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 strength of the housekeeping department mainly depends on the size and structure of the hotel, that is, whether it has a compact structure with clusters of rooms, the number of rooms per cluster or floor, the expanse of the public areas and landscaped areas, and so on.
The general rule of thumb that aid in determining staff strength in the housekeeping department is given below.
Thumb rules for determining staff strength:
- Executive housekeeper: 1 for a 300 room property
- Assistant housekeepers: 2 (1 per morning and evening shift)
- Floor supervisors: 1 per 60 rooms for the morning shift; 1 for the evening shift; 1 for the night shift.
- Public area supervisors: 1 for each shift
- Linen/uniform room supervisors: 1
- Room attendants: 1 per 16 rooms for the morning shift; 1 per 30 rooms for the evening shift (if turn down service is provided)
- Linen and uniform room attendants: 2
- Housemen: depends on the size of public areas and functions expected, but on average, 1 per 60 rooms
- Desk attendants: 1 per shift
- Tailors/upholsterers: 2 (may differ depending on the size of the hotel)
- Horticulturist: 1
- Head gardeners: 1 per 20 horticulturists
- Gardeners: 1 per 4500 sq. ft of landscaped area