Category: Cleaning

Case Study: Hotel Housekeeping

A 500-room luxury hotel in Cleveland was using multiple third-party vendors to staff the property’s housekeeping department, which resulted in poor guest service scores and unsatisfactory brand standard compliance for cleanliness. The property leadership sought a true partner with experience in improving and managing the recruitment, training, and operations of the housekeeping department. Having this expertise in delivering exceptional service through quality management and quality assurance programs, The Service Companies was selected as the exclusive partner.

The Service Companies developed a strategy to recruit, onboard, and train 50 compliant housekeeping associates within 30 days and created a custom quality assurance program. The company’s primary objectives included:

  • Interviewing existing housekeeping associates to determine who would transition to the team.
  • Recruiting and onboarding open housekeeping positions.
  • Developing quality management and quality assurance programs to increase guest service scores.
  • Successfully transitioning the housekeeping department from multiple third-party staffing companies under The Service Companies.

During the transition phase, The Service Companies had two primary focuses: people and training. The company approached this as follows:

  • Fully transitioned all 16 of the client’s housekeeping associates.
  • Sourced and onboarded housekeeping associates to fill the remaining 34 positions.
  • Identified 3 trainers, who spent 10 days training 2 associates each.
  • Supervisors were re-trained and self-inspections were eliminated.
  • Developed training guidelines and checklists that met The Service Companies and the client’s brand standards.
  • Implemented a 100-point inspection program, set up correct housekeeping equipment, and initiated daily projects.
  • Analyzed guest feedback and developed special project lists to resolve issues.

Within 30 days, the recruiting team screened over 300 candidates and fully staffed the housekeeping department. Within 3 months, the property was deep cleaned, which resulted in a significant increase in guest satisfaction. Within 6 months, the property had improved from red to green for brand standard compliance for cleanliness.

Learn more about hotel housekeeping here.

The Service Companies Provides Overnight Resort Cleaning and Stewarding on Kauai

We are excited to announce we began providing overnight cleaning, stewarding and staffing services to a new resort in Princeville, Hawaii on the island of Kauai last month. This property marks our 14th hotel or resort client in Hawaii!

Mahalo to our leaders, task force team, recruiting team, and local cleaning team, led by Michael Woodbury (Area Vice President, Operations), who have been at the resort for the last three months ensuring a successful and smooth opening!

Learn more about our best-in-class hotel and resort cleaning services here.

The Service Companies Provides Overnight Casino Cleaning in Greater Palm Springs

In September, The Service Companies expanded to provide overnight casino cleaning services for two casino properties in Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City (Palm Springs area). We have taken on the overnight kitchen cleaning, including the casinos’ bar areas, public area spaces, and spa.

Congratulations to our casino cleaning teams, led by Jill Santell (Area, Senior Vice President), Matt Marecki (Area, Vice President), and Vernon Taylor (Project Leader) for a successful opening!

The-Service-Companies-Palm-Springs-casino-cleaning-team-smiling-with-brooms
Our casino overnight cleaning team

Our newest casino client in Kentucky

The Service Companies has the capability to serve clients across the country. Currently with locations in 31 states, we are constantly expanding to new locations. Recently, we opened our first office in Kentucky at a racing casino in Florence. We began providing EVS and kitchen cleaning services to this brand-new property in September.

Congratulations to our team, led by our all-star leaders Victor Vargas (Area, Senior Vice President) and Nickolas Burnette (Director of Operations)!

group of EVS and kitchen cleaning employees smiling in hallway
Members of our Florence, KY EVS and Stewarding teams

The Benefits of Outsourcing

The effects of the current labor shortage and the impact of the pandemic on the hospitality industry continues to present major challenges for hotel and casino operators. Many hotel owners and managers are considering new and innovative options such as outsourcing their back of the house cleaning departments. If you are considering a potential move to pivot and benefit from leveraging an integrated services provider, here are some key considerations and potential benefits to outsourcing.

Time savings that you can now devote to your core business

Heart of the house hospitality management can eliminate the existing hotel management’s role in recruiting, background employee checks, drug screening, and training expenses, all saving executives time, which can then be focused on sales, marketing and customer service.

More training and advancement opportunities for employees

Leading companies offer participation in everything from medical, dental and vision benefits, to short term disability insurance, IRAs, credit unions and discount programs with select suppliers. Beyond this, The Service Companies offers benefits like on-demand pay for Dayforce Wallet.

Plus, there can be opportunities for advancement in this fast-growing field as well as training.

Specialized knowledge and quality management and assurance programs that result in strong quality of work

The Service Companies is comprised of team members with over 30 years of experience in their particular specialty – housekeeping, public area cleaning, stewarding, supplemental staffing, window cleaning, and more. This higher degree of specialized knowledge in specific services brings automatic benefits to your department.

housekeeping manager works on tablet while housekeeper places a pillow on a hotel bed

Some companies, like The Service Companies, guarantee certain high levels of quality. We accomplish this in large part due to our quality management and assurance programs.

Our Quality Management Program includes:

  • Complete documentation of the scope of work and service requirements
  • Quality plan including service quality measurements and metrics
  • Service Delivery Plan
  • Inventory Management
  • Human Resource Management
  • Health, Safety and Environmental Stewardship
  • Management Commitment

Our Quality Assurance program is built on the premise of thoroughly inspecting our work each day. Most daily inspections are field documented using a smart device and follow the agreed upon scope of work. Once completed, each inspection is time and geo stamped and forwarded to our senior leadership team. Inspections include:

  • Guest room inspections
  • VIP arrival inspections
  • Guest house attendant inspections
  • Back of house inspections
  • Kitchen inspections
  • Public area inspections

Outsourcing to a provider that commits to these can lead to a superior guest experience.

Potential cost savings

Outsourcing can result in cost savings. This depends on the responsibilities and costs assumed by your partner. One thing to keep in mind is that there will be soft costs, like turnover-related expenses, in addition to hard costs that may make outsourcing the right option for you.

In a managed or turn-key model, The Service Companies assumes these costs, to name a few:

man and woman smiling with woman holding a certificate and gift card
  • Salaries and wages for department
  • Payroll taxes
  • Benefits
  • Overtime
  • Annual turnover costs
  • Cleaning supplies, excluding laundry chemicals
  • Housekeeping equipment repair and replacement
  • General liability and workers’ compensation insurance
  • Recruiting & training
  • Employee incentives, engagement and retention initiatives
  • Information technology, including mobile smart devices and tablets

When considering outsourcing, the greatest benefits are savings in time and money. For employees, it offers the opportunity for more job training and advancement possibilities. Plus, it can eliminate concerns and worries about the ever increasing government and workplace regulation. And finally, it can mean quality assurance.

To request more information about The Service Companies or to speak with one of our team members, submit our form to contact us.