A day with the HK team of the Hôtel du Centre
"HK" as in housekeeping is the nickname given to chambermaid’s team of the Hôtel du Centre. Under the guidance of Milène, their housekeeper, Tina, Françoise, Jeanne and Isabelle, are the precious fairies of the establishment 7 days a week. As indispensable as they are discreet, they were followed behind the scenes of the hotel, for one day. Rhythmic rhythm is on the program!
Milène & Françoise – Team #1
The 6.00 am bell just rang at the Hôtel du Centre: the starting signal is on! Already in a hurry: they are the first two relay runners of a marathon that promises to be clocked up.
Françoise is in logistics: counting of linen to be sent to the dry cleaning and reception of the delivery of clean linen, stock control and orders from suppliers, replenishment of linen supplies in the storerooms on each floor...
Milène is organising the "shift work". How many rooms are they to be made up? Which one should be "check-out rooms" or just "stay over rooms"? Are there bookings for the day? Questions whose answers determine, for the head housekeeper, the sharing of charges to prepare the rooms.
Just thirty minutes later, the day-to-day tour of the public areas can begin. No place is left behind: outside courtyard, front desk, hallways and stairs, garbage bins, public washrooms, staff toilets, changing rooms in the fitness room, showers and lockers included!
8.30 am is approaching: would not a hot coffee and a short break be welcome before the real... day of the day starts?
Tina, Jeanne & Isabelle – Team #2
Having flown towards the seven floors of the establishment, as the first check-outs begin, Milène and Françoise received numerous walkie-talkie calls.
"Hullo. Front desk to HK. Ok for rooms 206, 208, 305. The guests are gone."
It is 9.30 am on the clock: Isabelle, Jeanne and Tina have just arrived as reinforcements. Not a minute to lose any more for our entire HK.
From bottom to top, from floor to ceiling, here are coming the vacuum cleaners, washing brooms, dusters, squeegees, wipes, deodorisers... Everything must be spotless. Milène’s attentive eye watches over it.
As for walkie-talkies, they continue to be strongly solicited.
"Hullo. HK to technical service. Light bulb out of order on 3rd main hallway, left side from the elevator. Thank you."
"Hullo. HK to front desk. Damages to report in room 408, photos will be transmitted on the way down. Thank you. "
From 10.30 am, all five of them are expected for their express lunch at the Les Jardins before returning to the floors around 11.00 am.
In control of the fifty-nine rooms of the Hôtel du Centre, each team member’s alternates between full cleaning for new guests in the check-out rooms and quick cleaning for residing guests in the stay over rooms, with changing of towels when requested by the customer.
A well-deserved end to the day
Nearly 2.00 pm. It is time for Françoise and Milène to remove their uniform, while Jeanne, Tina and Isabelle finish swiftly the cleaning of the few remaining rooms: everything must be ready before the first check-ins at 3.00 pm.
A new overall control of all the public areas is then necessary, before getting into the preparations for the day after, including the check-up of the cleaning trolleys: flat sheets, pillowcases, coffee pods, welcome products... nothing should be missing.
It is almost 6.00 pm and the "O.R. ritual" is never forgotten for the last three relay runners in the HK coulours. They enquire about the occupancy rate of the hotel planned for the next day: more than 100% is programmed, an extra rigorous Olympic form will be essential!
So meet at 6 o’clock in the morning for one of the most important team within the establishment, whose qualities are proportionate with their responsibility: solidarity, dynamism, sense of service, reactivity, courage, involvement...
