Filling the Shoes of a Veteran Executive Housekeeper

Mike wasn't a newcomer to housekeeping. He was most recently the assistant housekeeping manager at a hotel in Naples, Florida. Now he was walking into the shoes of a veteran of the housekeeping department at the Boden Oceanside Resort and Lodge. Mike had been hired to replace Fran, who had just retired after many years with the Boden. He was finding that Fran had run her operation almost flawlessly out of her head, rather than from written rules and guidelines.

Mike had met with numerous surprises during his first weeks at the Boden. Recently, housekeeping had been receiving low ratings from guests on the comment cards. The front office had been directing numerous guest complaints to the housekeeping departmentmostly concerning towel shortages, stained sheets, and the need for new soap and shampoos. Mike understood that sometimes front desk agents misinterpreted complaints, but Mike knew better than to confront the front office manager about the possibility of her staff exaggerating the circumstances. He had learned long ago to take complaints as an opportunity for improvement.

This morning, shortly after Mike had arrived, the room attendants came to him to let him know that they were out of bathroom cleaning fluid. He wondered how this could be, as just last week he had requested an inventory of all housekeeping supplies and linens on hand. He had done so after noticing that linens were running low. In particular, frayed hand towels were being placed in bathrooms because good-quality ones were in short supply.

He assumed that, after the inventory, the assistant housekeeping manager would have ordered whatever was in low supply. Mike knew that the department had been understaffed for some time due to cost-cutting measures the hotel owners and general manager had instituted. He also knew that money hadn't been budgeted for new linens, even though the busy season would soon be upon them and the supply was inadequate for higher occupancy levels.

Now, as he entered the storage closet for the first time since his quick orientation tour (in the past he had always relied on his assistant to deal with inventory and stocking), Mike realized that he should have explored the purchasing process sooner.

Mike's strategy for moving into his new position was to let people continue to work at their jobs as before, observing and getting to know his staff, the guests, and the other department managers. He had enough on his plate just getting to know the culture of Boden's management, what was expected of him, and how the other managers worked to achieve the overall mission of the resort.

The storage room he now peered into was typical of many he had seen and worked in. Supplies were stocked by category, although there were no labels on the shelves. Linens were neatly folded and everything seemed to be in full view. It looked like most supplies were well stocked, so Mike wondered why the bathroom cleaner was out this morning. Mike looked around for an inventory sheet or anything that would tell him where the cleaner should have been stocked.

Just then Kit, his assistant manager, came down the corridor. Seeing Mike, she asked whether he needed anything. Mike told her that the front office manager was receiving complaints from guests about ragged hand towels and bath towels. Today, however, room attendants had informed him that they were out of bathroom cleaner. Kit was surprised that the cleaner was all gone because she always ordered a case every other week. Maybe someone stole some, she said.

Mike asked her what her ordering procedures were. Kit told him that she looks through the storeroom on a weekly basis and places an order every other week for cleaning supplies. She's been doing it for so long that she usually knows exactly what to order. She also told Mike that they don't run out of things very often, although they sometimes got down to the last unit. In those circumstances, she would run to the discount store to pick up some supplies if the order wasn't coming in for a few days.

After sending Kit out to the discount store for a case of bathroom cleaner, Mike sat down to figure out how to improve upon the system for purchasing housekeeping supplies. He also had to determine how he would ensure that guests would have acceptable linens for the upcoming season. He knew he couldn't order an entire new supply of linens and towels, so he had to develop a system to help him integrate new linens and towels into the system over a period of months.

Before putting pen to paper, Mike called the director of purchasing for the Boden to set up a meeting to discuss his needs.

Discussion Questions

1. What policies and procedures for inventory and purchasing would you put in place if you were Mike?

2. How does Mike's problem affect guest satisfaction?

3. What strategy should Mike use to convince the general manager to allocate more resources to the housekeeping department to meet his linen needs?

Case number: 608C13

This case also appears in Todd Comen, Case Studies in Front Office Management (Lansing, Mich.: American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute, 2003).