What’s the difference between housekeeping and cleaning?

Thursday, December 21, 2017   Hospitality

Call us particular but we’d like to call out the difference between the terms ‘commercial cleaning’ and ‘housekeeping’ interchangeably.

That’s because true housekeeping is a set of services specifically designed for hotels and resorts. Here’s what distinguishes housekeeping from commercial cleaning and why it’s so important for your hotel to hire professionals who know the difference.

Housekeeping and cleaning explained

The main distinction between housekeeping and cleaning is that cleaning services focus on just that: improving an area’s cleanliness, whereas housekeeping also includes tidying up and making a space look inviting and ‘on brand’.

Confused? Let’s put it in the context of your home. Cleaning your kitchen would mean:

• Mopping the floor
• Scrubbing the sink
• Wiping marks off the walls and cabinets
• Cleaning the appliances and so on.

Housekeeping, on the other hand, would involve cleaning the space, but also doing things like putting away the shoes your kids left in the middle of the floor, loading the dishwasher and hanging fresh tea towels on the rack. A housekeeper would make sure all of the items on the benchtop are tidy, that the items in the drawers and cupboards are clean and well organised and everything is easy to find.

In the living room, a cleaner will vacuum, dust and spot clean the walls, glass and blinds. A housekeeper will do that too, but would also puff up the pillows on the couch, put away the spare blanket back into the linen cupboard and ensure all of the picture frames are straightened.

In the bedroom, a cleaner will vacuum and dust, and again, do some spot cleaning. A housekeeper will change the linen, and remake the bed so that it looks like it’s being featured in a luxury real estate magazine! In the ensuite, all of the amenities will be organised and laid out to picture perfection. It’s the finishing touches and attention to detail that separates ordinary cleaning from executive housekeeping.

Why hotels and resorts require professional housekeeping services

In hotels, you need housekeeping services. Between guests, rooms require extensive, thorough cleaning to return the room to ‘as new’ condition. On a daily basis, housekeeping services revolve around freshening up the space while guests are out.

Effective housekeeping requires a unique set of skills. In an extremely small window of time, housekeepers must go into a hotel room and (depending on the type of clean required):

• Wipe down surfaces
• Change the towels
• Stock toiletries and tea/coffee
• Empty the bin
• Make beds
• Tidy major messes
• Remove dirty dishes
• Vacuum the carpet / mop the floor

They’ll also be expected to do all of this to an extremely high standard in multiple rooms each day between 10am and 2pm. At ACW Hospitality, our room attendants average 12-14 rooms per day. Commercial cleaners simply don’t know how to operate this way.

ACW Hospitality’s fully outsourced housekeeping model 

At ACW Hospitality, we’ve developed a fully outsourced housekeeping model around the unique needs of Australian hotels and resorts. With this model, our team of housekeeping professionals manages every aspect of your hotel cleaning program, from daily room checks to laundry services and rostering staff.

The vast majority of our clients prefer a fully outsourced housekeeping model because we have the experience to plan and execute a program that’s efficient and effective at a competitive price. We’ll liaise with your hotel managers to discuss venue-specific needs, and then run everything as if it were in-house.

ACW Hospitality is well known throughout Australia for our keen attention to quality and detail. That’s why we’re trusted by some of the country’s best accommodation brands. Our services come backed by more than 30 years of professional experience and an ISO 9001 certification in quality. To find out more about what a professional housekeeping company could do for your hotel or resort, reach out today.