W Fort Lauderdale turns heads with productivity and savings

Before October 2013, the property’s “Room Stylists” received their assignments on paper at the beginning of their shifts. Management was at the mercy of stylists to get to the rooms they needed first.

Lydie Medley, Director of Rooms at the property, tells me that she still cannot believe how she managed the Style department spread out over 23 floors, in two towers with 346 guestrooms and 171 condo-hotel units, without any automation. The phone and radio were her only method of communication.

Supervisors physically had to walk the floors to get room status updates which left them with minimal time to delegate, inspect, and effectively communicate with their team. Over 50% of their time was spent on searching for their stylists, rushing rooms, and continuously updating reports. Everything was manually recorded and office coordinators were spending over 75% of their time answering calls and dispatching requests instead of monitoring the progress of guestroom statuses and stylists’ performance.

Todays Work Style

Today, the daily workflow of the style operations is totally automated. Stylists receive their assignments on their smart device and manage their rooms based on how management has prioritized their daily business needs. Supervisors sign onto their tablets and manage their day and their sections in real-time and view their stylists’ progress. They are immediately notified when rooms are ready for inspection to maximize the number of inspections performed and allow shorter wait times for guests to check-in. The stylists’ performance score is automated and shared with the stylist who can then see what areas require attention or improvement.

The Style Supervisors use Mobile Rooms Coach (MRC), a customized inspection module designed by the Amadeus Service Optimization development team, tailored to Starwood properties. Lydie tells me that MRC allows her to better engage her stylists, identify deficiencies, and reward great performance.

Since the inception of Amadeus Service Optimization – HotSOS Housekeeping at the property in 2013, the productivity of the stylists has soared by almost 19%. This translates to an average labor cost savings of $1.70 per guestroom. The property has averaged $110K in labor cost savings in 2014 and 2015.

Tracking actions performed in every room is something Lydie really appreciates. She says that before HotSOS Housekeeping, it was hard to know if a guest complained about not receiving service, and why the service did not occur. The hotel had to compensate for the inconvenience hoping to rectify the guest experience. This is now part of the past. Today, the reporting functionality in HotSOS Housekeeping allows her to track actions, performance and better forecast operational trends.

At Amadeus, we’re unifying hospitality technology and bringing solutions together in a simplified component-based platform. In this way, hospitality professionals don’t have to worry about interfaces and integrations, leaving them with time to focus on what really matters: the guests. Visit the Amadeus Hospitality site for more about our solutions.