Anyone who works in hotel operations will know the importance of concentrating on “the three C’s” of the guest experience - Communication, Convenience and Choice.
But we believe there’s a fourth ‘C’ that should be added to that list in order to keep your guests happy and returning - and that’s Cleanliness.
Numerous guest surveys over the past few years have revealed that a clean environment is a top priority when staying in a hotel, and that applies not just to bedrooms but all communal spaces too.
A survey conducted by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) revealed that, when booking a hotel, enhanced cleaning and hygiene practices ranked as the second most important factor for guests (after price).
With the majority of travellers (60%) researching hotels on review sites like TripAdvisor before booking accommodation, and given the high level of competition in the hotel sector, you simply can’t afford for guests to write less than positively about cleanliness standards in your hotel.
This is particularly true given that a whopping 71% of travellers will only consider hotels with ‘above average’ cleanliness ratings.
As everyone knows, first impressions count, and that’s certainly true in the hotel business where the warmth of the welcome needs to encompass a clean and pleasant lobby area.
So regular cleaning of lobby floors and corridors is an absolute must to avoid guests immediately reaching for their smartphones to write a negative report.
One survey found that an unclean hotel room is the most common factor that would put people off from returning to a hotel (76%), more than bad service and poor facilities.
So making sure rooms are cleaned thoroughly before a guest arrives (with further cleans during their stay) is also of paramount importance.
Of course, given the current recruitment difficulties being faced by the hospitality sector, maintaining cleaning standards throughout your hotel is no easy task.
According to a recent survey by the British Chambers of Commerce, 83% of businesses in the hospitality and manufacturing sectors in the UK are struggling to recruit, while for hospitality companies the greatest difficulties being experienced are in hiring unskilled workers.
But there is a solution to the lack of manpower: how about making a robot part of your housekeeping team?
We’re not talking about walking, talking robots going around your hotel with dusters and mops, but robot vacuums that can be programmed to switch on automatically and vacuum public areas at any desired time.
Dubbed “cobots” because of their ability to work collaboratively alongside humans, these robots don’t replace housekeeping staff but they can take the load off by vacuuming large floor areas, thus freeing up staff to concentrate on higher-value, more intricate jobs like touchpoint cleaning.
SoftBank’s cleaning robot Whiz can memorise up to 600 cleaning routes, vacuum 1,500 sq m of carpet on a single charge, and provide reports on its performance.
It has a removable battery so it can be replaced with a spare during charging meaning that cleaning is uninterrupted.
The Whiz is equipped with a 3D camera and a lidar (light detection and ranging) system - the same kind of technology used in self-drive cars.
SoftBank Robotics general manager Stefano Bensi says: “The Whiz has one of the best navigation systems in the world, if not the best.
“Its compact size is extremely convenient because it can clean in narrow corridors, and it is very easy and intuitive to use which means cleaners can quickly pick up how it operates.”
He adds: “It’s also much more efficient than manual vacuuming: when people vacuum manually they tend to go backwards and forwards over the same spot which means each metre is vacuumed around 1.7 times. The Whiz will only do it once."
The Sheraton Hotel at London Heathrow Airport is using two Whiz robots to clean its 1.6km of corridors. With many guests sleeping during the daytime, the silent nature of Whiz has made it the perfect technology solution, while staff are enjoying the extra time they now have to focus on cleaning bedrooms.
Hotel general manager René Mooren says: “When I ask Dorota, the head of housekeeping, she says it is just a fantastic team member, or team members as they call them now - ‘Bob’ and ‘Matt’. They are fully integrated and they love them because they take a lot of tasks away so that they can focus more on the more complicated tasks.
“We get a lot of guest comments, all quite positive, curious, but not one negative comment."
So with Whiz, not only do your guests get that all-important clean environment during their stay, but they can also enjoy the novelty of seeing an autonomous cleaner working alongside its human colleagues.
Simply put, Whiz can boost staff satisfaction, guest satisfaction, and make your hotel stand out as a trailblazing business at the forefront of adopting new technologies.
Find out more about Whiz here.