What are Benefits Of Outsourcing Housekeeping Services In The Hotel And Hospitality Industries

In the Hotel & Hospitality Management sector, it is prudent to streamline the onsite management process and take advantage of the efficiencies and other opportunities that come their way. Hotels are built with an entire floor of people who perform a plethora of functions that can completely go offsite. There are a lot of areas where it makes sense for a hotel to examine options about how they can make it better, as the benefits are many.

The use of outsourced housekeeping services is gaining popularity across the globe, owing to the seasonable activity in the hotel industry. This enables the hotel management to reduce pay, manage easily, maintain flexibility in staff, and a just-in-time approach. Owing to this, hotels can improve revenue bottom lines and bring greater efficiency in their operations. 

Outsourcing in hotels means – they don’t need to go through the hassle of recruitment, handle absenteeism, and are well-supplied by the appointing agency. Outsourcing housekeeping services has its advantage. Many hotels better manage outsourced housekeeping services, whereas many decide to train in-house.

Statistics On Hotels Outsourcing Housekeeping: 

1. Overall, hotels have seen more than a 25% decrease in labor costs when housekeeping was outsourced.
2. Outsourcing considerably reduces recruiting and training costs as the housekeeping department also usually has the highest turnover rate at a property.
3. Outsourcing housekeeping lets the hotel management focus on guest services and marketing.
4. The quality of housekeeping services in hotels has been inconsistent as witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic when many hotels reduced their workforce. Since the industry revived itself, many have faced sourcing challenges; this is where outsourcing these services presents itself as a solution.
5. Hotels mitigate many risks and gain many advantages by outsourcing housekeeping services.

Dealing With Guest Expectations  

The long-awaited comeback of hotels hinges majorly on trust, safety, security, and transparency.

93% of people agreed to be fully furnished with the hotel protocols, requiring hotels to outline their safety measures, enabling touch-free tech, constricting occupancy levels, and maintenance and sustainability of other areas like the gym, pool, etc.

This major shift in customer preferences has encouraged hotels to rethink operations and re-design housekeeping operations using outsourcing. This is one of the most favorable ways to achieve the productivity and quality that is required in today’s cut-throat competition.

The Key To Building Solid Outsourcing Relationships

Hotel housekeeping has a direct impact on the hotel’s reputation and revenue thus staff training in these areas is critical.

Well-established and industry-recognized outsourcing service providers often have streamlined processes, a great infrastructure, and well-defined resources for their service delivery as they specialize in their respective services. 

1. The provider of outsourcing services must ensure that the hotel’s service, employee-focused culture remains intact. In collaboration with the Hotel, the agency must provide full training to new employees incorporating brand-specific or property-specific standards into their training modules.
2. They offer retirement options, standard perks and incentives, health benefits, and other benefits to the employees.
3. The service providers focus on their expertise and resources and provide a more comprehensive and cost-effective solution to the hotels in terms of outsourced housekeeping employees. 

Advantages of Hotels Outsourcing Housekeeping Services:

The housekeeping department of hotels is required to adopt a responsible attitude to address the health threats and perform various functions like: 

1. Creating an action plan, mobilizing resources, supervision, and maintaining a logbook of actions
2. Communication is the key, wherein training and information need to be diligently shared
3. Hotels need to maintain necessary equipment and medical kit at the reception desk
4. The industry needs to cater to social distancing measures, hand cleaning, and respiratory hygiene
5. Be wary of technical and maintenance services like water disinfection, air conditioning, dispensers, etc.
6. Monitoring of guests who are possibly ill
7. So outsourcing helps the management cater to all basic requirements and provides many other benefits like:
8. Reduction of Costs

This is the primary advantage of outsourcing, especially as these costs can be scaled up or down as needed. The hotel business is seasonal, and outsourcing helps hotel management adjust to requirements and deliver accordingly. 

1. Better Quality

The outsource providers are well-structured with world-class facilities, training opportunities, and catering to the individual needs of the hotel and brand. So outsourcing housekeeping staff can ensure a better quality of well-trained employees. 

2. Specialization

Outsourcing provides an enhanced quality in specialized Products and/or Services. It may be best to employ people as recommended by experts who have trained them well following their virtues, fortes, and strengths. 

3. Communication Issues

Outsourcing enables hotel management to communicate with only one party rather than keeping all departments of housekeeping synchronized at all times. Instructions, innovations, training, new policies. 

4. Increased Resources

The hotel industry can now focus on the other departments and thrive on enhanced resources because of outsourcing. They can direct all their energies towards customer satisfaction and brand empowerment, for instance, and achieve new heights. 

5. High Levels Of Concentrated Expertise

Agencies are well-equipped with expert training and module-sharing hotel policies, housekeeping structures, and basic know-how. So, hotels don’t need to bother with providing concentrated expertise to the newly employed staff. 

6. Technology

AI has stepped in everywhere in the hotel industry – whether it is a remote check-in, a keyless entry, technological amenities, etc. Hotels can now concentrate on upgrading their internal technologies and gain access to industry-first innovations when key areas are outsourced.

Besides that, any kind of software that needs to be used to supervise, monitor, assess, and control the housekeeping staff, will fall on the outsourcing partner. 

7. Spending More Time On Core Operations

When you don’t have to worry about maintaining rooms, catering to in-room guests, and employing staff for housekeeping, you have more time to concentrate on meeting guest demands. 

8. Flexibility With Labor Hire

Outsourcing decreases the liabilities hotels have to deal with, and they don’t have to exhaust themselves over stringent recruitment processes or deal with absenteeism, attrition, turnover, and fixed salaries. 

9. Gain Competitive Advantage

Outsourcing can give you an overall cost advantage against other hotels by saving your time, operating costs, overhead, effort, and training costs. 

10. Risk-sharing

Outsourcing helps hotels by providing a full complement of services without the hotel management bearing the overhead. It enables risk-sharing with partners. 

11. Improved Data Security.

These days, hotel businesses need to be cautious with the confidentiality of their guest data and the security of critical data. Outsourcing employees for housekeeping enables them to take care of a limited number of duties, thus streamlining security procedures. 

12. Peace Of Mind

The hotel management can now spend less money and time on in-house administration and operational work, and concentrate on higher and more productive endeavors. This helps them to maintain, advertise, and expand the hotel brand, and move towards their objectives in a collected and motivated manner. 

Conclusion: Find Your Balance

Of course, hotels need to find the perfect balance between outsourcing housekeeping expenses and overhead investment; deciding where this balance lies is a key contributor to the hotel portfolio’s profitability. Whether it is about outsourcing one function or all of them, this is a huge opportunity for hotels to optimize the experience they provide and offer the best customer service to their guests. If done right outsourcing housekeeping activities can lend a long-lasting impetus to the hotel’s reputation and long-term success.

 References:

•  https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4104382.html
•  https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2012-151/pdfs/2012-151.pdf
•  https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/SOPonpreventivemeasuresinHotelsandotherHospitalityUnitstocontainspreadofCOVID19.pdf
•  https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331638/WHO-2019-nCoV-Hotels-2020.1-eng.pdf