplies; they maintain payroll record and make the budget of the department. They also prepare sales, expense and occupancy reports. They boost the morale of the employees. Above all they ensure that the safety procedures are obeyed (Mensah and Dei Mensah 2013).

Responsibilities of the Housekeeping Department

The needs and the requirements of the customers are the prime focus of the housekeeping department. In order to satisfy the customers the management tries hard to take all the necessary steps to fulfill the needs of the customers. They maintain and clean the room so that there are less complains from the customers. Clean rooms, organized beds, shiny furniture, soothing ambience and jovial room service staffs will definitely make the guests happy. If the customers are not satisfied they are bound to shift to some other hotel that might provide them better services. If the guests are, happy they will definitely come again and if they are not happy, they will not come again. The role of the customers is simple as their satisfaction level determines the growth of the hotel. The hotel will have profit in the future or not. If the rooms and services are not up to the mark, they will give bad reviews and the word of mouth that will act in negatively for Pullman. The guests of the hotel have been giving reviews about the hotel that it is not providing quality services. This has led to reduction in the sale of the rooms and fall in sales. Happy and satisfied guests will bring more guests. They will give good rating to the hotel. Customers play an important role but all depends on the quality of services that the hotel provides (Roberts and Shea 2017).

The housekeeping manager of Pullman Sydney Hyde Park monitors the rooms to ensure that they are presentable. They ensure that the sheets, curtains, blankets and the other necessary linen are clean. The supervisors of the housekeeping department instruct, train and mentor the subordinates and the new hires to provide to be attentive to the needs of the customers. There are a few staffs that have knowledge of many foreign languages like, French, German and Russian so that the international guests do not face problem in communicating. Interior decorations, flowers and lightings are replaced timely. The ambience of the hotel has been made soothing with the use of beautiful lightings, light music and a fresh odor. The staffs of the hotel behave politely as they are told and trained. They are trained to be patient and attentive as it puts a good impression on the guests.  The toiletries provided are of good quality and clean towels are also provided to the guests considering their hygiene and health. Room service is delivered to the guests within 30 minutes of time it has been requested. Special requests of the guests are always entertained.  Bathrooms are always kept clean. The hotel carries out the pest control timely.

Supervision and Coordination of Activities

The housekeeping department has the maximum number of operational activities. The nature of the operational activities is such that it is both capital as well as labor intensive. This department has maximum number of staffs working at different shifts. In order to reduce cost and increase operational efficiency outsourcing can be an option that is implemented by the company. Pullman Sydney Hyde Park is one of the many hotels in the chain of Pullman hotels and resort and such management decisions are taken by the central managerial positions of the company (Espino-Rodríguez and Lai 2014). If the company wants to outsource housekeeping they have to include third parties like laundry services, cleaning services, window cleaning services etc. The Pullman Sydney Hyde Park already has a strong housekeeping department and it will not be a good idea to outsource the services for a brand name like Pullman hotels (Pullmansydneyhydepark.com.au 2018).

As a multinational company the hotel the organisation already has a goodwill and reputation in the industry and is also listed as one of the best hotels in Australia by many bloggers and websites. If a service as important and as significant as housekeeping is outsourced a large part of the reputation will be dependent on the third party. As long as the cost of operation is concerned the hotel chain have a good turnover to accommodate own housekeeping department (Espino-Rodríguez and Lai 2014).

• It provides access to latest technologies
• The training costs are reduced
• Risk of mismanagement is reduced
• Outsourcing helps in reduction of capital expenses
• The business can shift their focus to internal business improvement
• The strategic positioning of the business is improved
• The hotel can get rid of problem functions (Hassanain et al. 2015)

• Communication problem are bound to arise when housekeeping services are outsourced.
• They sense of responsibility is less
• There would be coordination problems with other departments of the hotel.
• The hotel would be taking a risk by outsourcing the housekeeping services because there are chances that the performance delivered would not be as expected (Ambardar and Raheja 2017).
• Outsourcing can often become a major issue for conflict so there are chances that conflict might arise.

It is viable for Pullman hotels to outsource their housekeeping services but it is not advisable to do so (Pullmansydneyhydepark.com.au 2018).

Few issues might be faced by the hotel if they outsource housekeeping services. The management of the hotel requires training the outsourced employees. Proper communication needs to be maintained to avoid mismanagement and conflicts. The outsourced company is required to be made aware of the mission and goals of the hotel.

References

Ambardar, A. and Raheja, K., 2017. Occupational Safety and Health of Hotel Housekeeping Employees: A Comparative Study. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Systems, Vol. 10, no. 2.

Espino-Rodríguez, T.F. and Lai, P.C., 2014. Activity outsourcing and competitive strategy in the hotel industry. The moderator role of asset specificity. International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol.42, pp.9-19.

Hassanain, M.A., Assaf, S., Al-Hammad, A.M. and Al-Nehmi, A., 2015. A multi-criteria decision making model for outsourcing maintenance services. Facilities, Vol.33, no.3/4, pp.229-244.

Mensah, I. and Dei Mensah, R., 2013. Management of tourism and hospitality services. Xlibris Corporation.

Nayak, N.P., Pai, A., Prabhu, N. and Khurana, A., 2016. Manager’s Perspective on Hotel Outsourcing Services.

Pullmansydneyhydepark.com.au . 2018. Home Page. Retrieved from https://www.pullmansydneyhydepark.com.au/ 

Roberts, C. and Shea, L.J., 2017. A Theory of Lodging: Exploring Hotel Guest Behavior. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research,Vol.41, no. 4,pp.389-392.

Sa, M.L.L. and Chai, Y.K., 2015. Knowledge Creation Process: Evidence from the Accommodation Industry. The International Journal of Business & Management, Vol. 3, no. 3, p.303.

Walker, J.R., 2016. Introduction to hospitality. Pearson Higher Ed.

Wood, R.C. ed., 2017. Hotel Accommodation Management. Routledge.

Yildiz, Ö., 2015. Internal Communication Function and Hotel Productivity–A Comparative Study. American International Journal of Contemporary Research, Vol.5, no.3, pp.45-54.