Introduction
House keeping management is one of the most essential module of hotel management studies and a unit which ensures the growth of a hotel with the hospitality and facilities that house keeping executives provide to the guests.
House keeping management includes the study of laundry, hotel linen, linen room, flower arrangements, interior decoration, contract cleaning and controls in house keeping department.
Laundry can be described as a place where washing and finishing of clothes or washable articles are done. To have on-site or off-site laundry depends on the size of the property. A good laundry is of great importance to any renowned hotel. Laundry cycle includes collecting solid linens, sorting, loading, washing, extracting, drying, finishing, folding, storing and finally transferring linen to use areas.
A linen room is the central depot for all linen and from it sufficient clean articles in good condition are distributed throughout the establishment. The linen room is a storage space as well as distribution centre.
Flower arrangement is the organization of design and colour towards as it’s essentially a decorative piece and should serve as the centre of attraction. Hotels look upon flower arrangements as a part of interior decoration as its function is to create an attractive, beautiful, pleasant, tension free atmosphere.
Types of Flower arrangements
• Fresh cut flowers and foliage arrangements
• Different types of potted plant arrangement
• Hanging creepers arrangements
• Bonsai arrangements
• Dried arrangements
Interior decoration in today’s world has gained great importance. There are various aspects of interior decoration such as colour texture, pattern, lighting, heating, ventilation, etc. Housekeepers today are actually involved in creating the initial plan and visual impact of a room. They are very much involved in selection of items for replacement when the components of the interior becomes worn or too soiled to save.
Contracts may be made with certain firms for the provision of certain services or hire of certain articles. Therefore the executive housekeeper should carefully consider various advantages like less labour, low capital investment, good quality control, etc. Instead of finding, training and supervising in-house staff to undertake these services or buying specialized equipments for these services.
Contract cleaning firms offers the following wide range of services
• Complete cleaning programs with all work and responsibility
• Selected types of cleaning within the hotel to assist the existing housekeeping
• Periodic services to assist the housekeeping organizations
After completion of a degree in hotel management, students in housekeeping can start their career as associate moving on to supervisor then assistant housekeeper then finally executive housekeeper.
