From client to BDE: How ACW won me over

Wednesday, September 26, 2018   Hospitality

 

Steve Dall’Armi

I worked in hospitality for 21 years. Today, I’m a Business Development Executive for ACW (A Cleaner World), a national company offering customised facilities management solutions.

It might seem like an odd progression – from spending most of my adult life in hotels to promoting a commercial cleaning business – but the connection is extremely strong. Before I worked for ACW, they worked for me!

As the Venue Operations Manager for the ALH Group, I handled senior management of some of their most iconic hotels and had a hands-on role in transforming the staff culture, morale and performance. Needless to say, I had a lot on my plate.

Worrying about the standard of cleaning is a frustrating task. It’s infinitely important to the satisfaction of your guests, but can also be a massive distraction from the more relevant duties of a hotel manager. When you’re tied up in what the cleaners (or aren’t) doing, you aren’t looking at the business.

That’s how I came to enlist the help of ACW for the last six years of my time at ALH. By handling staffing, onboarding, inspections, reporting and more, the team at ACW ensured I was able to focus on what mattered most to my role. Efficiency to a high standard was crucial, of course, but it was more than this that led me to where I am now.

The team at ACW understands what you’re going through – because many of us have been in your shoes.The team at ACW understands what you’re going through – because many of us have been in your shoes.

Why I joined ACW

There are three key things that stand out to me as making ACW both an incredible company to work with and work for:

Responsiveness

Simply put, ACW gets things done. Whenever any issue would arise in house, the ACW team was ready to sort it out. Organising solutions for even the smallest problems can be a major timesink, so having a team available that can act as quickly as possible with next to no involvement from management is a huge relief.

Reporting

Hotel managers always have a lot going. You need to know for sure that the cleaning is being completed to a high standard, but you don’t always have the time to check for yourself. ACW supervisors do scheduled site audits and unscheduled spot checks to make sure your standards are being met. ACW also delivers innovative and comprehensive reports which you can view online. You can also log work requests or queries online, which saves heaps of time.

Real people

Here’s the clearest point of difference. When working with ACW, you’re assigned a dedicated team. This means cleaning staff, though outsourced, really get the chance to understand your venue, business and values. Not only are the attitudes of ACW staff consistently positive, they bring that genuine enthusiasm into the culture of the venue – and it’s infectious. As someone who has been heavily involved in shaping the culture of multiple hotels, I’m intimately familiar with what this means for the success of the hotel and morale of in-house staff.

Furthermore, so many of the staff know exactly what you’re going through – and I’m just one example of that. Having spent so long in hospitality management, I can empathise with every hurdle or frustration you’re experiencing and so can your ACW team.

Working with ACW made my life as a hotel manager that much easier – now working for them, I’m proud to say I’m a part of bringing those benefits to others.

If you’d like to find out more about how ACW can make your cleaning stress a thing of the past, get in touch today.