Housekeeping Efficiency

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Measurement of housekeeping efficiency in a hotel can save huge money for its owners. In this article we will talk about use of Balanced Scorecard system to evaluate housekeeping efficiency in orde rto improve it and save additional costs. Check additional information about housekeeping efficiency.

When we come to a hotel and the doorman sees us to the room, we expect to find a perfectly clean room. These days, hotels pay much attention to order and cleanliness in all rooms and suites. Consequently, a big part of expenses goes to cleaning personnel, purchase of cleaning tools and cleaning solutions. Efficiency of cleaning personnel affects both customer satisfaction (who would like to sleep in a dirty room and used bedsheets?) and spending budget (who not save cleaning costs and use the money for something else?). Excellent housekeeping performance is a part of a perfect overall performance for a hotel. In other words, it is impossible to offer top quality services without having clean rooms, corridors, elevators etc. In this article we will talk about a fantastic performance evaluation and strategic management tool - Balanced Scorecard - that is actively used in hospitality industry, to measure housekeeping efficiency in particular.

One of the advantages of Balanced Scorecard is the fact that this system can be used both on a hotel level and on the level of various departments and services (laundry, kitchen, security, sports and fitness, housekeeping). This is an excellent opportunity to test BSC and actually see what this system is capable of and to optimize performance at the same time. One should not reinvent a wheel in order to use BSC to measure housekeeping performance.

First off, it is necessary to study the 4 categories of Balanced Scorecard: financial, customer, internal processes, learning and growth. As known, each category contains key performance indicators that represent critical success factors for a particular business or aspect of business. Let's review these categories in our particular case - housekeeping BSC.

Financial. Here we refer KPIs that are related to housekeeping expenses. Thus, it would be reasonable to use such KPIs as cleaning costs vs. total spending budget, cleaning wages vs. total salary expenses, cleaning costs per room etc. As you can see such indicators will help control finances and optimize cleaning costs if necessary.

Customer. Cleaning and housekeeping services have one goal - to keep hotel guests satisfied with rooms, corridors, elevators, lobby etc. Therefore, customer satisfaction plays a crucial role in housekeeping BSC. Satisfied customers are more likely to come back to the same hotel again, if they like the way rooms have been cleaned. Customers are sources of income for a hotel, and thus they need to be satisfied with the level of offered service.

Internal business processes. In order to keep customers satisfied hotel management should think of the ways to optimize internal processes and procedures related to cleaning. Such changes may concerns anything, from number of housekeeping employees per storey to change of suppliers and providers of cleaning tools and equipment.

Finally, KPIs in the learning and growth perspective should be evaluated. Logically, personnel should also change and develop along with the company itself. Participation in training sessions, education of personnel and use of the latest technologies in cleaning will make cleaning staff professional and efficient, thus improving individual and total performance.

If you are interested in housekeeping efficiency, check this link to find out more about housekeeping efficiency. Also, you can check other articles in General category.

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