How Data and Technology Can Enhance Hotel Cleanliness

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked discussions around sanitation and cleanliness in hotels. Businesses are now navigating these shifts in their operations and accommodating all necessary changes. As discomfort lingers around travel safety and facility cleanliness, the implementation of data and technology has gone from nicety to necessity.

Successful back of house operations are crucial to a hotel’s performance. With so many review sites for guests to turn to before booking, it is paramount that hoteliers put their best foot forward. Meeting guests’ current expectations around cleanliness has become a key focus, and by approaching this area in a more tech-forward way, management teams gain added insight into their facilities that ensure operations run more smoothly and efficiently.

This starts with enhancing communication between cleaning staff and supervisors. By employing data and technology, hotels can tap into tools that allow them to be proactive versus reactive. Without technology, it is difficult to sufficiently track trends that show where operations thrive and where there is room for improvement. Hotel managers can use real-time data to improve efficiencies and streamline operations.

Using a technology platform that collects data improves compliance and quality assurance while eliminating the increasingly archaic pen-and-paper approach. Data and tech implementation also help hotels project profits by carefully scheduling tasks based on need and statistics collected through historic data and performance metrics. By monitoring custodial actions, starting with more effective dispatching of staff, and accelerating the process based on demand, organizations can drive performance.

Smart technologies are simple. All it takes is a tablet, smartphone, and staff monitoring sensors, also known as beacons. Beacons obtain a signal when a custodial worker enters the vicinity of locations where beacons are installed. The beacons pick up the signal of the mobile application and prompt the start of the cleaning process. These sensors also provide added visibility to supervisors by triggering an alert that a cleaning staff member has begun servicing a location and completed the location. Alerts based on the start and the completion of these tasks provide added awareness of the day-to-day activities of each staff member as well as locations where demand is highest.

Using a mobile application, custodians can provide feedback and notes on the initial appearance of spaces upon arrival. This essential data helps managers track trends that are important to daily operations, allowing teams to improve practices that are falling short and uphold those that are working.

Staff can also use an app to complete a checklist of tasks and record consumables used when cleaning. With the enhanced guidelines that are in place as a result of COVID-19, hotels must monitor the usage and track inventory of items such as personal protective equipment (PPE), approved cleaning supplies, and other hygiene products. Effective tracking of supplies gives supervisors the data they need to better plan, stock, and adjust order frequency and quantities to reduce costs.

Inspections help hotels maintain quality assurance and meet cleaning standards. Implementing a tech-powered inspection tool with photo capabilities allows supervisors to take corrective actions, provide feedback, and mitigate any issues at a faster pace. For instance, staff can receive an alert if a task expectation is not met, allowing them to remedy the issue right away. Features like this also ensure that issues that require outside vendor attention are addressed and logged immediately for corrective action.

Implementing data and technology gives managers the data they need to maintain quality standards and inspired confidence in a property long term. These tools can help increase staff accountability and deliver more consistent results property-wide. Technology and data collection provide a systematic framework for ensuring employees are performing their expected quality services as well as upholding excellence.