Hotel housekeeping managers need to deliver exceptional turnkey service for guests who expect fresh and thoroughly cleaned rooms when they arrive to take well-deserved rests after long journeys. Hotel housekeeping departments have many daily tasks to accomplish, which need organized, efficient, and dedicated staff so rooms turn over quickly for occupancy by the next guests day in and day out. Yet, housekeeping managers face many challenges, such as high turnover, recruiting, training, and retention of staff.
With these challenges to navigate, housekeeping managers need to create efficiencies within their departments through effective leadership and team building and to find the right technology tools that help them save time. This can also make all the difference in retaining good employees who are trained, proficient, and dedicated to their jobs.
Large inventories of towels, bed linens, toiletries, and other room items must be managed, secured, and tracked, which requires accountability for everyone who has access to the supply areas. Housekeeping staff also must determine whether guests have taken room items that may incur charges to their bills. When assets are misused or lost, hotel profitability is adversely affected.
These supply areas and the guestrooms that need to be cleaned require hundreds of keys to manage. This can be particularly challenging during shift changes when keys can easily be taken home or can go missing. Any misstep or mistake can result in the need for expensive re-keying, which reduces profitability and efficiency.
The best way to control and manage keys used by hotel housekeeping departments is by using an electronic key control system. Let’s examine three ways that electronic key control systems ease hotel housekeeping administrative duties, which is an excellent way to create housekeeping department efficiencies.
1Key Control Increases Productivity
Instead of waiting in long lines to manually sign out keys, every housekeeping staff member will have their own permissions for the keys they are allowed to use, how long they are allowed to use them, and when and where they must be returned. All staff members need to do is enter their credentials into the key control system and the keys they are permitted to use at that time will light up and are ready to be removed within a few seconds.
2Key Control Provides Automated Key Activity Audits
Manual key logs do not provide enough intelligent information. With key control systems, every key transaction is recorded by the operating software. It is easy to conduct key audits at any time needed to see where all the keys are located and with whom in the hotel housekeeping department. Reports can be downloaded, which provide data about the date and time of transactions, whether any keys have not yet been returned to the system, and provide insight into daily activity and attendance.
3Key Tracking is Precise and Expedient
Saving time is a huge benefit for hotel housekeeping departments. Key control systems automate the process of taking out keys and there is never a mystery to uncover about where all the keys are 24/7. With electronic key control systems, if a key is overdue being returned, an alert can be sent out to hotel housekeeping managers and hotel security teams so action can be taken immediately. The system provides information about who removed it, and which key has not been returned. Keys are always secured and tracked within the key control cabinet, so keys are always available for any shift.
Electronic key control systems provide extra security, ease hotel administrative burdens, and allow hotel housekeeping staff and security teams to get a clear big-picture understanding about how their keys are being used. This also helps to make housekeeping staff members work smarter and not harder, creating a positive and welcoming environment that is beneficial to guests as well.
Sponsored by Morse Watchmans.
