Housekeeping & Laundry

Room Attendants provide daily cleaning services to guestrooms in our hotels. This position is a good place to enter the hotel business, particularly if you want to focus on the Housekeeping Department as a career opportunity and do not have managerial or supervisory experience. Many of Sheraton’s Housekeeping Supervisors, Housekeeping Managers and Directors of Housekeeping started their careers as Room Attendants. As a Room Attendant you will learn the basic tasks that are essential to a successful Housekeeping Department.

A terrific starting point for entry-level management in the Rooms Division is in the Housekeeping Department. As a Housekeeping Manager you will learn to manage people and why this is so vital to the success of Hospitality or any other business. You will also learn about many other departments in the hotel as you interact daily with departments such as the Front Office, Human Resources, Food and Beverage, including outlets and banquets, Engineering and Laundry. This training and exposure to all aspects of the hotel will help you be a successful manager, not just in Housekeeping, but also in other areas that require people management and administrative organizational skills.

The Director of Housekeeping manages the largest department in the hotel in terms of both the number of Associates working in a department and annual operating budget. The Director of Housekeeping is responsible for planning, organizing and executing the activities of departments which control the flow of available guestrooms for sale in the hotel. The cleanliness of the entire hotel and much of a guest’s overall impression of the hotel is related to Housekeeping and therefore the responsibility of the Director of Housekeeping. According to a study conducted by Lieberman Research Group in 2004 the highest level of importance in selecting a hotel is cleanliness with a 95% ranking.

The position of Director of Housekeeping would be most appealing to those who enjoy planning, organizing and working in complex and fast paced situations. Because the scope of responsibility encompasses the entire hotel the need for excelling at planning and organizing is critical. You also must enjoy managing people and building a team and maintaining morale in a department made up of people from diverse backgrounds. If you like to analyze tasks and determine how to make those tasks more efficient this job would also appeal to you.  Because of the diversity of responsibilities within the hotel, including guestrooms, public areas, laundry and working with contractors for a variety support functions, being organized and enjoying multiple responsibilities is necessary.

For those who choose to become a Director of Housekeeping you will have the opportunity to develop and continually refine your skills in managing people. You will also have the responsibility to manage an operating budget that is the largest individual department budget in the hotel. Succeeding in managing people and controlling the largest operating budget in the hotel while maintaining high levels of guest satisfaction will allow you to advance to most any position in either a hotel, such as:

• Rooms Director
• Director of Operations/Hotel Manager
• General Manager

Or in a corporate office position such as:

• Corporate Manager, Rooms and Related
• Corporate Director, Housekeeping and Laundry
• Corporate Director, Hotel Support

As a Director of Housekeeping you will continually have the opportunity to refine your management and organizational skills, rarely will a day pass when you haven’t learned something new.