If you work in your company’s housekeeping department, then you are already well aware of the fact that you have one of the toughest jobs in the vacation rental management business.
Housekeeping managers and staff need to have a lot of skills, and a lot of flexibility, to effectively manage hundreds of cleaners, vendors, and properties on a weekly basis, and to ensure everything runs smoothly on busy check-in days.
And with this sprawling role comes lots of distinctive challenges. But, happily, there are tools available to help your housekeeping department run as smoothly as possible, regardless of the obstacles that come your way.
So take a closer look at some of the most common challenges, as well as a few ideas of how Schedule Pro and other LSI Tools can help you overcome these hurdles that housekeeping departments face every day.
Organizing your weekly schedule to begin with
Keeping your weekly schedule organized and up-to-date can take days to accomplish without help. What happens if a cleaner calls in sick? What about homes without guests that can be cleaned early? How do you know which properties don’t have a cleaner assigned, and which ones do?
This is exactly why Schedule Pro was created. With Schedule Pro, your assignments are already applied, and you’re immediately notified via an easy-to-scan dashboard of any discrepancies or gaps. Our clients attest that Schedule Pro saves them hours of time every week on organizing their schedule, and we’re proud to say that this tool continues to be the gold standard when it comes to scheduling efficiency.
Printing and sending schedules
Once your schedules are complete, how do you relay all this information to your cleaners? Once again, whether you are printing or simply emailing, Schedule Pro can help. Schedule Pro allows you to do a one-click print of all of your schedules to distribute to cleaners, or your cleaners can simply access their schedules and essential corresponding details – like notes, addresses, and other extras – on their mobile phone with just a few swipes. It’s that easy.
Determining who is at the home, and when
Have the cleaners arrived and / or departed? What about the pool and spa vendors? Or the inspectors? Or maintenance personnel for any outstanding workorders?
Keeping track of all activity at your homes can be a challenge, but both Schedule Pro and its sister product, Readiness Plus, can help. With these tools, your cleaners, vendors, and inspectors can mark when they have started or completed their tasks at a home via their mobile device, allowing you to follow all activity throughout the day without phone calls or in-person confirmations. Best of all, with Readiness Plus, all of this information can be shared with your Reservation Department, allowing your guests to check in that much faster.
Figuring out the weekly payroll
Payroll can be a continual challenge for housekeeping departments, for sure! When it comes to payroll, you may need to divide rates for teams, increase or decrease pay based on special circumstances, and incorporate a number of other factors, all while making careful additions throughout. Thankfully, Schedule Pro can do all of this work for you. With Schedule Pro, all you need to do is initially enter your rates, note any special circumstances as needed, and this tool will do the rest, allowing you to export your calculations to your Accounting Department with just a few clicks.
Communicating with all your cleaners
If there’s an emergency or mass message you need to communicate with all cleaners, it can be a challenge to gather all the email addresses and phone numbers, and spread the word. But Schedule Pro has a handy messaging feature that allows you to communicate with all your cleaners effortlessly in minutes. As such, everyone can be on the same page when it comes to important matters and messages.
Schedule Pro is one of LSI’s most popular tools, simply because of the numerous ways it can help housekeeping departments all across the industry tackle their everyday challenges. From initial scheduling to exporting payroll to your accounting department, Schedule Pro simply makes all challnges easier across the board.