Many properties that do not charge either their Owners or Guests for Housekeeping services are unaware of the value of a feature embedded in the Housekeeping Console for capturing and recording a day’s activity. The button to launch this feature was previously labeled (P)ost but has recently been changed to Ca(P)ture in order to make it more user-friendly. While properties that do bill for services use this as a nightly one-button transaction process, they also benefit from having SMS|Host capture the details of each day’s assignments and archive them for subsequent reporting, something that is available for every property to employ.
Three operational rules are required to take advantage of these capabilities:
- Every service performed must still be (M)arked at the time of Ca(P)turing. Both the charging and recording functions are based on the presence of the Mark which is added at the beginning of the day. Any daily services that were not performed should be unmarked but that is not necessary for incomplete or delayed departure
- Every Housekeeper must be defined in the system with an ID which also creates an individual account for them.
- Every Marked service must be assigned to a Housekeeper or a Housekeeping Team. Whether your zones are generated or manually compiled, a Housekeeper’s name must be assigned to all rooms for which you are capturing the activity.
When these elements are in place, the Ca(P)ture function will record into the Housekeeper’s account the date and assigned unit number, the service that was performed, the reservation number linked to that service and the points (e.g. minutes) associated with performing it. Points for Housekeepers working in Teams will be divided between the members and their percentage of participation will be logged, as well.
Once all of this data is recorded, the Housekeeping Transactions report (R-R-1-F-6) can be run for a date range to examine in detail or summary:
- The work history of a Housekeeper
- The service history of unit or a group of units involving one or more Rental Program codes
- The performance history of a service
Given that these circumstances change daily (i.e. that service in that room assigned to that Housekeeper), the information must be captured prior to the End-of-Day by use of the Ca(P)ture button. Since there is no “second chance”, we strongly encourage you to add it as a function to the Automated Night Audit process to ensure it takes place.
If you are not currently recording and archiving this data, I recommend you review your procedures and consider incorporating the process.
Next time, we’ll explore the Concierge Directory. (And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you really need to read the next post.)
