Following a crazy busy Festival period in Edinburgh this summer, we had a team day where we reflected on the good and the bad and what we can do better next year but also put together some things that made life easier for the housekeepers.
Entry & Exit times: We found it really useful that a lot of our landlords this year let us know when guests were leaving early or arriving late. This meant that we could start before the normal 10/11am and work on after the normal 3pm deadline. We were therefore more able to accommodate early check ins/bag drops.
Linen & Stock: We provide the linen to most of our landlords, especially over the busy periods. We try to have a full set available in the property before the clean and then when we collect the dirty, (after the housekeeper has been) we check nothing has been missed and leave a clean set for the next turn. This works really well as it means you can benefit from the early check outs mentioned above without having to co-ordinate the linen delivery as well. For consumables, we have begun to move to refillable toiletries and try to store spare toilet rolls at the property to prevent last minute panics!
Rubbish: some guests are great at taking out their rubbish and some are not. A nicely worded paragraph in their checking out instructions or a notice in the property explaining where they should put their rubbish and the local recycling facilities really helps. A number of our properties also have notices reminding people to empty the fridge before they depart. Housekeepers love this!
Mattress Protectors: Our recommendation is to have 2 mattress protectors on at any one time. A deep sided waterproof one underneath and a breathable one on top. If you can, have a spare top one available at the property. When the housekeepers notice it needs changed they can quickly do that rather than having to wait for the next change to bring a spare.
Pillows: A good nights sleep really is affected by the quality of your pillow! Also flat worn out pillows are very difficult to make look good on a freshly made bed! A pillow protector will extend the life of your pillows, but please do replace the pillows regularly.
Bathrooms and Mould – In addition to increased usage of bathrooms due to sofabeds and extra guests in festival lets **, the increased temperature and humidity during the summer leads to more mould growth. To try to decrease the growth in your bathrooms, make sure your bathroom fans are working, and ask guests to ensure they are switched on when they use the bathroom. Many guests turn them off at the isolator switch at night and then forget to turn them back on. It only takes a couple of days to start the mould growth. If you ask your guests and housekeepers to be aware of the fans, you should be able to minimise the mould growth. You may also like to have a spare shower curtain on site, should you need to remove one for a good wash. And a new tip I have found recently – those plastic non-slip bath mats that should be in all properties where you don’t have a non-slip shower/bath, they can go in the washing machine. (** A 2 bedroom flat on a long let might have 2 professional tenants, while during the festival, will more often than not, have at least 4 guests, if not more with the use of sofabeds. Thus the wear and tear to your bathroom is double to triple.)
Welcome packs – We usually provide a packet of shortbread and a pint of milk as well as ensuring that tea, coffee and sugar are all kept topped up. This summer, though, we noticed a number of pints of milk not being touched for guest after guest, we also found that on occasion, some pints had unfortunately gone off, despite still being ‘in date’. I am beginning to think that maybe providing the milk is unnecessary. What do you think?
I hope this has been of some help to you, and if you have any other tips and ideas to add please feel free to share and hopefully we can all be prepared for an even more successful year ahead.
