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Four Simple Ways to Motivate Your Hotel’s Room Attendants

A well-trained room attendant can make all the difference in your hotel’s housekeeping department. Their assigned rooms are cleaned to standard and they’re efficient, spending only the necessary amount of time needed to clean each room. But even the most well-trained room attendants need to be motivated from time to time to maintain peak performance. Here are a few ideas worth trying at your hotel:

Incentives

Incentives are great because they give your room attendants a goal to work towards and to look forward to. They can be based on a variety of things, but one of our favorites (and easiest to track in Hotel Effectiveness) is basing your incentives on staying within set minutes per room (MPR) targets. Why do we like this so much? Well, not only does it motivate your staff to work towards their reward, it also gets them to work more efficiently. This translates to more dollars added to your bottom line as less dollars are spent on labor.

Whatever you choose to base your incentive program on, be sure to set clear guidelines or expectations. Also, make sure the goals you set are realistic. If they are too lofty, your room attendants may opt out of even trying to participate if they feel it’s unattainable. Instead of motivating them, it may do just the opposite.

Looking for ideas on incentives? Below are a few you can try at your hotel!

  • Bonus pay
  • Scratch-offs
  • Gift cards
  • Gift baskets
  • A paid day off
  • Lunch on the company
  • A free spa treatment if there is a spa on site
  • Let your room attendants choose!

Cross-Training

Cross-training your room attendants not only adds value to your housekeeping department as a whole, but also to your individual employees. When an employee is given more responsibilities, they might view it as the hotel putting more time and trust into their professional development. Your room attendants may feel more invested if they have more to offer to the hotel, increasing motivation, retention and loyalty.

On a department level, cross-training leads to better coordination and teamwork, as it improves understanding of the different positions within the housekeeping department. Encourage the team to give feedback and make suggestions for improvement in the areas in which they’ve trained.

Acknowledge Their Strengths

If there is something your room attendants are particularly good at, be sure to let them know! This simple gesture lets them know you appreciate what they do for the hotel, and will motivate them to continue to keep up the good work. It also makes them aware you are paying attention to their work, which might motivate them to tighten up in certain areas that they know they may need to improve upon.

Lead by Example

Energy is contagious. If you are motivated and excited for the success of your hotel, your employees will feed off of this. Similarly, if you are disengaged and unmotivated, there’s a good chance your staff will eventually carry the same sentiment. Bottom line, be conscious of the example you are setting for your employees. And while this may seem obvious, it’s worth addressing as it is an often forgotten principle yet one of the most important to apply.

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