BHCT 208 THEORY UNIT 4 - COMMERCIAL CLEANING

 UNIT 4

COMMERCIAL CLEANING

PREMISES CLEANED BY HOUSEKEEPING DEPARTMENT:

FRONT OF THE HOUSE/ GUEST AREA

BACK OF THE HOUSE/ PUBLIC AREA

•

Guestrooms

•

Management Offices

•

Guest floor Corridors

•

Storage Areas

•    Lobby and guest Restrooms

•       Linen, Uniform and Sewing Room

•    Pool and Patio Areas

•

Laundry

•

Meeting rooms

•

Employee Locker Rooms

•

Dining Rooms/restaurants

•

Administrative Offices

•

Banquet Halls

•

Lockers, bunker areas,

•

Hotel Operated Shops

•

Staff washrooms

•

Games Rooms/Recreation Rooms

•

Exercise Rooms/Gymnasiums

•

Building exterior

•

Landscaping and Gardens

CLEANING TECHNIQUES

MANUAL METHODS

MECHANICAL METHODS

a) Sweeping

a) Suction Cleaning

b) Dusting (Dry and Damp Dusting)

b) Buffing

c) Moping (Dry, spot and wet mopping)

c) Polishing

d) Scrubbing

d) Burnishing

e) Polishing

e) Scrubbing

f) Spot cleaning

f) Stripping

g) Laundering and dry-cleaning

HOUSEKEEPING EQUIPMENT

Manual Cleaning Equipment

Mechanical Equipment

•  Brushes: hard brush, soft brush, scrubbing brush

•

Floor cleaning machine

•  Brooms: soft bristled broom, hard / coarse- bristled

(scrubbing, polishing and

broom, wall broom

•

buffing)

•  Wet /damp mop: do-all mop, Kentucky mop, sponge

Vacuum (Wet-and-dry

mop, squeegee

•

vacuum cleaner)

•  Dry mop

Hot-water extraction

•  Cloths: mitts, swabs and wipes, floor cloth, scrim, glass

•

machine

cloths, rags and polishing cloth, chamois leather, dust

Solvent extraction

sheet, drugget

•

machine

•  Containers: bucket, basin and bowl, dust pan, sani-bin,

Carpet shampoo machine

dustbin, spray bottle, hand caddy, chambermaid’s

•

Power sweepers (Electric

/housekeeping trolley, janitor’s trolley, mop Wringer

brooms )

trolley

OUTSOURCING SERVICES

 

DEFINITION

•       Cleaning of Commercial Properties such as offices, warehouses, restaurants, hotels, movie theatres, clubs, entertainment centres, and malls, etc. known as commercial cleaning. This type of cleaning is essential if you want to promote a neat, clean, and hygienic work environment.

•       Companies that hire cleaners and then provide corporate cleaning services are known as Commercial cleaning companies. They are contracted to carry out cleaning jobs on a variety of premises. Commercial Cleaning companies provide cleaning services by trained professional cleaners tasks wise.

•       These commercial cleaners are well trained and experienced and also take responsibility for all the cleaning works in a business house.

•       Commercial cleaning service providers are contracted to uplift and maintain the visual beauty and hygienic quotient of the commercial Properties. That’s why, for commercial houses, hiring the finest cleaning services in their area is important.

•       Contract is “an agreement between two parties negotiating a business deal”.

 

•       Outsourcing contracts may be defined as ‘conscious business decision to move internal

 

work to an external provider’.

 

 

CONCEPT

The initial trend was of using contractual workforce, but with stringent legal measures in place and labor-friendly laws of the land, the focus shifted to getting quality work without labor hassles. This is taken care of by an external party, and so the concept of outsourcing in hotel operations was born.

 

•       In some hotels, housekeeping departments do not have the budget or staff expertise to do certain specialty cleaning functions. Executive house keeper hire contract cleaning services, off-premises cleaning services, to do the work. As the part of his or her responsibility, the executive house keeper has to find firms to do the work, obtain bids, award a contract, write out work assignments, and track the company performance.

 

•       As the contract cleaning industry grows, prices will become more competitive, as will the range of services offered by each company. Generally, core cleaning operations will remain in the house keeping department. Some properties are experimenting with hiring off-premises cleaning contractors to provide backup service to the house keeping department.

 

TYPES OF OUTSOURCING CONTRACTS

 

1.      Complete cleaning programs with all the work and responsibilities undertaken by the service provider, e.g. public area cleaning, flower arrangement, laundry (complete) etc.

 

2.      Regular selected cleaning within an establishment to assist the existing house-keeping staff for cleaning of public area at night, e.g. flower arrangement, laundry (partial), landscaping etc.

 

3.      Periodic service to assist existing house-keeping operation such as window cleaning, cleaning of walls and ceilings and cleaning of carpets, pest control etc.

 

4.      Hiring contracts with various rentals firms for linen, equipment conferences etc.

 

5.      Consultancy services- where the house-keeping experts visit the hotels and guide the existing staff on achieving professional standard, e.g. deep cleaning, renovation, refurbishing etc.

 

TYPES OF CONTRACT

·        Lump sum or fixed price contract- Written agreement under which a principal (Customer or Owner) agrees to pay a contractor a specified amount, for completing a scope of work (involving a variety of unspecified items of work) without requiring a cost breakdown. In this, total plinth area and required manpower is given to the contractor and a fixed price is finalized by the contractor against the work allocated. This type of contract provides a degree of certainty for both parties because the contract scope clearly spells out what is involved. Carpet shampooing, window cleaning by outsourced firm is majorly covered under this contract.

·        Unit rate contract-written agreement under which a principal (customer or owner) agreed to rate for the performance of specified work. Monetary exchange takes place when work is performed and is directly proportional to the volume and range of work. In this, house-keeper provides plinth area, time and frequency of work and then contractor firstly decides the working hours and wages of the worker and then add cost of equipment, agents and supplies, plus overheads and profits and then quotes the price. The best example of this service is, pest cleaning and floor scrubbing on contract basis.

·        Cost plus or reimbursable contract- it is an upfront payment by the client party to the contractor. This type of contract is used when the scope of the work is difficult to define. An example of this type of contract is the procurement of specialized services to solve a problem that may take an indefinite period of time. The upfront payment covers the contractor's commitments to the project. Renegotiation for increased tenure or reimbursement may take place if the contract comes to an abrupt end. These types of contract sometimes contain a fixed cost component and majorly used at the time of renovation or refurbishing of the floor.

·        Partial or selective contract- few selected areas or facilities are given to an expert agency that works in coordination with the housekeeping department. These areas may cover:

1.      Chandelier cleaning

2.      Carpet and upholstery shampooing

3.      Floor Maintenance, especially of marble, granite and wood floorings

4.      Pest control

5.      Laundry

6.      Gardening & landscaping

 

·        Complete outsourcing- it opens the avenue for engaging more than one agency for the entire operations of the organization. However, this is the most accepting concept of engaging one company for entire public spaces of the hotel.

 

THE METHODS USED TO ACCESS THE COST OF THE CONTRACT DEPENDS ON

• Type of service required
• Size of the job being carried out
• Skills required
• Policy of company
• Budget

 

The basis of payment for outsourced services may include one or more of the following:

 

1.      Management fee, consultancy basis: e.g. the customer provides his own labour, equipments, materials etc. and the contractor provides the management with the expertise and possible supervisory staff.

2.      Fixed periodic cost: may be made either as a total cost or cost per unit of work. This is a very commonly used method and is available in two forms-

• Uncontrolled input: The contractor agrees to provide a service of a given nature for a specific cost. There is no indication of the number of workers, hours worked or the type of equipment and materials used. Therefore it is essential that the specification is detailed indeed.

• Controlled input: This type of contract also specifies the minimum number of workers, hours worked and other equipments.

3.      Cost plus fixed fee basis: The contractor is paid for the costs of the job and is also paid for a fixed fee for the management of the programme/ service. This provides a surety in NO COST CUTTING towards maintaining the hotels expected standards by the contractor. With the fixed-fee price Executive Housekeeper also give specification on the number of staff to be employed, standard of their personal and professional attributes required to work in a hotel; and  also set specification for the quality/ standards of machine and chemical needed for cleaning different areas of the hotel

4.      Unit Rate Agreements: Most contracts are agreed on unit rate basis. The details of the area to be covered and the job frequency required, is given by the EHK. The service provider is asked to give the cost as per the specification given. The cost calculation for contract is done on the basis of area measured by the contractor.

·        Find man working hours:                             

                                 Man hours = areas x time x frequency

eg:- If a contracted firm has to clean five different areas. Taking two hours each, twice a week, then man hours will be calculated as:

Areas = 5, Time = 2 hours, Frequency = 2 times

Then, Man-hours = 5 x 2 x 2 hours = 20 hours.

·        To quote contract price, contractor add

a)     Cost of wages (for workers & supervisors),

b)     Costs of equipments,

c)      Chemical agents and cleaning supplies,

d)     Overheads and profits, and then quotes a price.

Example: Pricing a contract service of public area in a five star hotel based on

a)     man-hours

b)     Area to be cleaned

	Specifications to consider for pricing a contract	Assumption based on hypothetical situation
a.	Men-hours required to clean specified area-by public area attendant (given/calculated by the contractor)	300 hours/year
b.	Wages for a public area attendant (as per specified by the government/ labour act)	Rs. 30/ hr
c.	Supervision cost	Rs. 10,000/-
d.	Small equipments and cleaning supplies cost (calculated by contractor as per the area available for cleaning)	Rs. 20,000/-
e.	Cleaning agents cost	Rs. 50,000/-
f.	Capital equipment (average life span of 5 years), includes: 5 vacuum cleaners= 5X20,000/-each vacuum= Rs. 1,00,000/-                                1 floor scrubbing machine= Rs. 25,000/-                                 1 floor polishing machine= Rs. 25,000/-                               2 carpet shampoo machine= Rs. 50,000/-	Rs2,00,000/- for 5 years
g.	Capital invest for a year	f/5= 2,00,000/5 = 40,000/- per year
h.	Total are to be cleaned= 60 ftX50 ft	3000 sq. ft.
i.	Area to be cleaned twice a month on the Rate of	Rs2/- sq.ft.

 Calculation on the basis of Man-hours

Total cleaning cost/year = a X b + c + d + e + g

       = 300X30+10000+20000+50000+40000

       =1,29,000/- per year

 

 

Calculation on the basis of area given

Per month cleaning charges will be = h X i X 2= 3000X2X2

                                                        = Rs.12,000/- per month

So per year cleaning charges will be = 12X12,000= Rs. 1,44,000/- per year

Total cleaning cost/year = 1,44,000 + c + d + e + g

                                       = 1,44,000+10000+20000+50000+40000

                                       = 2,64,000/- per year

ADVANTAGES OF CONTRACT SERVICES

 

 

 

1.      A budget can be worked out accurately because the price is known for a given period and may be economical than direct labour and services.

2.      The contractor is responsible for recruiting, training, paying and dismissing.

 

3.      Contract services eliminate many of the problems between management and unions.

 

4.      The contract company may offer bigger pay than the direct labour and therefore attract more qualified and competent staff.

 

5.      Eliminates the need to buy specialized equipment and permit extra work without the need of increasing the staff.

6.      Specialized contractors may be able to cope more easily in case of an emergency.

 

DISADVANTAGES OF CONTRACT SERVICES

1.      Cost may be too high for the acceptor.

 

2.      Weakens management authority over the quality and loyalty of staff working in the premises.

3.      Control is loosened over operations.

4.      Poor supervision.

5.      There is a natural tendency of the contractor to use poor quality product which can cause damage to the building, furniture, etc.

6.      Security may be weakened because of labour turnover.

 

7.      There is often no solution if a contractor does not carry out his work properly except to terminate the contract.

 

 

 

POINTS TO CONSIDER FOR HIRING CONTRACT SERVICES (CONTRACT SPECIFICATION)

 

1.      Prepare a detailed specification (indicating exact number of working hours, areas, process, frequency, time factor, equipment and materials required etc.).

2.      Put out tenders to at least three contractors and compare their rates.

3.      A description of expected hotel’s quality.

4.      Check out their market credibility.

5.      Check Company’s references thoroughly.

 

6.      Check whether the contractor is registered and licensed under the Contract Labor Act 1970 , Govt. of India

7.      Check and discuss type & amount of training needs to be given to contract workers.

 

8.      Careful study should be made regarding payment methods, termination criteria and procedures

9.      Description for the penalty and cancellation clauses.

 

10.   Check on all other arrangement after the contract is awarded like that of security passes, meal coupons, locker facility, cover of sickness and annual leave, insurance coverage for guest, workers and assets in case of any accident done by or because of contractor employees, equipment or methods of working; etc.

Unit 4 Commercial Cleaning PPT by Deepak Chhikara