Thomas Salzlechner and Florian Saltner, nicknamed Tom and Flo, are our two experts on the digitalization of work processes in housekeeping departments. Both of them previously worked in the hospitality and food service industry, gained a lot of experience in doing so and witnessed firsthand the challenges the industry faces which makes them the perfect ambassadors of our product hotelkit Housekeeping: A digital solution that enables the efficient organization of room cleanings in hotels. Together with Tom and Flo we look back at their careers, talk about digitalization in the hospitality industry and the best trade fairs for housekeeping.
What did you do professionally before joining hotelkit?
Flo: I completed trainings in hotel and event management and have over 10 years of professional experience in the food service and hospitality industry that I gained in my hometown Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In my resumé, you will find anything from Après-ski huts up to 5-star hotels, although at last, I mainly worked in the conference and event sector. I joined the amazing hotelkit sales team in June 2021.
Tom: During my five-year training at the tourism school in Bad Hofgastein and the numerous internships I had to complete in the course of that, I was able to gain some experience in the hotel and food service industry. After graduating, I worked for several years in the tourism industry as headwaiter and bar manager as well as in the front office department of a hotel. In 2014 I started my studies in “Innovation & Management in Tourism” at the technical college in Salzburg. On the side, I continued working in the tourism industry. In 2018 I started working as Customer Success Manager at hotelkit and focused on assisting tourism and healthcare businesses in digitalizing their workflows and making them more efficient. Since February 2022 my focus has been on the digitalization of housekeeping processes and offering housekeeping tips & tricks on how to best use our fantastic digital solution. Flo and I assist hotel businesses in implementing digital work processes, especially regarding room cleanings. In doing so the workload of the employees is reduced, higher efficiency is achieved, and costs are reduced.
How is the product hotelkit Housekeeping used in practice?
Flo: Implementing hotelkit Housekeeping has many benefits and gives great relief to professional housekeepers as well as to front office and the maintenance department. This is, for example, the case when it comes to creating the shift schedule in the morning. By using hotelkit housekeeping, this process can be done in a lot less time but also without using a single piece of paper. The housekeeper now finds all the relevant information regarding planning in hotelkit Housekeeping and assigns the individual employees via drag & drop to the rooms that need cleaning. Regularly occurring tasks can be stored in the system and are automatically transmitted to the responsible employees at the given time.
When I look back at the times when I was working in the front office department and had to mark up and comment on countless lists to make sure that housekeeping does not forget anything, it is nice to see that there is now a more practicable and convenient solution for this.
If any uncertainties come up or a damage is detected, it is not necessary anymore to pick up the phone as front office and maintenance can be informed about the incident via a message or a repair order in hotelkit. This saves a lot of time, and everyone can carry out their work thoroughly without being disturbed by a telephone that does not stop ringing. Using this tool in housekeeping departments will certainly contribute to better workflows, especially when it comes to room cleaning processes.
Tom: Another great advantage of our Housekeeping App is the transparency it provides. A seamless interface makes sure that front office can see the current status of a room cleaning directly in the PMS. Should the priorities change spontaneously, for example, if an important guest shows up early, this can be communicated directly to housekeeping in the system.
Why is it practicable to use hotelkit Housekeeping in combination with hotelkit Collaboration?
Flo: By using hotelkit Housekeeping and hotelkit Collaboration all departments are unified on one digital platform. This improves cooperation as well as team spirit in the entire hotel.
If everyone involved, from the dishwasher to the General Manager, communicates via the same tool, this strengthens the community spirit.
Apart from that, especially in the housekeeping department, there are usually a lot of employees from different origins. hotelkit Collaboration offers a digital handbook where all the important work-related information can be stored and communicated clearly and across language barriers to all employees as the article can also contain images and videos demonstrating, for example, how certain processes should be carried out.
How does the Customer Success Team at hotelkit assist clients during the implementation of hotelkit?
Tom: During the implementation phase, several training sessions are held to familiarize the housekeeping staff with the system and to demonstrate how the different workflows can be carried out more efficiently with hotelkit. But even after the implementation phase is completed, the Customer Success Team is available to provide our clients with advice and support. To get assistance it is not even necessary to pick up the phone or write an e-mail as our Customer Success Managers are available directly in hotelkit. Moreover, if our clients wish to do so, they can always further educate themselves on how to make the best use of hotelkit by watching the training videos in our comprehensive Tutorial Section. Here they will find countless explanations and use cases that will enhance their daily work with hotelkit.
What is the best customer review you have received so far?
Flo: We were particularly delighted about the feedback from Radisson Blu Royal Bergen. The team at this hotel compiled statistics that clearly show how much time the cleaning crew could save since the implementation of hotelkit Housekeeping. We were very impressed when we found out that they now save 24 hours per week when it comes to room cleanings!
I believe that efficiency always saves time and reduces costs. hotelkit Housekeeping has managed to notably reduce the workload of our Housekeeping Manager and the external housekeeping team as well as the time and effort that we used to put into planning. Especially in times of personnel shortage, digital support like hotelkit is worth its weight in gold.
Which Housekeeping trade show would you recommend?
Tom: The Housekeeping Convention Berlin is certainly a great event that no one in the industry should miss: It is an interesting get-together of Housekeeping Managers and Housekeeping service providers from German-speaking countries. At the convention, you can listen to countless impressive presentations ranging from new sleep or cleaning systems to the digitalization of housekeeping processes – the latter being our focus!
Increase the efficiency of your housekeeping department by implementing digitalized work processes!
About the author
Michael Santner
Narratives about impoverished poets during his studies encouraged him to follow his passion in a secure job. In hotelkits marketing he takes care of packing the numerous ideas of his colleagues into exciting stories.
