JYOTI

  Calculating staff strength:   Compared to other hotel departments, the housekeeping department employs the largest workforce in most hotels. Manpower thus becomes a major operating expense. Good management of the housekeeping department depends on achieving a balance between the workload and the staff strength. When calculating staff strength, it must be remembered that each property will have its individual requirements. The factors to be considered here are: The type of hotel it is The location of the hotel Traditions and customs of the locality The size of the hotel (in terms of number of rooms) The occupancy rate of the hotel Management needs Company policies The quantity of work to be done The quality of work expected, that is, the standards to be met The time needed to do the work The frequency with which the work needs to be done The time when the work area is available The amount of traffic in the area   The staff st...

SELECTION CRITERIA OF FABRIC Fabric:  It is a cloth or textile-like cotton, silk, or upholstery by which we make linen. 1.     Strength: The strength of fabric depends upon the :   1. Thread count: The number of wafts and wraps in one square inch is called AS a thread count. Fabric good for bed sheets is 90*90.   2. Textile strength. 2.     Composition: Natural Less sensible Less strength More shrink Synthetic More sensible More strength Less shrink   3.      Laundering : Linen & laundering costs come right after labor costs on the list of highest expenditure. 4.     Comfort: It depends on the feel, texture, weight of the cloth. Any fabric that comes in the contact with the skin must be absorbent. 5.     Texture fabric: The fabric should be easy to handle. TYPES OF LINEN Bed linen:   Bed linen includes sheets, pillowcases, blankets, bedspreads, mattress protectors, etc. 1. ...

LAYOUT OF LINEN ROOM PLANNING OF LINENROOM Location : The linen room must be such to facilitate the easy flow of linen to & from the laundry. In case a commercial laundry is being used the linen room should be accessible for receipt & dispatch of linen from the back entrance of the hotel. The linen room’s location must also facilitate the easy issue & receipt of linen from the guest floors & other departments. Therefore it should be near to the service elevators. The linen room should also be away from food & production areas as linen absorb odour easily. Space : The total space allotted for the linen room will depend on the size of the hotel & activities to be considered in the linen room. The minimum space requirement of the linen room is 6 sq. feet. Entrance : A common entrance & exit door should be there because of security reasons. It should be 4 feet wide & without a threshold. A stable type door is recommended so that unauthorized persons are ...

  LINEN ROOM Linen : The word linen is used collectively to describe all the launderable items maintained, stored & issued for guest use by the housekeeping department. Linen room : It is a central depot for all hotel linen. This is the place from where clean articles of linen are distributed throughout the establishment. The bulk of clean linen & uniforms waiting for re-use are stored here. Types of Linen Rooms: Centralized linen room : In this system, linen from all floors is collected & stored in one central area. The linen supervisor has complete control over the linen room. All the linen issues & receipts go out from here. De-centralized linen room : In this system, each floor maintains its own par stock of linen. As & when necessary these are replenished from the main linen room. The linen par is stored on floors and the floor supervisor is responsible for the maintenance of the par level. This system works well in hotels having a large number of flo...

  Standard operating manuals-Job procedures A job procedure specifies the way in which a task is to be performed. Job procedures should be used during induction and training sessions and ought to be incorporated into the department’s procedure manuals. Updating job procedures is necessary as and when changes in equipment, cleaning materials, and so on, occur. They are most popularly called ‘SOP’s’ or standard operating procedures. They are also referred to as ‘work cards’ or ‘order of work’ documents. SOP’s comprise the following information: The job to be done. 1.      The job to be done 2.      Equipment and materials required 3.      Procedure of works 4.      Safety factor 5.      Time required to do the job   The goals in establishing SOP’s are as follows: 1.   To aid standardization 2.   To help in training 3.   To preserve surf...

  Time and motion study in housekeeping operations:  Extensive research in the form of time and motion studies to analyze work methods has helped the industry to find better and easier ways to carry out tasks and save time and energy. The time and motion studies for a task calculate how long it takes, on average, to perform a certain task. This helps in calculating staffing level s. TIME AND MOTION STUDY Time and Motion study, several staff members perform the same task (say, bed-making), one by one, their movements are studies and clocked. The results are compared and analysis is done as to how long it takes on an average to perform the task. The best practices derived from this study are then used by everyone so that the resulting performance will be more standardized and more predictable. Any of the methods discussed below can be used by the executive housekeeper to do a time and motion study in her department. 1.   Pathway chart:       T his techn...