Hotel chambermaids often work under the title of hotel housekeeper or room attendant. These positions rank among the most occupied in the hospitality industry. As the following hotel chambermaid job description explains, hotel chambermaids exert substantial efforts to maintain pleasing appearances and experiences for guests. Those who enter this field can find ample job opportunities with the proper work history, knowledge and skills.
Job Overview: What Does a Hotel Chambermaid Professional Do?
The hotel chambermaid job description molds together the functions of sanitation, affording comfort for travelers and tourists, and ambassador for the hotel and its brand. The necessary skills for a chambermaid involve coordination, dexterity, stamina, patience and relating positively with guests, supervisors, and coworkers. Also, with significant physical demands placed upon them, hotel chambermaids must be able to maintain a professional and friendly demeanor.
Hotel Chambermaid Job Duties
- Apply disinfectants and other cleaners to counters, tubs, toilets, mirrors, windows and other surfaces in rooms and common areas of hotels.
- Vacuum floors in rooms, hallways, and lobbies.
- Remove and replace dirty or used sheets, pillowcases, towels and other linens in rooms and bathrooms.
- Sweep and mop floors in corridors, dining areas, kitchens, rooms, and lobbies.
- Alert guests and management or other staff to spills, wet floors or other potential hazards and areas to avoid.
- Remove dust from furniture, lamps, blinds, curtains, corners of walls, and door and window frames.
- Flip mattresses or cushions on couches and chairs.
- Inform hotel management, lead hotel chambermaids or front desk staff of broken or malfunctioned bulbs, televisions or fixtures in rooms and other areas of the hotel.
- Empty trash cans, refrigerators used by departing guests and ashtrays.
Hotel Chambermaid Job Essential Skills
Customer Service Skills. Hotel chambermaids must have the ability to courteously respond to guests. Complaints about room conditions, requests for various room items and questions about the hotel are lodged at chambermaids from the guests. Moreover, aside from interactions with guests, hotel chambermaids must exude a helpful, inviting and welcoming attitude toward guests. As well as avoid conflicts with guests and coworkers in the presence of guests.
Detail-Oriented Skills. The hotel chambermaid job description calls for these workers to show attention to details when cleaning. Small trash, grout in bath tiles or behind faucets, stains or slight dust can deliver a poor image or dissatisfied experience to guests. Hotel chambermaids must supply room with a sufficient number of towels, washcloths and toilet paper for bathrooms. Linens, pillows, and cushions must be arranged in a straight or otherwise meticulous manner.
Mathematical Skills. The ability to measure liquid units is essential for hotel chambermaids to safely and effectively use cleaning agents. Many of them may require mixtures to dilute substances such as ammonia and bleach. Also, math skills help chambermaids handle money and provide change when required.
Physical Skills. Hotel chambermaids need the strength and stamina to walk, push carts with brooms, mops and cleaning supplies; and operate vacuums, mops, and brooms. Performing the tasks of a hotel chambermaid requires the employee to reach, squat, bend and engage in repetitive and frequent body movements. Also, in summer months or certain regions, chambermaids may have to operate in hot or humid conditions.
Becoming a Hotel Chambermaid Professional
The hotel chambermaid job description does not necessarily entail significant training or educational background. However, companies and community and technical schools train potential chambermaids in the essentials of the hospitality industry and cleaning hotel spaces. Such emphasis on training and education recognizes the skills and knowledge expected of hotel chambermaids by hotel and resort companies.
Qualifications & Training
Typically, hotel companies and owners require no more than a high school diploma. According to O*NET, approximately 64 percent of “Maids and Housekeepers,” which include those in hotels, graduated from high school or high school equivalency programs. Nearly 35 percent did not have a high school diploma or equivalent degree.
While formal education in hotel housekeeping is normally not a prerequisite, certain community colleges afford certificates in hotel housekeeping. Programs touch upon facets of the hotel job description, such as sanitation, types of supplies and tools for cleaners, customer service and the branding of hotels and resorts. Prospective hotel chambermaids may also benefit from hospitality and tourism programs offered in community colleges.
Hotel companies orient new hires to their standards for rooms and common areas and the amenities offered at their properties. Moreover, inexperienced hotel chambermaids may partner with more experienced ones at the start of their employment.
Work Experience
Hotel chambermaids should carry a history of work in housekeeping, especially in hotels, motels, and similar establishments. Those seeking jobs in a chain or high-end resorts and hotels can accumulate necessary experience through employment in smaller or independently-owned lodges, hotels, and motels.
Through work in settings aside from hotels, applicants for hotel chambermaid jobs can demonstrate skills in cleaning and customer service. Positions with office, commercial, industrial or residential cleaning services afford platforms for these workers to enter the hospitality field. Those who work in commercial, school or industrial kitchens clean floors and dishes. As well as measure liquids for cooking and mixing cleaning agents, and understand sanitation principles. Other relevant employment comes from working in restaurants and as janitors in offices, schools or retail establishments.
Working Hours
Within the hotel chambermaid job description lie full-time, part-time and temporary positions. Nearly six out of ten “Maids and Housekeepers” log only part-time work hours. Seasonal work proves common in especially resort or vacation areas. Another one in five have irregular work assignments due to weather, demands for hotel housekeepers or rooms by hotels and resorts, and the term of contracts with temporary employment and staffing agencies. Temporary employment and staffing agencies advertise temporary housekeeping and other jobs in the hospitality industry.
Hotel chambermaids can expect shifts at most times. Morning work hours often predominate the hotel chambermaid job description at many establishments. In these periods, chambermaids must prepare rooms for check-ins by incoming arrivals and clean rooms during times where guests have left for tourist or other activities during the day.
Job Outlook & Advancement Opportunities
The employment of “Maids and Housekeepers” overall should grow by five to nine percent through 2026. This translates to an additional 202,000 job openings. The hospitality industry should generate a significant number of job opportunities. As reported by the United States Department of Commerce and the International Trade Association, the travel and tourism industry accounted for $1.5 trillion in economic activity in 2016 and employed either directly or indirectly one out of every 18 workers in the United States.
IBIS World reports that hotel construction grew by 12.3 percent annually between 2012 and 2017 and predicts continued expansion due to greater discretionary incomes.
Experience and demonstrated performance can open hotel chambermaids to positions as supervisors of chambermaid crews, managers of housekeeping departments and even to management roles at hotel properties.
Conclusion
Finally, hotel chambermaids stand fairly strong chances of finding employment, given the rise and continued strength in the hotel and travel sector of the economy. Positions often lie in the temporary, part-time and seasonal realms, as weather and vacation times drive the demand for housekeeping staff. Those who become hotel chambermaids can expect significant physical pressures and demands from guests but can allow the experience to blossom into advancement within hotel companies or the hospitality industry.
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