Today and every day, hotel communication between the front desk, housekeeping, and their maintenance staff continues to be a challenge in the day to day operation of the hotel—especially during peak season times. CMS (Clean Management Solutions) is the technology, that will bring your housekeeping and maintenance process into the technology era, says Angelo Lombardi, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer—La Quinta Inn & Suites.
The CMS system provides the technology needed to save time and money all while protecting your company assets. Over 98 percent out of 100 hotel operators that I polled have indicated that they are still managing the back of the house using walkie talkies to communicate . . . and that’s OK. However, the noise—not to mention—your guest hears all that is going on. Still assigning your housekeeping task on paper? This too will allow your staff to get the job done—but it’s not the best time saving process and it does not help you manage any room statuses and updates.
One of your greatest resources is your housekeeping staff. They are in your rooms every day; but, are they identifying and documenting maintenance items? And—are they turning them in, or maybe they just forget. With CMS, your housekeeper has the capability to–simultaneously–notify your front desk and maintenance personnel of a new found maintenance item, providing a quick efficient way to get things fixed.
Wait! It gets better. By using CMS, you can enter all of your Preventive Maintenance items into the system according to your Brand standards in any sequence you choose (by date, number of times a room is rented, etc.). No paper logs or maintenance charts to maintain. Just enter it, set the dates, and when that time arrives, so will the task . . . right in the maintenance staff members task list.
I know what you’re thinking. The way we do it works just fine and I don’t need this technology . . ., and you are correct. But let me remind you . . ., in the past we mailed documents to individuals, now we fax them; and, then came email. We evolved because we found it more efficient. The use of flip phone cellular phones worked just fine too; however, we emerged to faster and smarter phones because we found that they operated more efficiently.
The next generation hotel brand owner will be the one who will invest in the kind of technology that will help them to become more efficient in the way they operate their hotels, help their staff, and manage the expectations of their guest.
