Talk to the Expert – Session 5
During the fifth ‘Talk to the Expert’ session we heard from callers from Angola, India, and Northern Ireland and we touched on some really interesting topics. For this write up, we will look at one that came up twice: linen management.
‘Talk to the Expert’ are free, one-to-one, 10 minute long consulting conversations. Callers can share their ‘pain’ and discuss housekeeping challenges with a hsk-knowledge.com housekeeping expert. The aim of the call is to provide guidance on how make a first step towards solving the problem.
In hsk-knowledge.com’s true spirit of sharing knowledge, a summary of some of the discussed challenges is provided in a short write up following the session.
Linen Management
During today’s calls, the topic of linen management came up twice – just like the old cliche about busses: not coming at all and all of a sudden two arrive at the same time.
Summarising both presented cases: the underlying objective of the callers was to ensure the housekeeping team has sufficient fresh linen available to service all rooms – ready for the arriving new guest and the stay-over guests requiring a linen change. Both callers felt that they are experiencing linen shortage on a regular basis.
In both calls, it was quickly established that no figures on originally injected and current par stock levels were available – in simple terms, nobody counted the amount of linen made available to the housekeeping operation in the first place, nor did anyone count the linen currently available in the operation. Furthermore, no control mechanisms were in place to control linen going out and coming in on a daily basis. Unfortunately, without this basic information, effective linen management is not possible!
The housekeeping managers were also limited with regards to forecasted occupancy levels, which subsequently didn’t allow them to estimate the amount of linen required on specific days.
The two callers left the the short ‘Talk to the Expert’ session with a little to-do-list focusing on capturing key data points to allow to gain control of the linen situations in these two hotels. Next step will be to establish thought through linen management procedures to avoid the housekeeping operation running into linen shortages in the future. Getting this right will ensure a happy housekeeping team and happy guests!
Summary
All callers presented a unique set of challenges and demonstrated a real desire to tackle them. All wanted to look at long term solutions that will enable their operations to develop and improve over time. Usually, there is not a quick fix and it is important to understand the whole situation and its underlying issues – there is no benefit of fixing the symptoms only. The participants of the first ‘Talk to the Expert’ session, left the calls with some suggestions on how to move forward and if they require additional support, they know where to find a housekeeping expert.
Are you experiencing similar challenges and want to discuss your options? Please get in touch for a no-obligation discussion and email christoph@hsk-knowledge.com today.
Next ‘Talk to the Expert’ Session will take place in early 2020. Watch this space!