Monthly Archives: August 2010

The Saujana assignment

Lycette & Associates recently completed a consultancy assignment at the Saujana Hotel and the Club at Saujana in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. During this 7-day visit, a review was made of all Housekeeping operations and a coaching skills training was delivered to the 20 Housekeeping Supervisors including team leaders from the gardening and laundry sections.

The logistics of operating 2 very different hotels on a lush 160-acre property, surrounding a beautiful lake and golf course is challenging. In any property that is spread out, the daily organization of moving linen, equipment and even staff are obvious.

The variations in these 2 properties, one being older and large, and the second only recently opened and the different levels of service in each property present interesting challenges for the Housekeeping team.

Lycette & Associates was able to offer this very experienced housekeeping team some alternatives and suggestions to improve efficiency and productivity. This included the swapping of staff between the properties, developing the talents of Assistant Housekeepers by moving them between the hotels and having some flexibility in working with an aging workforce.

At the Saujana Hotel, the average age of the original opening team of 15 Room Attendants is 46; the physical nature of being a Room Attendant becomes noticeable and must be acknowledged. This makes planning for the future essential.

The Executive Housekeeper, Noorlailee Ong and her housekeeping team already have some terrific best practice initiatives in place, such as the gardening team moving in to help the laundry department when it was raining heavily and they were not able to do their usual outdoor jobs. Further insights were had in how to improve upon the existing procedures.

For more information on Lycette & Associates consultancies visit our website or contact Liz Lycette on liz@lyctteandassociates.com

KL housekeepers attend MAHIR presentation on productivity management in housekeeping

The popular presentation, Productivity Management in Housekeeping was run again last month and this time in Kuala Lumpur. It was organised by The Malaysian Association of Housekeepers (MAHIR) in conjunction with Lycette & Associates Housekeeping Consulting.

More then 20 Executive Housekeepers and their Assistants came from all over KL to attend this talk. All of them were enthused to take on board some of the ideas to increase productivity, to control costs and to enhance effectiveness through the use of new technology and innovation in materials. Some of these aspects are discussed at length in the L&A course Financial Management and the Development Programme for Housekeeping Managers. For more information on the presentation or one of L&A’s housekeeping courses contact Liz Lycette by email on liz@lycetteandassociates.com

More Housekeeping Olympics around the world

Check out more Housekeeping Olympics, this time from Las Vegas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jWwHJo5S3o

and another one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew_ULbvtd0c&NR=1

and in Philippines http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcoZHdNa-tI&NR=1

and this one! Funny!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSwFo-_KgI0&NR=1

Tip: Carpet Stains – Hair dye

A series of tips to help you get rid of the toughest carpet stains.

Hair dye:
You need the following equipment and products:
Hairspray, carpet cleaner; or dry-cleaning fluid, cotton balls

If you can get to the stain right away, use hairspray. Let it dry then treat with carpet cleaner. If you don’t get to it immediately, put dry-cleaning fluid onto a cotton ball and wipe it all over the stain. Then wipe with a clean cotton ball. Repeat until it is removed.

Source: Spotless by Shanon Lush and Jennifer Fleming