Interview with Dina Angelucci – Assistant Vice President – Housekeeping and Environmental Services Galaxy Macau

By Liz Lycette

Meet Dina Angelucci, Assistant Vice President for Housekeeping and Environmental Services at Galaxy Macau. Dina is responsible for Galaxy Hotel with1459 guest rooms and a number of the shared services to the entire Galaxy property. Galaxy Macau a 550,000-square-metre property comprises of the 1,459-room Galaxy Macau hotel tower complete with casino and entertainment areas and two other hotel partners, Hotel Okura Macau and Banyan Tree. This also includes retail facilities, more than 50 food and beverage outlets, the gaming facilities comprises of 5 gaming halls and VIP gaming rooms on 3 levels, gardens, the world’s largest sky wave pool with a 350 tonne white sand beach and an  additional 5 swimming pools. Furthermore Dina is in charge of wardrobe, linen, floral and environmental services across the resort with a total of 800 staff and budgets in the millions.

What was your career path to date and how did you start in housekeeping?

I was born in Melbourne and began my hospitality career by studying at William Angliss College in Melbourne. After three years of study I graduated with a certificate of catering.

My first job was as a Room Attendant at the President Hotel in Melbourne. I was promoted to Supervisor after 9 months and then moved to the Menzies at Rialto. I joined The Como in the position of Assistant Executive Housekeeper. Next I worked at the 200 room Park On Exhibition as Executive Housekeeper for a period of 5 years.

A stint in Far North Queensland saw me involved in yet another hotel opening of the 280 room Reef Hotel Casino in Cairns, but moved back down south to Victoria to take an appointment with The Como as Executive Housekeeper, a position I held for 7 years.

In 2003 an offer to start as Executive Housekeeper at Park Hyatt took me to Sydney. While I was there I had the opportunity to become involved with pre-opening support assignments to Park Hyatt’s Saigon and Seoul. A new posting came along to Park Hyatt Washington DC in the US, where I worked for a period of 2 years. One of the  challenges I faced during my time in the US was a support assignment to Hyatt North America in the rebranding of the 980 rooms Adams Mark hotel to Hyatt Regency St Louis Missouri my time spent working in the US was a huge learning curve for me.

In 2008 I was transferred to Shanghai China to Hyatt on the Bund 631 rooms and from there transferred to the 555 room Grand Hyatt Shanghai. Again I assisted with pre-opening and support assignments for hotels in Shanghai, Macau, Shenzhen and Beijing.

With all that pre-opening experience the next career move came in September 2010 when I was appointed Assistant Vice President Housekeeping and Environmental Services at Galaxy Macau.

How many staff are you responsible for and what areas are you responsible for?

I have a total of 800 staff; led by 3 Executive Managers, they in turn have 8 Managers, 15 Assistant Managers and 80 supervisors and team leaders, supporting their respective departments. I am responsible for the Galaxy Hotel Housekeeping operations (1459 rooms) as well as the shared services to the entire resort wardrobe, linen, floral and Environmental Services (public area cleaning, pest and waste management.

What would your typical day be like?

My day starts at 7:30am catching up on emails and getting organised for the day ahead. Morning briefings are usually at 9.30 and at about 10.00am I walk the floors, check rooms ready for handover and monitor the rectification progress. Most of the time I work on projects, this week its fragrance for the property and floral. I finalise business processes across the Department especially with regard to shared services and deliverables. I follow up with procurement, monitoring the procurement process and I have a regular catch up with my Executive Managers. A large part of my day is spent in meetings and on administration.

What are your top three challenges this week?

1.     Floral

2.     The moving target of handover dates

3.     Linen quality issues.

How did you choose those Managers under you what were your criteria?

We have 5 ½ million square metres of space at Galaxy Macau. For the Hotel Housekeeping Managers, gaming experience is a must.

For Environmental Services or Public Areas, hotel experience is not really a required criterion. My Managers have to have experience in very large operations such as airports or shopping malls; this is more critical than a hotel background.

My team must have experience in managing large teams over large areas. We have an enormous amount of stone and mosaic so up-to-date knowledge of how to manage all kinds of different hard surfaces is critical.

What are the differences in managing a property of 300 rooms compared to a property of 1459 rooms?

It is all about strategising and planning. You must have confidence in the Executive Managers and let them manage their teams. Micromanagement doesn’t work here.

The entire department needs to operate like a machine most importantly is the back of house infrastructure. It is critical to get this right from day one; you need to work down to the detail on this. This infrastructure includes all the storage areas, the location of the storage area and satellite stations and the mapping of all of these areas. For example we have a soiled linen chute room and we just installed a conveyor to separate the towelling from the bed linen. When we are running 100% occupancy we will have more than 400 linen trolleys of linen going out to the external commercial laundry operation so we need electric tugs to move all of these trolleys. Setting up and purchasing all the right equipment is essential.

What are your top three tips for success in housekeeping management?

1.     An understanding of the whole operation. Including learning the operations from line level employee up.

2.     The need to care. Someone has to fight the battle for them.

3.     Never ever forget the human side of housekeeping.

If you had to do it all over again what would you do differently?

Nothing. I have had an incredible opportunity during my career, Hyatt gave me the opportunity to travel the world and be part of some wonderful hotels, Galaxy is giving me the opportunity to manage on a large scale

What advice would you give someone starting out in housekeeping?

You need to start at the bottom. You can’t learn about housekeeping at college or from a book. You need to understand how the whole Department operates and understand the processes. We perform at least one miracle a day.

How about your personal life how do you balance work and home life what do you do for fun?

It is essential to have friends outside the working environment to go out with otherwise you can’t disconnect from the job. I walk home from work most nights and this gives me time to decompress. I enjoy reading biographies and I love cooking. What has helped me most while moving around the world is always to have some of my own things around me, this help me settle in, even if I am living in the hotel. I have some framed pictures of my family  and I always bring my own quilt, pillows and bed linen to make myself feel at home.

How do you think housekeeping management has changed since you started? Where do you think it is heading?

Housekeeping has done a 360° turn since I was a Room Attendant in the 1980′s. Housekeeping is much more professional than it used to be. Sadly the position of Executive Housekeeper in Australia doesn’t carry as much weight as it should. The importance of this position is a lot more apparent in other countries around the world!

Overseas the role of the Executive Housekeeper is equivalent to that of a Business Manager, understanding and managing the P&L line by line. Technology advancements are very important and it is essential to continually ensure all work practices are up-to-date.

In large operations the Director of Rooms has a place however in small operations with an experienced Front Office Manager and Executive Housekeeper reporting to the General Manager works best, they should be able to manage.