BHMCT: 1.

203 UNIT -2

2 A) HOUSE KEEPING CONTROL DESK- FORMS, FORMATS, RECORD AND REGISTERS.

The housekeeping control desk is the central hub of the housekeeping

department. This is the area in the department where all information is received
and from where messages are conveyed to housekeeping and other staff present
in various parts of the hotel. Thus, the control desk may be considered the nerve
centre for to – and – fro communication in the housekeeping department. one of
the main functions of the control desk is ensuring smooth coordination between
housekeeping and other departments such as maintenance, front office, food and
beverages, security, sales and marketing and so on.
The location of control desk is normally adjacent to the Executive Housekeeper’s
office. This desk is manned 24- hours otherwise the lifeline of housekeeping
communication would stop.

ROLE OF CONTROL DESK

1. The role of the housekeeping control desk is to facilitate communication to

various parts of hotel. this role can be exercised in many forms which are as
follows;
2. The control desk receives messages from in house guests over the telephone
apart from maintaining the intra and inters –departmental channels of
communication. Hotel room directories provide the control desk extension
number to the guests which they can use if they require housekeeping
services.
3. The control desk attendant receives all the message of the guests such as a
request for extra blankets, baby-sitter services, which she transmit to the
concerned floor supervisor for further action.
4. Front office also alerts the desk attendant about the expected and existing
crews in the house. So that the rooms can be make ready for the new
arriving crew after the departure of existing crew in a very short period of
time.
5. In most of the hotels, this is the area where housekeeping employees;
report for work; collect keys and signing for them; pursue the log book get
their briefing and at the end of their shift, report back to.
6. It is the control room attendants who receives departure room numbers
from the front office and transmits them to the appropriate floor supervisor.
 7. The floor supervisor informs the desk attendant once rooms are cleaned and
ready for sale and this is updated in the computer so that front office can
easily obtain the information of the status of room.
8. The main physical feature visible in most control desk is the key cabinet. On
the wall, where all floor masters keys and store keys are kept under lock and
key themselves.

9. One of the most important roles of the control desk is maintaining various
important records, registers, forms and formats so that they are available and
easily accessible for reference to managers and supervisor

Following are the forms, formats and registers used in hotels:

 Key Control Register

Key control sheet

Date-………
Key Name Signature Time Issued Time Signature Recieved
code out by in

 Log Book
Housekeeping log book
Shift-……….. Time-……………
Date-……………
Log entries
-

Signature of desk attendant

…………………………………………...
 Key History Register
 Maintenance Register

 Departure Register
Departure Register
Date-………………..
Room Name of Time of Given by Cleared Time Sign of
no. the guest dep. by desk
attendant

 Guest Message Register

Guest Message Register
Date-…………
Shift-……………….
S Location/room Message Given Given Time Action Signature
no. no by to taken

 Carpet Shampoo Register

Carpet Shampoo Register
Dat Location/roo Name of Date of Time of Sign of Sign of
e m no attenden last carpet attenden superviso
and t cleanin and t r
tim g remark
e s

 Baby Sitting Register

Baby Sitting Register
Date Room Name of Time of baby Name and Remarks
and no. the guest, sitting sign of
 time no. and From To housekeeping
age of the staff
children delegated

 Guest Missing Items Register

Missing Property
S no. Date Description Name of Room Reported Name of
of the the no. by the GRA
missing guest and the
item supervisor
who
serviced
the room

 Store Indent Book

Store indent sheet
Date-………………
S no. Indent items Quantity indent Quantity issued in
remarks

Made by-……………….
Approved by-…………………
storekeeper-………………..

 Accident Book
S no. Date of Name of Nature of Action Supervisor
accident staff/guest accident taken in charge

 Room Status Report File

 Room Inspection Checklist File
 Room Transfer Records
 Article moved from room record
 VIP’s and regular guest taste records
 Leave application form
 Work order form

(2B) HANDLING TELEPHONE CALLS

There are intra and inter departmental calls and handling calls is a major
function in this process, in general it may be required of all employees to
answer telephones when there is a need and therefore all should be trained in
telephone handling, most of the hotels have telephone policy so that the
procedure of answering, transferring and making calls must be followed by
standards.
HOW TO ANSWER CALLS:

 Answer all calls promptly before the third ring.

 Answer all calls politely.
 Start with greeting of the day.
 Always introduce by your name.
 Identify your department.
 Check how you can be of assistance.
 Listen to the caller attentively.
 Understand the need of the caller.
 Use the caller’s name.
 Assure your assistance.
 Take proposed action.

TRANSFERING CALLS:

 When you have understood the caller’s needs but cannot help, transfer the
call to a staff member who can fulfill it.
 Before transferring the call, inform the caller where you are connecting the
call.
 Inform the other person in brief.
 In case you are busy, inform the caller and ask permission to be called back
later.

HOLDING CALLS:
 When the caller is on hold, make sure that it is not for too long.
 In between keep cross checking whether the caller is still holding.
 Always use the hold music.
 Before connecting the call inform the holder that some other person is
online.

TAKING MESSAGES:
 Sometimes a message has to be taken.
 Message should be on a clear slip with date and time.
 Correct details should be entered.
 Brief information about message should be displayed.
 After the call is disconnected, pass on the message.

MAKING CALLS:
 Before making a call, ascertain that the call is necessary.
 Be sure of what message you are conveying.
 Thank the person.

(2C) HANDLING ROOM CHANGE

Many times control desk has to co-ordinate for a room change, this is done on
guest request due to many reasons like the size of the room is small, acoustic
reasons, view from the room or the room is costing too much for the guest.
Once the front office gives the clearance with alternate room number,
housekeeping supervisor along with the room boy in presence of guest shifts
the material from the earlier room to a new room.
(2D) HANDLING DIFFICULT SITUATIONS
Other than routine works there are some unexpected difficulties which
housekeeping may have to deal. The control desk plays a major role in
handling such situations, the situation may be an emergency such as fire, guest
meeting with an accident or it could be a security problem. Alertness and
presence of mind helps in easy dealing, more over employees must be trained
handling difficult situations through role plays. Two difficult situations are
given as example:
1. Guest threatening- Sometimes a guest is under depression and informs
about suicide, in such cases never panic, keep the guest engaged to talk
and mean while control desk should inform security.
2. Guest laundry- Here the guest informs that the clothing given for dry
cleaning is washed and damaged. The control desk supervisor should
apologies immediately and starts cross verifying what guest has
requested, in the last stage, it is advisable to buy and replace the
damaged item.

(2E) KEYS AND THEIR CONTROL

House Keeping department is responsible for all the keys and their handling
must be done very professionally.
Types of keys:
1. Emergency key
2. Master key
3. Grand Master key
4. Section key
5. Floor Master key
6. Guest room key

Emergency Key- This key opens all the doors in the property, even the
once which are double locked. Therefore it should be kept well
protected. Most of the times it is present with the general manager.
Master Key- This opens all the guest rooms, which are not double
locked.
Grand Master Key- This key also can be used in emergency situations
and if a room access is denied with this key the same lock can be double
locked from outside.
Section Key- This key opens all the rooms in a particular section. A
supervisor is generally issued more than one key of this type.
Floor Master Key- This key opens a particular number of rooms on a
particular floor. With this key double lock cannot be opened.
Guest Room Key- This is issued from front office for one guest and it can
open only a particular room assigned.
Key Control- The control of guest room keys is one which is maintained
by the front office, whenever a guest is going out he is remanded
politely to deposit the key at the front desk. In case of loss, the guest has
to inform the front office department and can obtain a duplicate one
with completing few formalities. In case of other keys house keeping
control desk takes the responsibility with little liaison with hotel
security. Control desk maintains a key register (format shown above). It
is the responsibility of the control desk supervisor in all three shifts to fill
the register before issuing or accepting keys from the staff, most
importantly no personal relationships should be honored while issuing
and receiving keys.

(2F) THEFT AND SCANTY BAGGAGE

Guest thefts- There are incidents where guest takes away items that are
hotel property. Most of the hotel properties have got monograms. This
discourages and minimizes losses, a room will have standard amenities
but guest requests for extras eg: towels, therefore it is the responsibility
of room boy and supervisor to mention in special remarks about extra
numbers and mentioned in the log book too, most luxury hotels charge
a higher rate to compensate such losses.
Management also trains a staff to keep storage areas locked, instead of
leaving items glued, it is advisable to screw or bolt them.
Employee theft- A hand book which gives all the information about
consequences of stealing hotel property should be handed over to each
one employee, a good screening of new job applicants should be carried
out, gaps in the employment history should be checked, references
should be mandatory. Color coded uniforms with employee id card
helps in lowering theft, orientation and training programs should be
 followed even afterwards, it is sensible to lock all approachable areas
and reduce chances of theft, lost and found procedures and gate pass
systems should be enforced. Staff lockers should be inspected suddenly;
the parking place provided for the employees should have CCTV
cameras and bright light.

Scanty Baggage- Moment a guest checks in with very light baggage a

code SB should be highlighted, sometimes a guest may be a skipper also
therefore management should follow the scanty baggage policy where
guest has to deposit an advance. House Keeping employees must report
any suspicious movements.

(2G) CHAMBERMAID TROLLEY

Chamber maid’s trolley and its essential features

Maid’s cart or Service Trolley in Hotel also called as a room attendants trolley, or
chamber maid’s trolley, this is perhaps the most significance piece equipment in
the housekeeping department. it is like a giant tool box, stocked with everything
necessary to service a guest room effectively. Most such carts available now are
made of metal, but sometimes wooden carts may be in use.

The cart should be spacious enough to carry all the supplies needed for a GRA to
complete half a day’s room assignments. Since the cart is large and may be
heavily loaded, it must be easily movable as well. the ideal cart would have fixed
wheels at one end and castor –wheels at the other the cart should be well
organized so that the GRA’s do not have to waste time in searching for supplies or
make frequent trips back to the supply room. Also, if the cart is not stacked
neatly, it will look very unsightly.

They are more useful than hand caddies when a large amount of supplies and
items are to be carted or replaced. They are ideal for the efficient removal and
carriage of smaller pieces of cleaning equipment, cleaning agents, linen and
rubbish.

They eliminate the time wasted in assembling equipment at the work location or
moving them from one place to another.

Care & maintenance:

1. All carts and trolleys need to be kept clean, wiped daily and stored
locked.
2. The room should be dry area and it should be well ventilated.
3. The soiled linen bag and thrash bags should be emptied.
4. A thorough cleaning may be done once a week.
5. The wheels may be oiled during this cleaning for the smooth
movement of the trolley.
6. Carts and trolleys should be never used as general dumping grounds
when not in use.
7. All the linens and amenities should be well arranged when the shift is
completed so that it will be easier to replenish extra items when necessary.
Few examples of supplies loaded on the maids cart:
1. Shampoo
2. Moisturizer
3. Mouthwash
4. Foam bath
5. Sewing kit
6. Shower cap
7. Shoeshine
8. Detergent
9. Loofah
10. Disposal bag
 11. Toilet rolls
12. Tissue box
13. Soap dish
14. Bath towel
15. Hand towel
16. Face towel
17. Bathmat
18. Bed spread
19. Pillow covers etc.
The cleaning supplies are kept is a separate hand caddy, Below are few items
stocked on the hand caddy.
1. Toilet cleaning solution
2. Bowl brush
3. Toilet brush
4. All-purpose cleaner
5. Cleaning clothes
6. Rubber gloves