We recently read “Keeping House in Hotels” and thought it would be great to share here because we often get asked why anyone would want to work in housekeeping. The following article is taken from mywage.co.za…

Keeping house in hotels

A career as a housekeeper in a hotel can be challenging as it requires a great deal of organisational skill, the ability to communicate well with guests and staff, and the discipline of upholding service excellence.

Says Carina Camilleri of the Hotel and Catering Personnel Agency based in Gardens, Cape Town:

“An executive housekeeper can earn well, depending on the hotel.”

Some housekeepers have to run 400 bedrooms in four or five star hotels, which involves a higher degree of organisation and they usually receive better remuneration than a smaller establishment.

Michelle Levendal, executive housekeeper at the four-star Capetonian Hotel in Cape Town, runs the housekeeping department. This involves supervising 20 staff, linen stock-taking and ordering, disciplining staff, and allocation and cleaning of rooms. She also has to deal with guest complaints.

A career as a housekeeper

Shanaz Smith, the assistant executive housekeeper at the Table Bay Hotel, oversees staff such as cleaners, floor supervisors, and the valet manager. She maintains a room standard, looks after linen, and she monitors supervisors in eight floors of the hotel. Smith works long hours from 5am to 4pm, and sometimes even to 7pm if the need arises.

Michelle Levendal works from 7am to 4pm with alternate Saturdays off. Cleo Louw in the One and Only Hotel’s HR Department has a 24-hour rota of three shifts for housekeeping.

Carina Camilleri’s benefits include 21 days of leave, sick leave, and family responsibility leave, and Shanaz Smith receives 20% medical aid.

A degree in hospitality for executive housekeeping

Michelle Levendal says it’s possible to work yourself up to a top position. From an executive housekeeper, you could move to a front office managerial position, or a rooms division manager.

According to Cleo Louw, for a position as a housekeeper, you need to have held the same position for a year or longer at a similar hotel. Camilleri noted that some major hotel groups require a hotel school diploma or a degree in hospitality for the executive housekeeping position.

Says assistant executive housekeeper, Shanaz Smith, you need management training as you have to deal with staff. You also need computer training as staff and floor records have to be stored. You have to be a people person, a problem-solver, and you need to be calm when guests have complaints.

Job prospects in housekeeping

Shanaz has been working for 11 years at the Table Bay Hotel. She started as a linen counter, and after that she became a floor supervisor, and then a linen supervisor, which led to a valet manager position. As a valet manager, she was in charge of three departments where she was made a permanent member of the Sun International staff. She continued to become a housekeeper administrator, then moved to assistant executive housekeeper. She said the top position in this sector would be a head executive housekeeper servicing five Sun International hotels.

It’s a tough job, but for the right person with a passion for service excellence, housekeeping can hold a lot of opportunities for working your way up the career ladder. For the full story, read “Keeping House in Hotels”.