1.

0 INTRODUCTION

Housekeeping means performing all the duties towards cleaning, maintaining orderliness,
and running a house or a business property. In case of hotels, the housekeeping duties
involve maintaining the hotel to the best possible state in terms of cleanliness, and keeping
it at highly desirable ambience. According Singh (2015), the work environment of
housekeeping has an impact on efficiency and comfort of the employees. Due to the
physically demanding for the housekeeping, hotel housekeepers need ergonomics solution
to help them more flexible in doing their task and job.

Outsourcing is defined as a subcontracting service or a third party for strategic use of firms
resources, to generate firms values and grow competitive edge. Outsourcing is the process
of transferring the responsibility for an exact business function from an employee group to a
non-employee group. Firms often integrate outsourcing as a strategy in business planning.
By embarking into outsourcing, firms can offer better client service, produce a better
product, and do a better job efficiently. By doing that they are putting those responsibilities
in the hands of professionals (Hamzah et al., 2010).

The hotels adopt outsourcing in order to cope with the globalization and the competitive
environment. In housekeeping department, they will be transferring the hotels activities to
experts/professionals who then will perform those services for the hotels.

2.0 THE PROS OF OUTSOURCING IN HOUSEKEEPING

2.1 REDUCING THE OPERATING COST

One of the reason hotel owners and managers consider outsourcing

housekeeping is because it can help the department to reduce the cost and
save the money. The housekeeping department usually has the highest
turnover rate at a property. Outsourcing the staff help reduce not just the
direct wages and benefits, but also the recruiting and training costs. This is
because when the housekeeping department hire a new staff, they have to
pay out many things, such as benefits and other expenses related to their
position. When housekeeping department hire a staff, it is up to the
department to evaluate their talents and strengths and figure out if they are
 the best housekeeper for the job. However, when housekeeping department
outsource, the housekeepers have already been vetted for. This means the
housekeeping department can rest assure that only the best of the best will
be going to the hotel.

Another benefit is that housekeeping department dont need to keep any

expensive equipment or have any sort of special equipment on hand. They
just need the basics and the outsourced housekeepers should be able to get
the job done. However, many companies that provide housekeepers will have
their own equipment for their employees to use and housekeeping
department can save the money because they wont have to purchase any
type of equipment or cleaning supplies.

2.2 BETTER QUALITY OF SERVICES

Professionals will provide the hotel with the best product or service possible.
Outsourcing in housekeeping department can help them to improve quality
by using vendors with more expertise and more specialized processes.

Outsourcing a department like housekeeping also lets management focus on

guest services and marketing. While guests see the end results of a
housekeepers work, they dont interact with guests the way a front desk
clerk or waitress might, and bringing in outside staffing isnt always a bad
thing for remaining hotel staff or the outside companys staff.. When
organizations go outside their expertise, they get into business functions and
processes that they may not be as knowledgeable about and could potentially
take away from their main focus.

3.0 THE CONS OF OUTSOURCING IN HOUSEKEEPING

3.1 LOST OF MANAGERIAL CONTROL

One of the major problem of outsourcing is the housekeeping department

will have lost the managerial control when they decide to use people who are
not actually from own employee. When the housekeeping department have
the contract with others, the managerial control will belong to another
 company. Housekeeping department cant assume that the outsourcing
company will be driven by the same standards and mission that drives the
department. The outsourcing company will be driven to make profit from the
services that they are providing to housekeeping department and other
similar businesses.

3.2 QUALITY AND SAFETY PROBLEM

The outsourcing company is purely motivated by profit. The housekeeping

department that outsource for other company really dont know what kind of
quality service that they will receive, until they receive it (Pamela, 2017). The
company hired needs to have good backing because there are many
companies out there that just want to have profit. Some of the outsourced
companies care about the dollar and not the customer service. This may
make the hotel lose guests, which can be a major loss of revenue over the
years. Security issue is also another con of outsourcing. Staff that is not
belong to the same department or company will let some of the guest feel
uncomfortable.

4.0 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the housekeeping department is very important to the hotel because they are
responsible to make sure the main products of the hotel are clean and comfortable to the
guests. The clean room and public area can increase the satisfaction of guest and make them
become a re-patronage guests hence increase the profit of the hotel. Staffing a hotels
housekeeping department with reliable personnel can be rather difficult at times. It can
require a detailed hiring process to bring unfamiliar associates on board, and usually an
entire Human Resources staff to handle any needs or requests they may have. One
alternative solution that many hotels are embracing is outsourcing some or all of the various
housekeeping functions to nonhotel staffers. This entails the hotel bringing in a third-party
business to supply the staffing needs. Lastly, in my opinion, I think that outsourcing, or not
outsourcing, is a decision that depends on the type of hotel and the attitude of each
hotelier. There are very different services that can be outsourced but the most delicate ones
are those directly involving clients: laundry, cleaning and janitorial services, restaurant, etc.
Whatever the case be, its not an easy decision to make, and the key is to balance the hotels
own resources and external resources.

5.0 REFERENCES

Here Are The Pros And Cons of Outsourcing Housekeeping For Hotels. (2016, January 11). Retrieved
from Occidental Migue Angel: http://www.miguelangelhotel.com/here-are-the-pros-and-
cons-of-outsourcing-housekeeping-for-hotels/

Honey Tyagi, D. Z. (2015). Outsourcing: A study on Benefits to Housekeeping Department in Hotels.

International Journal of Informative& Futuristic Research, 11.

Johnston, M. (2014, January 5). The Pros & Cons of Outsourced vs In-House Maintenance. Retrieved
from Chem Info: https://www.chem.info/article/2014/05/pros-cons-outsourced-vs-house-
maintenance

Naresh Nayak P, A. P. (2017). Manager's Perspective on Hotel Outsourcing Services. Procedings of the
Seventh Asia-Pacific Conference on Global Business, Economics, 9.

Sebahattin Yildiz, Z. H. (2014). The benifits, risks and effects on performance of the outsourcing:
comparative study of seasonal and permanent hotels. ScienceDirect, 8.

Singh, A. (2014). Hotel Housekeeping Modern Practices, Challenges and Opportunities An

Appraisal. International Journal of Research in IT & Management. Volume 4, Issue 3.

Singh, A. (2015). Hotels Housekeeping Innovative Trends and Modern Practices - An Overview.
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning. Vol. 01, Issue 03, pp. 540-548.