We were reading a Hospitality Publication and stumbled across this article about the new AAA Star Ratings Scheme. We thought it was fantastic to see that properties who score under 75% for cleanliness don’t receive any grading. At Melbourne’s Princes Park Motor Inn we have always believed that cleanliness is the most important thing and always strive to produce clean rooms. What are your thoughts on this article?
To view this article from the source go to http://accomnews.com/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=3646 or keep reading below.
Keeping House: Cleanliness is Next to Star Ratings
The primary focus of the new star ratings scheme to be introduced for Australia on 1 July is cleanliness. Not surprisingly really, as cleanliness tops the list of just about every guest poll world wide.
Under the new scheme, any accommodation provider that can’t make 93% of the cleanliness rating can not be graded as a five star. At the other end of the scale, getting below 75% means no grading whatever!
But that’s not all. The new system is going to encourage feedback from guests that have stayed at rated properties and that could influence the provider’s star grading – up or down.
Suddenly housekeeping takes on a whole new priority. If the new system lives up to its pre-launch hype, what an accommodation providers housekeeping team dish up to guests will have far greater importance than the manager, reception and chef combined. And on a continuing basis. A guest that complains about a dirty bathroom may cost an accommodation provider dearly.
The prediction is that good housekeepers will be much sought after.
All of which is tying in with the “new” drive for quality in tourism. Australia’s high quality tourism businesses will be recognisable by a single national logo known as the TQual mark, according to the minister for tourism, Martin Ferguson, who launched the trademark and associated accreditation framework at the Australian Tourism Exchange in Sydney last month.
All of this is in stark contrast to the reality overseas of the Gillard-approach to housekeeping – tax the guest for providing it!
Guests at he Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas are “required to pay a mandatory housekeeping gratuity and utility service fee of up to $22.95 per person per day”, according to the terms on its website.
At easyHotel, the European-based discount hotel chain, housekeeping costs between €8 and €10 and at one of its properties in Dubai, it even charges 5 dirham per extra towel. Plenty of other properties have similar levies.
Thankfully, Australian hotels appear hesitant to follow this trend but there’s evidence that they’re warming to the thought. Some properties, for example, already offer frequent-flyer points for guests who opt out of housekeeping services or offer discounts or freebies for guests who turn down daily servicing.
There is no doubt that guests certainly expect that housekeeping is included in their room rate. But, back in the dark ages, passengers expected their luggage check in would be included in their fare as was a meal on longer flights. Look at the way that has evolved – now on most carriers you pay extra for everything.
The accommodation industry may argue that housekeeping is an expense and strictly speaking, not part of the room you are renting from them. Guests, on the other hand, will say it’s reasonable to assume their linens and towels will be changed regularly at a hotel. And while some wouldn’t object to opting out of housekeeping for a day or two, they’d see the opposite – mandatory housekeeping charges over and above the room rate – as nothing less than a money grabbing rort.
