We ensure cleanliness with sustainability

Hospitality Lexis had a conversation with the  Rooms Division Manager Payal Mehta about the housekeeping services in Crowne Plaza Today New Delhi Okhla

Hospitality Lexis/ Print edition December 2019 

The Housekeeping staff should always remember that comfort and privacy of the guests comes first. Clean the premises or rooms in the least disturbing manner without touching the guest’s belongings.

In IHG, we follow 5S Process-Survey, Service, Shine, Stage and Self Inspect. It is a brand standard and a fully-fledged procedure of how a Housekeeper needs to perform the room as well as washroom cleanliness duties. It is a guide on how housekeepers are supposed to

perform their daily tasks right from emptying ashtrays to picking up used glasses, from making the bed to mopping the floor, from replacing bath towels to inspecting the condition of bed and pillows and so on. It is a standard procedure of not entering the guest’s room in case the DND request is placed by the guest.

All the hotels under the umbrella of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) follow IHG Green Engage, an innovative online environmental sustainability initiative that gives the hotels the means to measure and

manage their impact on the environment. The hotels can choose from over 200 ‘Green Solutions’ that are designed to help them monitor the carbon footprints thus helping them to develop sustainable day

to day practices. The IHG Green Engage system has four progressive levels of certification that our hotels can achieve and I am glad to express that Crowne Plaza Today New Delhi Okhla has achieved Level 4 certification already. Creating an environmentally sustainable culture is very important in order to achieve the environment conservation goals. This will only happen by spreading awareness to inculcate environmental friendly practises in day to day life. The first step is to engage the employees and train them on how can they inculcate good practices in the operations. The second step would be to encourage guests and give them cues of how can they do their bit for the environment.

For guests:

At Crowne Plaza Today New Delhi Okhla, we use environment tent cards in all the guest rooms and other areas to spread awareness amongst guests, staff and visitors. A simple example of water

conservation practice is tent cards placed in rooms for towels which need to be washed. This reads as follows-

Towels on the floor mean please replace them. Towels on the towel rail mean I will use them again.

Similarly, in washrooms, one can find signage like this-

The yellow colour of water doesn’t mean it’s dirty. It means its recycled water. The yellow colour is due to the chemical treatment that makes it fit for use, again.

For employees:

We undertake multiple pieces of training and initiatives to engage our employees and make them aware about environment conservation and sustainability. For example, as a part of IHG Giving for Good Month, the hotel is organizing several environment-friendly activities during the course of the month. The good news is that for every colleague participating in any of such initiative, IHG will contribute $4 for a noble cause.

A housekeeper’s job is a very demanding profile and hence their work should always be recognized. Their day to day tasks includes heavy physical workload and excessive bodily motions such as stooping, squatting, kneeling, stretching, reaching, bending, twisting and crouching. Hence, it is very important to keep their motivation level high and implement structures and processes in place to ease their work.

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