L&A News — Page 19 of 43 — L&A Housekeeping Consultancy and Training

Lycette & Associates receives Grand Tour of The Arch Hotel at Marble Arch London

One of the great plusses about the hospitality industry is the ability to work in other parts of the world. With L&A I travel far and wide to deliver our housekeeping workshops and conduct operational reviews for housekeeping departments. It is always a great pleasure if I can catch up with past colleagues and fellow housekeeping experts. This time I am in London to run a Housekeeping Development Programme as well as presenting at the UKHA Share Knowledge Day.

Last week I was fortunate to catch up with Grant Powell, fellow Antipodean and General Manager of the Arch Hotel in Marble Arch London. I was invited to visit the property and received the Grand Tour.

Executive Housekeeper Gitana proudly showed me throughout the 82 roomed boutique style property. It was designed by RDD Interior Architectural Design and was inspired by the London landmark, Marble Arch, and the local neighborhood. The Hotel spans seven Grade II listed townhouses and two mews homes encompassing approximately 55,000 square feet.

The Georgian buildings that make up The Arch London, were originally built as residential homes during the 18^th Century. During the Blitz of WWII, a cluster of bombs bisected Bryanston Square, damaging almost all of the buildings on Great Cumberland Place, including those of The Arch London. After the war, the buildings continued as private dwellings, until they were converted into two hotels, in 1975. AB Hotels purchased the buildings in September 2001, when The Arch London’s story began.

The rooms have been carefully designed including the great purpose built minibar area and compact bathrooms.

Win one free admission to the online Finance for Housekeepers course starting on Monday 18 February

To all housekeepers around the world! From today for only 5 days L&A is offering 1 person FREE ADMISSION to its online Finance for Housekeepers course . For your chance to win and start this course on Monday 18 February with fellow housekeepers from around the world register your name, position, hotel and email address with Josephine. Email her your details and your name will go in the draw. Email josephine@lycetteandassociates.com  The winner will be notified by email.

More information about the course:
This self-directed course enables Housekeeping Manager’s to think critically and become more financially savvy. The focus is on practical skills for the workplace, expanding and developing professional confidence. The course is facilitated, clear and simple learning via the internet – scheduled over 8 weeks and over approximately 20 hours:

• downloadable on-the-job tools and templates
• interactive forums with global peers
• case studies and practical work exercises
• assessments evaluated by the facilitator and returned with individual feedback
• awards for successful participants with a L&A certificate or within Australia, a Statement of Attainment

Interview with Lesley Skelt, Head Housekeeper – Coworth Park, Berkshire, UK

I always look forward to presenting you with another industry icon and this time I was able to interview the 2012 UK Housekeeper of the Year, Lesley Skelt. It is interesting to hear someone else’s point of view, of their different experiences and career path, but most of all someone with a passion for housekeeping.

I have known Lesley Skelt since the early 1980’s through our common contact L&A Associate, Janine Hancox. Lesley has a wealth of housekeeping and training experience within 5 star hotel properties in the UK and overseas, including a 2 year period spent with the Royal Household in Jordan. She has worked on hotel openings as a Housekeeper as a People Development Manager and as a General Manager. Lesley is “hands on” and an enthusiastic trainer, she thrives on challenges and works well under pressure. Lesley has just won the Hotel and Caterer Magazine UK Housekeeper of the Year award and her team came first at the recent UK Housekeeping Olympics.

By Liz Lycette

What is your cultural background?

I am British born and bred. I was born in Essex and moved to Bournemouth as a child.

What was your career path to date?

I started as a chambermaid in a B&B at the age of 14. I attended Bournemouth College where I gained an OND in Hotel Management. My first position after graduating was at the Royal Bath Hotel as trainee Housekeeping Supervisor. I was promoted to Floor Supervisor and then moved to The Dorchester in London for 8 years ending up as one of the Assistant Housekeepers overseeing public areas. I then moved to Chewton Glen in Hampshire as Head Housekeeper. During this time I also spent 3 years lecturing at Bournemouth University, Dorset. In early 1993 I set off traveling and ended up for 6 months at the K Club in Barbuda in the Caribbean as Head Housekeeper. On my return to England I took up a role as Head Housekeeper at the Lygon Arms and in 1995 I moved to Jordan in the Middle East and became the Housekeeper for the Royal Palaces for 2 years.  Back in the UK in 1999, I had various roles over the next 10 years with Hotel du Vin & Malmaison Group including opening Head Housekeeper, deputy GM, General Manager and a regional People Development Manager. I then went back to my Dorchester roots and joined Coworth Park in March 2010 before the Hotel opened in September 2010

What was your first role as Executive Housekeeper?

Chewton Glenn in 1987 for 5 ½ years

What challenges did that bring?

I was involved in a lot of staff training to improve the standards of the hotel along with a whole new management team at that time.

What is your current position and Hotel? What are your current job responsibilities at your hotel?

I am the Head Housekeeper at Coworth Park, part of the Dorchester Collection. I am responsible for the rooms, public areas, linen and uniforms.  Coworth Park is a 70-room luxury country house hotel and spa set in 240 acres of picturesque Berkshire parkland. 30 suites and rooms are located in the Mansion House and a further 40 suites and bedrooms in the converted stables and cottages. This of course brings many logistical challenges

How many staff are you responsible for?

I have a team of 42 staff – both full time and part time. 

What would your typical day be like?

I start at 7.30am, check my emails and plan the day ahead. I have a walk through all areas and attend the Hotel operations meeting at 9.00am. My housekeeping meeting is at 10am and then my day varies, I could be ordering uniforms, trying to solve the ongoing problem of cobwebs on the exterior of the buildings, moving boxes, helping strip rooms or taking a supervisors section. Being a country house hotel, my role is very hands on so I am always out and about; I usually finish from 7- 8pm.

What are your top four challenges this week?

1. Taking a storeroom and making it into an area presentable to the guest
2. 45 of our rooms are outside in the grounds – and its snowing!!
3. Dealing with the consequences of a tray of champagne being dropped in the front hall
4. Handling a personality conflict within the team.

How did you choose those managers under you?

Their personality must fit in with the rest of the team. They need to be “doers” with a get up and go attitude. Many of the team haven’t worked in hotels let alone Housekeeping before so that presents some challenges.

How do you manage moving from country to country?

I get to know the people and traditions including those in Muslim countries

How does pre-opening work compare with working in an existing property? What are the top 3 challenges in an opening?

1. Recruitment
2. Finding the right products to suit the establishment
3. Training – especially when you cant get into the Hotel until a week before its open

Going from Europe to the Middle East what are the differences in your management style?

In the Middle East you need to give very clear directions to the staff most of the staff come from the Philippines or Pakistan and are used to being directed. In the UK each person has to be managed individually.

What are your top 3 tips for success in Housekeeping Management?

1. Stamina
2. Sense of humour
3. Getting on with people and learning how to motivate people.

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

I’m glad I went into different areas other than Housekeeping; it gave me a better understanding especially when I was in HR or as a General Manager.  When I was younger I didn’t have as much confidence.

What advice would you give someone starting out in housekeeping?

Get a good pair of shoes and get to know your team. Be ready for anything!

How about your personal life? How do you balance work and home life?

I don’t do this well.

What do you do for fun?

I sleep and spend time with the family and friends. I also enjoy gardening and reading.

How do you think housekeeping management has changed since you started?

Housekeepers now have far more responsibility including budgeting, training and recruitment. We need to be to be more flexible, understand fabrics, floorings and cleaning methods and have a good knowledge of other departments.

Where do you think it is heading?

Housekeepers must educate themselves and become more knowledgeable. They need to be more aware of costs and potential savings. Housekeeping is a tough area, one of the biggest areas in the hotel and needs to be given credit for that.

Coworth Park and Lesley’s team were the overall winners of the inaugural UKHA Housekeeping Olympics 2012

On the 5th October 2012 at the Millennium Copthorne and Chelsea Football Club, UKHA held the  first Housekeeping Olympics competition.  27 hotels participated.

The day was a wonderful demonstration of excitement, competitiveness, enthusiasm and hard work from all who entered.

Each hotel could enter a team of 4 made up of Room Attendants and House Porters

The competition – involved the following:

• Bed making & innovation
• Toilet Ball – an agility contest throwing a toilet roll into a container
• Vacuuming – 1 team member  vacuumed  a marked area covered with confetti
• The Knowledge – a  questionnaire completed by the team.
• Eye for detail – 1 team member in a room had to find as many hidden stickers as possible.

Coworth Park was the overall winner of the whole competition.

Lesley was also named as 2012 Housekeeper of the Year by the Caterer and Hotelkeeper Magazine

Since their launch in 2007, the Hotel Cateys have already become the UK hotel industry’s only truly independent benchmark of operational excellence.

The awards recognise, reward and celebrate the unsung heroes who work tirelessly to support the UK’s hotel sector by delivering an exceptional guest experience day in, day out.

There are 16 award categories, with a separate judging panel for each category.

Each award had to meet specific set criteria, which varied depending on the category. A shortlist from each category was then drawn up and entries were scrutinised by a judging panel. Judges were invited by Caterer and Hotelkeeeper and were made up from those that work in the hotel and hospitality industry.

The Housekeeper of the Year Award was open to all housekeepers who exemplify first-class cleanliness and hygiene in bedroom preparation in either an independent hotel or group hotel. They manage a housekeeping team, and must be committed to the efficient running of the housekeeping department.

Lesley Skelt , Head Housekeeper at Coworth Park won the award in 2012.

NEW L&A course takes Housekeeping Development to the next level

The Development Programme for Housekeeping Managers has been delivered world wide for the last 5 years and is still as popular as ever. Liz Lycette, senior principal at Lycette & Associates has now added a new follow on course that addresses all aspects of modern sustainable Housekeeping Management. This 2 day programme (The Development Programme Part 2) is suitable for Housekeeping Managers, Rooms Division Managers and all those responsible for Housekeeping operations to equip them with the housekeeping skills required for the 21st century.

The workshop has been broken up into two modules, it focuses on Housekeeping specific sustainability and project management. The modules can be selected and combined individually, and can be tailored to fit particular corporate needs or company objectives.

The overall objective of the Development Programme Part 2 for Housekeeping Managers is to improve the employees performance by targeting the following critical areas of operation:

• Environmental Sustainability – a clear understanding of current environmental global best practice
• Working with Engineering – setting up winning preventative maintenance programmes and working effectively with Engineering
• Project Management – including running a small project, working on conducting renovations right up to full hotel openings
• Public Area Operations – back to basics; reviewing all areas of public areas, time and motion studies, quality control of all PA areas
• Occupational Health & Safety – for staff safety and security on the job
• Working with Contractors – Setting up successful contracts and maintaining quality with external Contractors
• Presentation Skills/ Manage Your Manager – Understanding how your manager likes to receive information. Planning and preparing a winning report and how to make an outstanding and convincing  presentation to Management

For more information or to enquire about opportunities to deliver this course in your area contact Josephine van Damme josephine@lycetteandassociates.com

UKHA Share Knowledge Day coming up next week

This year’s Share Knowledge Day is being held on Tuesday 22 January, 2013, at The Jumeirah Carlton Tower, London; and is an all  day event for ALL Full Member Housekeepers of the UKHA, across all Regions. Those who have attended previous Share Knowledge Days have found them very beneficial, so don’t miss this one; the next one to take place won’tl be until 2015. The London & SE Region organise and fund the whole event. The Booking Form can be found on the Events page, please return a week prior to the event.

Timetable for the day:-

9.30  Registration open with refreshments

10.15 Budgeting – Room cost calculations – delivered by David Nicolson

10.45 How to maintain quality standards in your Guest room & Public Area – delivered by Liz Lycette

11.15 Coffee Break

11.45 Emotional intelligence – delivered by Chris Dreyfus

12.30 The Digital Housekeeper – Enslaved or Empowered? – delivered by Asif  Alidina

13.15 Buffet Lunce

14.30 Debate chaired by Michael Grey & Video

16.00 Dessert Buffet and Champagne

The Dangers of Not Enough Training

In the simplest sense, training refers to a learning activity that can change the behaviour and knowledge of people. When it comes to your business, it is the behaviour and knowledge of your staff members that can really affect your bottom line. Unfortunately, without the right training your staff members could become your biggest liabilities; with the right training, however, they have the potential to become one of your biggest assets. The following are a few of the dangers of not taking the time and resources to ensure your employees have been properly trained.

Lack of unity

Employees must be trained so that they are able to do their jobs the right way and with a clear understanding of how their work contributes to the overall success of the business. When people understand the importance of their position and have the tools necessary to do their best work, they feel more respected, have more job satisfaction and respect each other more, which leads to higher overall morale. When you have unity among your staff, you also get higher productivity from individuals, better team performance, and far better returns for your business.

Lack of ingenuity

Truly dynamic and successful companies have staff members that are more innovative, flexible and dedicated because they are well trained and supported by their managers. One of the best ways to enhance the support and dedication you show your staff is to give them opportunities for professional development and learning. As employees develop new skills and increase their networking capabilities, they will have more energy and creativity to contribute to your business.

Lack of growth potential

Lack of proper training stagnates employees, as people begin to feel like they come to work only to do the same job they normally do, or worse: they quit to move on to a new company that can teach them and help them improve their own capabilities. In this scenario there is no personal growth, and there is certainly no growth for your business. Not only does training your staff improve their ingenuity and keep them dedicated, but it also increases their capacity to adapt to new technologies and methods, as well as take on new and bigger projects.

Lack of safety

Especially if your business requires employees to use heavy machinery, chemicals or any other dangerous goods, you would be risking their personal safety by not training them properly. Not only should you train your staff in order to keep them safe for their own good, but also because it will end up saving you money later on insurance, worker’s compensation, hiring new staff and having to buy new equipment.

Lack of good customer service

For most businesses, good customer service is essential for higher profits and growth. To ensure your customers are getting the best service possible, you need to empower your customer service agents to provide it. There is a lot to learn when it comes to dealing with customers effectively, and having your employees trained will greatly improve their ability to communicate with the customers and keep your brand’s good name intact.

These are just a few of the dangers you face if you don’t train your employees properly. By training your staff, you could not only improve the level of safety and customer service your company provides, but you can also improve your business by having more productive, skilled and loyal staff members.

About Timothy Millett
Timothy Millett is an Australian-based Trainer with global hotel industry experience. In addition to a portfolio which includes the Sofitel Hotels, Taj Group, Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa and Hilton, he has also held strategic learning and development positions such as Director of Training for Moevenpick Gastronomy International and Group Training Manager for the prestigious Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. Now, as the Director of Training & Development for i perform, Timothy and his team continue to work closely with the hotel industry to enhance performance in leadership, sales and service through blended training, service auditing and coaching solutions. Learn how i perform can help you by contacting Timothy or any of the i perform team about your learning needs on www.iperform.com.au or by calling 02 9025 3513.

For more information regarding Housekeeping training, courses and consulting contact Lycette & Associates on info@lycetteandassociates.com

L&A launches its NEW Mystery Guest Programme/Quality Audit

Do you really know how your guest see you?
Are you achieving your quality and branding standards?
How do you compare with your competitors?
Most importantly, are you meeting your guests expectations?

L&A’s Mystery Guest Programme or Quality Audit allows Hotels to confidently address these questions by experiencing the properties service and facilities from a guest’s perspective.

The L&A programme is conducted by a team of experienced mystery guest assessors and professional hotel evaluators. The programme can measure compliance with general industry quality standards of an individual property or entire group, or can be tailor-made to focus on particular needs and specific corporate standards.

For more information visit our website or contact Josephine at josephine@lycetteandassociates.com

Which cleaning method is best for my carpet?

Carpet cleaning trainer and consultant Colin Nation,  explains how to best look after our carpets and what cleaning methods to use.

Here he goes again. He is going to tell us to put down that sandwich while he tells us gruesome stories about groobely things that live on our carpet or crawl about on our furniture and infect our lungs with horrible microorganisms that inhabit the soiling in our indoor environment.  Maybe , Maybe not.

Before you decide on a carpet cleaner to clean your carpet, or maybe you have your own carpet cleaning equipment and look after it yourself, I will explain some things that will help you keep them looking great and performing well and keeping the look you paid for as long as possible.

In my role as a carpet cleaning trainer and consultant, I often get asked, “Which method of cleaning is best for my carpet?”  Unfortunately there is no clear answer. A lot can depend on the style of carpet, the fibre content of the pile, the method of installation, the soiling type that the carpet is subject to and what you normally do to maintain it.

Let’s start with soiling. What is soil? Soil is pretty much anything unwanted in the carpet that is removable with cleaning. Stains are the colours and dyes that are not removable with normal cleaning. So in effect there are really only 3 types of soils and the rest are stains. (The stains we will consider in a future article.)

Soil type 1. Dry particulate soil. Depending on the building and its location, this generally consists of sand, grit, leaf litter, clothing fibres, loose carpet fibres, human skin flakes and hair. This also  includes mould, bacteria and dust mite and similar microorganisms that feed of the dead plant and animal matter in the soiling and these can make us sick.

How do you remove this dry particulate soil? With a decent vacuum cleaner of course. If you have barrel, bucket or back-pack vacuum cleaners then you will also need a turbo or power agitator head to go with it if you want to get out as much soil as possible. My preference is a duel motor up-right vacuum. They are safer and much easier to use and far more effective than a suction only machine.  Make sure you have HEPA filters on any vacuum cleaner to prevent re-cycling of ultra fine particles.

Soil type 2. Water soluble soils. This generally consists of sugars, salts and starches and other water soluble soils that can include mucous from sneezing and coughing and residues of beverages. If you can drink it then it is most likely water soluble.

How do you remove water soluble soils? One way is to wait for it to dry out and turn to dry soils and vacuum it out. The big problem is that most water soluble soils are also Hygroscopic, which means they will absorb moisture from the air. In a humid environment, such as a bar area of a hotel, or anywhere North of the Queensland border, the moisture levels in the air are enough to continually keep the soil moist and sticky. Sticky soils don’t vacuum up. The alternative is to rinse it out with water with the hot water extraction process (Steam Cleaning as many will know it by.)

Soil type 3. Fats and oils. Oils from car parks, pollution and cooking fumes are the three main sources of oils, but sweaty bare feet and food spills can also be a contributor. It’s the oily type soils that tend to glue the fine dust particles to the fibres. This is why vacuuming can remove some soils and still leave the carpet looking grey or dull because the dust sticks to the sticky soils. .

How do you remove oily soils? This is where you need a detergent. A detergent dissolves the oils and turns them into a soluble state which can then be removed by a variety of cleaning methods. We will explore those shortly.

I have been in the carpet cleaning industry for over thirty years and have seen lots of changes to carpet and upholstery manufacture, cleaning methods and believe it or not, even the types of soiling that we are finding. As an example, if we wanted to eat something exotic 30 years ago we went to a Chinese restaurant, but nowadays these are hard to find among the rows of restaurants with wonderful cuisines from all corners of the world. With the exception of some liqueurs, soft drinks were the only beverages that come in colours other than red, green, brown or amber.  Thirty years ago the pollution in our air contained lead and other things that have all but disappeared and modern cars don’t tend to drip as much oil all over the road. Soiling has changed and so has the cleaning chemistry and methods.

In the Australian / New Zealand Standard 3733 Textile Floor Coverings – Cleaning and Maintenance of Residential and Commercial Carpeting, there are 5 basic methods of carpet cleaning recognised. I thought it might help to explain these and how they work.

Thirty years ago Hot Water Extraction was the newest and greatest cleaning method available for carpet. It was erroneously called “Steam cleaning” but it did not use steam. It was merely hot water sprayed under pressure and vacuumed out. When the hot water hit the air it created some water vapour which people thought looked like steam, hence the name. Steam is actually invisible and it is also dry, so it is not great at cleaning, so hot water is used to flush out the soiling after detergent is pre-applied to the carpet to dissolve the soiling. This method has the potential to remove most soiling from a carpet, if the operator is good enough, and has been well trained, and has a lot of experience, and uses the right detergents, in the right quantities, and is given sufficient time to thoroughly extract the rinse water. It is a great method for cleaning a heavily soiled carpet, but can take longer to dry than other methods.

Then along came so called “Carpet Dry Cleaning”. This method is not dry. It uses water in the cleaning process so cannot truly be called “Dry Cleaning”. True dry cleaning uses petrochemical solvents (Perchlorethelene) and this must be contained within a sealed environment otherwise probably  no one in a building would survive the release of the volatile solvents.  It is now referred to as Rotary Bonnet Cleaning. There are still some franchises that promote this method. A detergent is applied to the carpet and then an absorbent bonnet is placed under a floor polishing machine and spun over the surface of the carpet to absorb the soil. The advantage of this system is that the carpet dries fairly quickly to get a room back in service in a hurry, the disadvantage is that it is limited in the amount of soil it can remove, so you usually have to do it more often.

There are a number of ‘dry powder’ cleaning systems available and these can provide some solutions where a very fast dry is required.  A detergent or solvent saturated powder is sprinkled on to the carpet with a fertiliser spreader or the like and it is brushed in with a scrubbing machine and allowed to dry and absorb soils into the powder which is then vacuumed away. The advantage is that it dries very quickly, but it struggles to achieve a result on very heavily soiled carpet. It is great as a maintenance system to keep a carpet looking good if you apply the system very frequently.

There is also a “Dry Foam” method.  A machine whips up a detergent foam and this foam is brushed through the carpet and immediately picked up in the vacuum container. A de-foaming chemical is used to kill off the foam in the collection tank. It has fairly limited soil removal ability and tended to cause a lot of re-soiling due to the nature of the old detergents and so it had to be used frequently to achieve a constant good appearance. It was not great in a high humid environment.  I haven’t even seen a dry foam machine in the last 20 years or so.

The oldest method of cleaning carpet was the ‘wet foam’ Shampoo method. A floor scrubber is used to apply detergent through a drip feed system from a tank mounted on the machine. The detergent is then whipped up into a foam in the carpet and the foam is then vacuumed off using a wet pick up vacuum cleaner. This was a fairly messy system and again, many of the old detergents caused rapid re-soiling. This is because the detergents dried out to a dried out detergent. When there was any humidity around, the detergent residue simply remoistened and became sticky and attracted even more soiling. The foaming detergents were difficult to remove from the carpet. Thirty years down the track and I still hear some people say “Don’t get your carpets cleaned because they will only get dirty more quickly”.

But how times have changed. We now have Workplace Health and Safety issues to consider along with ‘Sustainability’. I believe these have been a good thing. Most cleaning product manufacturers have eliminated the nasty solvents from their formulas and have replaced them with more environmentally friendly and safer alternatives making them safer to use for the operator and the environment.

Some have made significant advances in the surfactant technology and have come up with ‘Encapsulation’ technology for the cleaning agents.  This has meant resurgence in the popularity of the old wet foam method. We now call this “Encapsulation cleaning” and it is revolutionising the cleaning of carpet.

Essentially “Encap” cleaning,  as it is known, is similar to the old wet foam method, but only in the type of machine required to apply the cleaning solution. The liquid encapsulation solution is applied through a drip feed into the brush or pad system and is agitated into the pile of the carpet. The soil is released into the foam and within seconds it seems to disappear leaving the carpet looking clean. You need less solution and they dry much faster than the older formulas. “But where does the dirt go?”I hear you ask. Good question. The soil is actually still there, you just don’t see it any more. Oily soils and fats are dissolved in the cleaning solution which then dries into a microscopic brittle crystal. Over the next few regular vacuums, the soil filled crystals are easily removed. It’s like turning sticky soils into dry particle soils that no longer stick to the fibres.

A true encapsulation product is non-hygroscopic and won’t pick up moisture from the air like the old shampoos do. This eliminates the re-soiling. It’s funny, but when I first heard of this Encapsulation system I thought “What a load of rot. Nothing will beat the hot water extraction method for cleaning”. But now I am convinced that it is a viable alternative that has many advantages. There is very little noise which is great for hotels and motels where we don’t want to disturb guests. There is much less water and chemical use than other methods. There is no liquid waste to dispose of so it’s great for the environment. It’s fast, easy to use and easy to learn, it makes the carpet look great and there is no rapid re-soiling. It dries quickly so you can get the rooms back in use quickly. Another advantage is the machinery is relatively inexpensive.

If your carpets are fairly heavily soiled, you still can’t beat a good thorough clean with the hot water extraction by an experienced professional carpet cleaner, especially a WoolSafe Approved Service Provider. You can find one at www.woolsafe.com.au .  The WoolSafe Organisation is an independent testing body for chemistry for use on wool carpet and the WoolSafe technicians are especially trained , experienced operators who have years of experience.

If you have your own staff who do carpet cleaning, why not consider contacting Col Nation info@nationtraining.com.au and have your cleaning staff learn the best way to care for your carpet and fine furnishings.

This article was first published in The Executive Housekeeper Magazine Vol 16 No3

About Colin Nation:
Col Nation is a 30 year veteran in the carpet maintenance industry. He operates ABBsolve Services, a specialty stain removal and carpet cleaning consulting service on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia. As a WoolSafe Registered Inspector, Colin helps carpet owners and manufacturers solve many types of issues relating to carpet maintenance. With this experience behind him he passes on this information and experience through the Daniels Associates of Australasia a Registered Training Organisation that specialises in the cleaning, healthcare and hospitality industries. Colin also operates Nation Training that trains carpet cleaners for the WoolSafe Organisation in Australia and New Zealand that. Colin can be contacted through info@nationtraining.com.au or colnation@abbsolve.com.au

PHAN members celebrate

On a splendidly warm day in December and the first day of Summer PHAN members went out to visit the wineries with some gourmet shopping in the Hunter Valley.

It was a full on day for the annual end of year winding up, Christmas party, letting down of hair, relax and have a fun time with colleagues and friends.

The happy band met at Menzies at 9am, collected their coffee and croissant and party hat – and embarked for the journey.  The pictures will tell the story.

At Ernest Hill Wines– Host Hamish took all through some delightful reds and whites explaining their uniqueness and listing all the prizes the wines won.  At Tempus Two more tasting of award winning wines and hoed into a wonderful lunch of home made gourmet pizza.

The afternoon was spent in the shops, cheese, chutneys, local mangoes were a great draw for the shoppers on the trip.

Lalini de Silva – encouraged the singing of favourite songs from home country.  From China, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Poland there were wonderful solos, and all sang along to the best known international Christmas songs.

A great way to spend a day out celebrating with colleagues and friends.

NEW – Butler Development Programme

Lycette & Associates designed a new Butler Development Programme in order for the team to establish a full skill set to deliver seamless guest service at the highest standards. The programme is designed for existing teams and those newly appointed to their positions.

The overall objective of the Butler Development Programme is to develop the performance of the Butler Team in the following critical areas of operation:

• Concierge skills – handling of business and personal travel arrangements, knowledge of tours, tourist attractions, local businesses, venues and special events, offering solutions or recommendations.
• Communication skills – within the team, with guests including cultural awareness and interpersonal communication.
• Food and Beverage skills – all F&B Butler service skills required including drinks service, room service skills and essential  F&B background knowledge.
• Housekeeping and Valet skills – standards of room, suite and villa presentation and all aspects of valet services, including packing and unpacking.

Upon completion of the training all participants will understand their role and the requirements to successfully perform all their duties as a Butler. All participants will be assessed and deemed competent to fulfil all duties required with a focus on professional seamless service as per Hotel and Resort standards.

For more information visit our website or contact Josephine on  josephine@lycetteandassociates.com.