Introduction
Currently there is no doubt that tourism is one of the activities with one of the most important economic growth worldwide. Society and the tourism market demand a continuous and growing effort to improve the quality and competitiveness of services.
The true purpose of hotels or tourist accommodation as a service company is to dedicate themselves mainly to offering stays for rest and rest, taking into account various conditions, the entity's strategy, the demands of the environment and market prices. What best represents this purpose is hospitality and comfort, that is, the quality and attitude of welcoming visitors, while guaranteeing their well-being.
The department of Flats has as its most important mission, customer satisfaction, ensuring an impeccable image of the hotel and guaranteeing the cleanliness, service and state of maintenance of the accommodation areas and noble areas. The client must be trusted again on each trip, offering them levels of comfort and well-being. For this department it is vitally important to achieve levels of excellence that meet and exceed customer expectations. This department works in the shade so that the client feels the sensation of placidity, order and security.
The present material makes a study of the Floors department in a hotel facility with the aim of substantiating its importance to guarantee the comfort of hotel rooms and areas.
Development
The department of Flats, also identified as that of the Gobernanta, that of Housekeeper or simply as we can find it in the literature on the subject such as housekeeping, which means keeping the house, gives the idea of the services it provides.
In the global hotel product, accommodation is the most prominent element. Room rental income, in general, the highest or, at least, those that leave the greatest profit margin. It is for this reason, the main product or benefit, that much of the attention devoted to the hotel product should be given to the rooms. Thus, the flooring department prepares the most important product that the hotel has to sell: the guest rooms.
Taking into account the above analyzed… Management must never forget the rigidity of the accommodation offer from a quantitative and time point of view, since once the day is over there is no possibility of storing or recovering the product (room). Hence the need to thoroughly understand both actual and potential demand, so that until the last minute there is hope of selling all rooms.
The client who enters the hotel room for the first time must have the feeling that it is he who is opening it, that everything is new and that no one has occupied it before him. To achieve this and other tasks, the Floors department requires management of its processes. It is undoubtedly difficult and complex to direct and organize, it requires a higher level of professionalism from the governess, the person in charge of this responsibility, who must be prepared both in theory and in practice.
An organizational chart of the department could be:
Support: the cleaning and care service. It makes the operations of other departments possible, by intervening in their operation.
Olmo garre, María José, in her book: Hotel management department. Systems and processes refers to the characteristics of this area:
Its human team is one of the most numerous, I was able to represent 40% of the total employees.
The percentage of women is important.
Its activities take place in almost the entire hotel.
A huge volume of material resources is managed. Lingerie, cleaning products.
It is also important that each of the workers knows the company policy, its principles and values, work methods and the department's objectives are very important, in this way we can involve everyone to achieve the goals set.
Serving the customer is a prioritized objective, taking into account that it is the raison d'être of the hotel facility, before the new trends in accommodation it is necessary to retain customers, providing a personalized service. Customer satisfaction is analyzed in the tourism encyclopedia as the element that represents the positive result of the consumption of some products or the use of services, 2002.
On the other hand, Olmo Garre, María José stands out in her book… The opinion of the client is invaluable for the hotel, from it one learns and from it many conclusions are drawn about the needs and their degree of satisfaction, which helps to improve the service continuously. Different ways can be used to know the state of opinion of the clients; surveys, questionnaires, complaints and suggestions book or evaluations. About the activity that we carry out in the department it can be suggested about the equipment, the facilities, the image, the service and the cleaning.
Some considerations are based on:
- Comfort of the rooms. Condition of the facilities. Amount of welcome details. Quality of the linen. Discretion of the staff. Kindness. Quickness to perform the service. Neatness of its appearance..Cleaning of common areas. Cleaning of rooms. Cleaning of the bathroom.
Cleaning: Guarantees and preserves the environment, achieving hygiene. With it, the appearance of infections is avoided and the value of buildings is preserved. Look after the image of the hotel and levels of customer satisfaction, as cleaning produces well-being.
Today professionalism is prevailing in the Floor Management service. In order to achieve efficiency and quality, advanced techniques for professional cleaning aim to clean everything necessary with greater comfort, reduced effort, minimize the time spent on the cleaning process and cause the least damage to the environment., using for this biodegradable products and to diminish the damages to the health of the worker.
Cleaning requires at least four basic factors, which make up the so-called Sinner circle and which are:
Chemical action, mechanical action, time and temperature.
Depending on the surface or dirt to be cleaned, the degree of hygiene and the means available, different combinations of these factors will be used.
Using modern cleaning products and techniques, the degree of cleaning can be improved, reducing time without increasing the resources of chemical, mechanical or temperature action.
We must not forget that the best place, the best room, the best restaurant, endowed with luxury and comfort, if they do not convince by their neatness, they lose value because nobody can feel safe in a place that shows dirt, indicative of possible infections, either due to the presence of mold, stains, tartar or dust. Without cleaning, the business image fails; no investment is made where security is not guaranteed; in this case, for the health, comfort and well-being of customers.
Maintenance: It has to do with the technical condition of the equipment, rooms and areas of the hotel, making the necessary repairs. The client values the physical state of the furniture, doors, windows. In this sense, the Floors department reports the breakdowns to the Technical Services department, which must promptly solve it.
The equipment: The elements that make the client's stay comfortable. Lighting, air conditioning, decoration and others.
Quality: Satisfaction of customer needs and expectations is the most important element of quality management and the basis of a company's success. The client becomes a source of strategic information about the quality of the product. The mission is no longer about being better than the competition, the mission is now excellence.
Another significant subject has to do with the areas included in the department:
The department's relationship with other areas is constant and very close, in this sense computerized systems speed up communication and prevent displacement.
Taking into account the characteristics, functions, structure, objectives and areas of the Flats department, we summarize that its mission is to welcome the client and provide accommodation and comfort.
Cleaning + comfort + Security = Comfort
What is Comfort?
… Comfort is everything that constitutes material well-being. Larousee Dictionary. It is synonymous with comfort.
The Wikipedia encyclopedia refers:… is what produces well-being and comfort. Any pleasant or unpleasant sensation that the human being feels prevents him from concentrating on what he has to do…
The definition given by the Royal Academy of the Spanish language is related to the comfort and well-being of the body, therefore it is especially linked to the functions of the body that can be affected such as vision, hearing, the nervous system, among other.
So talking about comfort means eliminating the possible discomfort and discomfort generated by different agents that intervene in the person's balance. We must not forget that in the feeling of comfort there are more sensitive people than others.
Without intending to do a study of comfort, because we aim for this material, it is necessary to analyze the Comfort classification:
Environmental: air temperature, relative humidity, air speed, radiant temperature, solar radiation, noise levels.
Architectural: Adaptability to space, visual and auditory contact.
Personal: Clothing, health, sex, age, weight and others.
Socio-cultural: Information management and expectations for the time and place considered.
For professionals in the sector, it is necessary to analyze these parameters, as our clients constantly issue criteria on their satisfaction levels.
For the workers of the Department of Flats, it is essential to ensure compliance with these parameters in the provision of hotel services, understood as… a tourist business unit whose main service is to offer accommodation in exchange for a quantity of money to the general public for a minimum duration of one night. Frequently, the accommodation service is reinforced by the provision of food and drink, as well as other services. There are variations from one hotel to another in aspects such as number of rooms, the level of service provision, the target markets, the rate charged and the ownership and management of the establishment. Tourism Encyclopedia. 2002.
Conclusions
The study carried out shows that the Floors department plays an important role in guaranteeing customer satisfaction levels.
The operation of the apartment department in any hotel is always very complicated and is made up of various activities that guarantee that they meet their objectives.
The Floors department guarantees the necessary comfort of rooms and areas of the hotel. The better the offer, expressed in the presentation and maintenance, the more possibilities there are for the client to feel satisfied and honor us again with his visit.
It is a fundamental goal of the management of this department, to achieve maximum production, with better quality and at minimum cost.
Bibliography
• Support bibliography: Martí Pilar and María Luisa de Andrés. Floor management practices. Madrid. 1997 P. 46, 50.
• Báez Casilla, Sixto. Housekeeper Department. CECSA Editorial, 1989. Mexico.
• Hotel management department. Systems and processes. Olmo Garre, María José. Spain. 2001. p. 213.229.
• Manuals and procedures of the chains.
• Hotel Categorization Rules. 127 Cuban Standard.
• Check List of Mintur.
• Besú E. (2007). Accommodation Management Course. Master in Tourism Management. FORMATUR.
• Correa J. (2005). Tourism industry magazine. NC 87, Accommodation establishment. Classification. General specifications, Spain, • Deming, E. 2003. Quality, Productivity and Competitiveness. Spain. Editorial Díaz de Santos. SA
• Deming, WE (1989). Quality, productivity and competitiveness: the way out of the crisis. Ediciones Díaz de Santos, SA, Spain.
• Goldratt, EM (1995 / b /). It wasn't luck. Ediciones Castillo, SA de CV México.
• Matos H. (2005). Tourism Development in Varadero. News and Prospects. Presentation I National Workshop "All Inclusive". Marketing of sun and beach destinations ». Varadero.
• Medina, A. (2004). Current trends in measuring the satisfaction of internal customers. A study proposal. No. 3. Tourist Challenges. Cuban magazine of tourist investigations, University of Matanzas "Camilo Cienfuegos") Vol. 3: 3; pp 2-7.
• López Collado, Asunción. The governess. Hotel manual. Madrid 1990.
• Collective of Authors. Hotel Management. Balcony Editions. 2007.
• Alojaweb. CD.
• Fernández, Eduardo Bridge. Martí and the cruise of the world. Editorial New Horizons. Page 103.
• Encyclopedia of Tourism. Editorial Synthesis. Spain 2002. Page 338.
• García Pelayo and Gross, Ramón…. Small Illustrated Larousee. Larousee editions. Mexico. 1991. Page
• Esteban Palaces, Lighting and visual comfort: An ergonomic approach.
www.monografias.com/trabajos/ergoluz/ergoluz.shtml 1997. Argentina.
• Fernando Alvarado, Hygiene. http://www.monografias.com/trabajos12/higie/higie.shtml
Hernández Callejas, Ana, Higiene Laboral
Acoustic comfort: noise in offices. http://www.estrucplan.com.ar/Producciones/entrega.asp?IdEntrega=209
2002.
• Marqués Marrero, Juan Lázaro. Psychology as a science its social importance. http://www.monografias.com/trabajos16/psicologia-como-ciencia/psicologia-como-ciencia.shtml 2007
•
•
• http://definicion.de/confort/
•
