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Housekeeping, a rapidly growing segment- 30-Apr-2010
Without this back office function, the smooth functioning of a hotel, hostel and resort would certainly collapse. Currently, it is increasingly sought after in the hospitality segment.
Keeping comfort in mind, they create a home away from home, with a touch of luxury. It focuses to maintain standards of excellence in sanitation, comfort and aesthetics at the hotel, including rooms, public areas, corridors, patio and lawns.
Students with a degree in hotel management join as supervisors who are responsible for organising, assigning and coordinating the work of the room attendants. After a few years they might be promoted as Assistant Managers, several of whom are supervised by Deputy Managers. Supervisors who perform well are promoted to executives to be trained under Assistant Managers. Finally, every luxury hotel has an executive housekeeper who oversees the entire operations.
First and foremost, it is good to start from scratch. Most of the youngsters today aspire to be executive housekeepers, but they need to understand and be adept at the nitty-gritty of the job first. If you know how to scrub a tub, you would make a better manager, as you will not only respect your subordinates, but also know what to expect from them, says top executive of leading chain of hotels.
People-friendliness is very important, since the entire objective of the job is to make every guest feel special. It is very vital for every housekeeping staff to be able to feel the pulse of your guests and gauge what they would need intuitively, says an Executive. For example, when a guest at the hotel mentioned how he loved the feather pillows, they immediately got them arranged, much to his surprise.
Presently, housekeeping is one the fastest growing in the service sector. Growth is performance-based and chances of a new trainee heading the department in a few years is much higher a compared to others.
Although growth is fast, pay at the entry level is not as lucrative. A room attendant might start from around Rs. 10,000 per month, while a supervisor might get up to Rs. 16,000 per month. The pay only rises as one rises up the ranks and may vary from luxury hotels to budget hotels to hospitals and company guest houses.
