Cornell Researcher Invites Industry to Participate in Novel Housekeeping Study
ITHACA, NY, September 20, 2006. Hotel managers use many methods to ensure that their rooms are cleaned in a consistent manner, but an objective, reliable metric has proved elusive. A new report from Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research, "A New Method for Measuring Housekeeping Performance Consistency," points the way to creating such a metric-but information from many hotels is needed to confirm this technique. It is available at no charge from the Center's website (http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/chr/research/centerreports.html).
In a study sponsored by JohnsonDiversey Inc., Michael Sturman, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, was examining the cost of cleaning rooms. He found that the cost of chemicals was negligible compared to the cost of the housekeeping staff. At the same time, however, he noted that by measuring chemical use a hotel manager could determine the consistency with which housekeepers adhered to a hotel's cleaning standards.
James Scolaro, Director of Customer Discovery, JohnsonDiversey stated, "We were delighted to work with Cornell researchers on this project and contribute to the design of the methodology. The hospitality manager now has an additional management tool to help maintain housekeeping consistency. This is a win-win for hotel and resort operators as well as their customers."
"Hotel managers will now have an objective measurement of housekeeping consistency," Sturman said. "While that would not replace inspections and other methods of checking room cleanliness, this would afford a quick, easy, and inexpensive check of how things are going."
The cleaning-chemical metric operated as expected in a pilot study of three hotels, but Sturman says that the next step is to confirm the metric using information from many other hotels. "I'm inviting hotel managers to participate by sharing their housekeeping data," he said. "A hotel operator can download the data-collection kit, fill in the necessary information, and send it to me. I'll do the analysis of each hotel's housekeeping consistency and report to each hotel on a confidential basis. Then I'll create an aggregate report of how well the cleaning-chemical metric operates. This will allow hotels to benchmark their housekeeping consistency against comparable hotels."
The chemical use information packet is located on Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research web site at: http://hotelschool.cornell.edu/chr/research/surveys/hotelcleaning.html. Managers who register with the site and share their data will receive a custom analysis of their housekeeping consistency.
About The Center for Hospitality Research
A unit of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, The Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) sponsors research designed to improve practices in the hospitality industry. Under the lead of the Center's 50 corporate affiliates, experienced scholars work closely with business executives to discover new insights into strategic, managerial and operating practices. The Center also publishes the award-winning hospitality journal, the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. To learn more about CHR and its projects, visit www.chr.cornell.edu.
CHR Partners and sponsors: AIG Global Real Estate Investment, Cendant Corporation, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, HVS International, JohnsonDiversey, Inc., Kohinoor Group, Marsh's Hospitality Practice, Nestl'e, Smith Travel Research, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Southern Wine and Spirits of America, Inc., SynXis (a Sabre Holdings Corporation), Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, Thayer Group of Companies, and Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo.
CHR friends: 4Hoteliers.com o ARAMARK o Caribbean Hotel and Restaurant Buyers Guide o DK Shifflet & Associates o ehotelier.com o Estrela Marketing Solutions o Fireman's Fund o Gerencia de Hoteles & Restaurantes o Global Hospitality Resources o Hospitality Confections o Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) o hospitalityInside.com o hospitalitynet.org o Hotel Asia Pacific o Hotel China o HotelExecutive.com o Hotel Interactive o Hotel Resource o International CHRIE o International Hotel and Restaurant Association o International Hotel Conference o iPerceptions o KPMG Japan/Global Management Directions o Lodging Hospitality o Lodging Magazine o PKF Hospitality Research o Resort+Recreation o The Resort Trades o RestaurantEdge.com o Shibata Publishing Co. o The Lodging Conference o Taste & Travel o TravelCLICK o UniFocus o WageWatch, Inc. o WiredHotelier.com
CONTACT:
Glenn Withiam, 607.255.3025; [email protected]
Cydney Peters, 607.255.8698; [email protected]
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