A. Decide whether each of the following statements is true or false. 2 страница

10. What is a landscape gardener or architect?

Housekeeping, Maintenance, Engineering

Hotels sell service rather than a product, or, to put it another way, service is their product. Nevertheless, each has a large physical "plant" with complex equipment and machinery that must be maintained in good working order. From the point of view of the customer, the most important part of the plant is the guest room. In a sense, it is possible to say that a clean and attractive room is the product that the accommodations industry offers. This makes the housekeeping department of primary importance in the operation of any hotel, from the smallest motel to the most deluxe luxury establishment.

A small hotel may employ only a few chambermaids to work under the supervision of the manager or his wife. A large hotel is likely to have a large department headed by an executive housekeeper, with several assistants and many chambermaids and housemen. In either case, the housekeeping effort demands a considerable variety of materials, such as cleaning materials, bed linens, pillows, towels, paper products, matchbooks, ashtrays, stationery, and so forth. The list could go on to include all the items that are found in a normal hotel room or are used to keep it clean and attractive. For example, each hotel bed is considered to require five changes of linens, in other words, sheets and pillow cases. Since these are laundered with great frequency, they wear out much more quickly than bed linens in normal domestic use. It is necessary, therefore, to order new linens regularly so that the supply does not fall below the minimum amount that has been established. Some items— washcloths and ashtrays—wear out or disappear (many guests take them as souvenirs) even more quickly.

Again, in discussing housekeeping, we will take the large commercial or resort hotel as the standard, with the understanding that a small establishment would have a similar but simpler operation. Perhaps the major difference is that many of the functions that are handled in-house in a large hotel are carried out on a contract basis in a smaller place. It is a matter for the hotel management, based on an analysis of the hotel's accounts, to decide at what point it becomes less expensive to lure the necessary staff on a permanent basis to perform all or most of the housekeeping chores.

The head or executive housekeeper is in charge of this complex work area. Under her, since it is most often a woman, several assistants may be in charge of work assignments, uniforms for the staff, linen supplies, cleaning supplies, and the laundry and sewing rooms. In addition, inspectors or supervisors often check on the work being done by the chambermaids and housemen.

The actual work of cleaning and caring for the guest rooms is performed by the chambermaids. Again, in most hotels these employees are women. Their duties include making or changing beds, dusting furniture, sweeping or cleaning floors and carpets, washing bathrooms, replacing towels and washcloths, and supplying the rooms with, the items that arc specified by management or custom. In addition, they are expected to report any signs damage or wear and tear that may make repairs necessary. Depending on the type of operation, a chambermaid should be able to clean between ten and twenty rooms a day.

Chambermaids have a limited amount of contact with the guests. A guest may ask the chambermaid to make up his room at a certain time, or he may indicate he does not want to be disturbed at all. Almost all hotels provide signs that the guest can hang on the doorknob in either of these cases. In addition, guests frequently ask chambermaids for items that are supplied by the housekeeping department, such as matchbooks, irons, special pillows, or pitchers of cold water. In some hotels, the chambermaids pick up and deliver clothing for the laundry and valet service. In other hotels, particularly in the luxury class, there is a nightly "turn-down service," in which the bed covers are turned down to make the bed look more inviting.

Heavier chores are performed by men who are usually called housemen. Their work involves window-washing, shampooing carpets, removing and cleaning draperies, cleaning the public areas of the hotel, polishing metal, and many other tasks that might be considered beyond the physical capacities of women. The housemen also run errands for the housekeeping department, such as filling guests' requests for special pillows, extra hangers, cribs for infants, irons and ironing boards, and hair dryers.

The hotel laundry and valet service (for dry cleaning and pressing) are also parts of the housekeeper's domain. The hotel's own work is the biggest part of the laundry's job: washing the hundreds or thousands of sheets, towels, tablecloths, and napkins that are soiled during every day of the hotel's operation. The same is true of the valet service, which cares for the uniforms of the hotel staff. Laundry and valet service must also, of course, provide quick and efficient service to guests who need clothes washed, cleaned, or pressed.

Still another part of the housekeeping job is handling lost and found articles. Guests frequently misplace or leave behind their personal possessions in hotel rooms. These articles usually show up when the chambermaid makes up the room. They are then turned over to the housekeeper, who stores them until they are claimed or disposed of in some other way.

The housekeeping staff must coordinate its activities closely with the front desk. The front desk provides the housekeeper with a list of rooms that are being vacated so that they can be cleaned and made available to be rented again as soon as possible. The front desk also notifies the housekeeper of the arrival of VIPs, very important persons, since many hotels provide gifts or special services for these guests. VIPs in the hotel world are not only celebrities, but also regular and frequent guests of the hotel.

In addition to the housekeeper, some large hotels have an interior decorator on the executive staff. The decorator is responsible for the appearance of the hotel and its rooms. This involves the style of furniture, the color scheme, the draperies, the pictures on the wall, the lighting, and so on. The interior decorator works closely with the housekeeper to select fabrics, materials, and equipment that arc inexpensive and easy to clean and maintain.

Hotel personnel constantly do repair and maintenance work. This includes painting rooms and public areas, repairing worn or damaged furniture, repairing plumbing and lighting fixtures, doing upholstery work, patching carpets, and the hundreds of other chores that are necessary to keep the physical plant up to the established standard. A few large hotels maintain their own workshops for such tasks as carpentry and upholstering. Many hotels also employ their own painters, who refurbish the guest rooms and the public areas on a regular schedule. One repainting a year is usually sufficient in normal circumstances, but damage to a room may make a special paint job necessary.

In some hotels, engineering is a separate operation from mainte­nance. In these cases, the engineering department is responsible for the mechanical equipment. A modern hotel uses a great deal of complicated equipment, involving its heating and air-conditioning systems, elevators, escalators, electricity, and plumbing, to name only the most important. Technicians in all of these specialities are employed under the supervision of a chief engineer. Their real job is not so much to repair damage as to prevent if We have already observed that a guest room that is out of service cannot produce any income for the hotel. Through techniques that prevent damage and wear, the housekeeping, maintenance, and engineering staffs try to keep as many rooms in service as possible.

Some hotels, particularly those in the resort category, have exterior grounds that must be maintained as carefully as the hotel's interior. For these hotels, the head groundskeeper has a staff of gardeners and maintenance men who water lawns, cut grass, plant and tend flowers, shrubs, and trees, and carry out other necessary tasks. A few hotels employ a landscape gardener or architect, who works with the head groundskeeper as the interior decorator works with the housekeeper. The landscape gardener, in other words, designs the grounds and gardens but asks the advice of the groundskeeper in order to avoid maintenance problems.

All of the jobs that we have discussed in this unit belong to the back of the house. To a considerable extent, they are performed out of sight of the hotel guests, but they are vital components in a smooth and efficient hotel operation. Most of the guests in a hotel are unaware of the facilities in the back of the house, such as the line) rooms, the storage areas for extra furniture and equipment, the workshops for carpentry and upholstering, the heating and air conditioning units, and all the other parts of the hotel that provide comfort to the guests. The design and location of these facilities are a] important aspect in a successful operation. To take just one example rooms must be cleaned and linens must be changed on a daily basis. If the linen storage room is located in the basement, the elevators must be used to take the chambermaids and their carts, to the floors where they will work. This ties up the elevators and may therefor inconvenience the guests. It also reduces the time during which the chambermaids can clean their assigned rooms. For these reasons, it is advisable to provide a storage area for housekeeping supplies on each floor. To further increase efficiency, the housemen on the night shift can be given the responsibility of making sure that the chambermaid carts are fully supplied for the next day.

A hotel operates twenty-four hours a day. This is true of back-of the-house and front-of-the-house functions. Good organization an efficient utilization of the quiet night hours are factors that help to run a hotel smoothly.

Discussion

1. Why is housekeeping a department of primary importance in any hotel operation?

2. How does the housekeeping department in a large hotel differ from one in a small establishment?

3. What are some of the products that are used in the housekeeping department of a hotel?

4. What are some of the items that wear out quickly or disappear and must therefore be replaced at frequent intervals?

5. Who decides whether a hotel should hire its own housekeeping and maintenance staffs, or let out the work on a contract basis?

6. Who is in charge of housekeeping in a large hotel? Who works under this person?

7. Who does the actual work of cleaning and caring for the guest rooms? What do the duties of these employees include?

8. In what ways do these chambermaids come in contact with the guests?

9. What is a turn-down service?

10. Who performs the heavier housekeeping chores in a hotel? What do these chores include?

11. What does a hotel's laundry and valet service offer the guests? What services are performed for the hotel itself?

12. Why does a hotel need a lost and found service? Who takes care of this job?

13. How are the activities of the front desk closely coordinated with those of the housekeeping department?

14. What is the responsibility of a hotel interior decorator? Why is this job closely coordinated with the housekeeping department?

15. What different kinds of maintenance work are necessary in a hotel?

16. What docs the engineering department do in a large hotel?

17. Why do housekeeping, maintenance, and engineering all try to keep as many rooms as possible in service?

18. What do hotel groundskeepers do?

19. Why does a hotel landscape gardener or architect work closely with the head groundskeeper?

20. What facilities are found in the back of the house in most hotels?

21. Why is the design and location of service areas important to a successful hotel operation?

22. How can the work of the night shift contribute to the efficient operation of the hotel?

Review

A. Indicate whether each of the following statements is true or false.

1. Housekeeping is a vital function in a hotel because the product of the hotel is, in a sense, a clean and attractive room.

2. Housekeeping is a very simple operation that requires only a few chambermaids, even in a large hotel.

3. Hotel linens wear out at the same rate as those used in a private household.

4. The head of the housekeeping department in a hotel is usually a woman.

5. Chambermaids are not expected to report any damage or wear that they notice in the rooms they clean.

6. When a guest has hung a "Do Not Disturb" sign on his door, the chambermaid may enter the room, but she must knock first.

7. Chambermaids take care of cleaning the public areas of even very large hotels.

8. Housemen have contact with guests when they are asked to do errands for them.

9. Performing work for the guests is the biggest part of the job of a hotel laundry and valet service.

10. It is not necessary for the housekeeper and the front desk to work together closely, for their problems are so different.

11. Hotel VIPs are not only celebrities, but also regular and frequent guests of the

12. Hotel guest rooms are usually repainted at least once a year, but damage or unusually heavy wear and tear may make more frequent painting necessary.

13. Several guest rooms out of service at the same time is not an important problem to the manage­ment of the hotel.

14. The most important aspect of the engineering work in a hotel is to help prevent damage or breakdowns

15. Most of the functions in the back of the house are out of sight of the guests.

16. The guests are not inconvenienced when the hotel elevators are tied up by chambermaids' carts or other service functions.

17. Good hotel design demands careful location of storage and other service areas.

18. Hotels never need a night housekeeping shift, because all work can be done efficiently during the day.

B. In this unit we have discussed the wide variety of chores that must be performed in a hotel. Many are listed below. Indicate whether you think each would be performed by the housekeeping, mainte­nance, engineering, or grounds department of a large hotel. Also, where appropriate, indicate the particular person who would perform the chore.

Example: Making beds in guest room Housekeeping,chambermaid

1. Replacing worn-out carpet-ing. __________________

2. Changing a burned-out light-bulb in a lamp in a guest room. __________________

3. Repairing worn-out electric wire for a lamp in a guest room. __________________

4. Setting up an infant's crib in a guest room. __________________

5. Replacing the stationery in a guest room. __________________

6. Washing hotel bathroom, bedroom, and dining-room linens. __________________

7. Making preventive inspec­tion of the elevator mecha­nism. __________________

8. Repairing the damaged leg of a chair. __________________

9. Polishing the brass nameplate at the main entrance to the hotel. __________________

10. Watering the hotel lawn. __________________

11. Placing matchbooks in a guest room __________________

12. Painting a guest room. __________________

13. Vacuuming the carpets in the hallways. __________________

14. Replanting flowers outside the hotel on a seasonal basis. __________________

15. Placing a gift basket of fruit in the room of a VIP. __________________

16. Washing the windows. __________________

17. Operating the heating sys­tem. __________________

18. Cutting the grass outside the building. __________________

19. Repairing a damaged air-conditioning unit. __________________

20. Replacing worn-out uphol-stery on a chair. __________________

21. Storing lost and found items. __________________

22. Sewing up a tear in a hotel employee's uniform. __________________

23. Selecting the style of furni­ture to be used in the hotel guest rooms. __________________

24. Replacing draperies that have been cleaned. __________________

UNIT FIVE

FOOD AND BEVERAGE SERVICE

Special Terms

Continental Breakfast: A breakfast customarily consisting of bread or rolls and coffee.

Concession: A form of license, granted for a fee by the hotel owner to an outside company, to conduct business on the hotel premises. For example, a company that contracts to operate the hotel's restaurants is said to have the food concession. The person or firm that performs the service is the concessionaire.

Room Service: The supplying, on demand, of food and beverage service to the guest rooms of a hotel.

Napery: Table linens such as tablecloths and napkins.

Storekeeper: The person in charge of storing and issuing food, beverages, and kitchen and dining-room supplies in a hotel food and beverage service department.

Chef: A French word, designating a head cook in American usage. Many large kitchen organizations distinguish between the head or executive chef, who plans and supervises the cooking, and the cook, who actually does the cooking itself. There are also many specialized chefs, who prepare sauces, salads, desserts, and so on.

Kitchen Helper: An employee who does such chores as cutting up vegetables in a kitchen.

Waiter/Waitress: A waiter is a male and a waitress is female. In a restaurant, these are the employees who go to the customers' tables, take their orders, and then bring the prepared food to the tables.

Captain: The employee who seats a guest in a restaurant. In some restaurants, he may also take the guest's order. This employee is also known sometimes as the maitre d', from the French maitre d'hotel. In larger restaurants, there may be a maitre d' and several captains under his supervision. A woman who greets and seats the guests in a restaurant is known as. a hostess. The duties of the captain, the maitre d' and the hostess may vary according to management policies.

Busboy: A restaurant employee who pours water, empties ashtrays, cleans the tables, and so forth.

Wine Steward: A restaurant employee who serves wines and some­times other drinks. This person is called the sommelier in French, an expression also used in English.

Bartender: The employee who mixes and serves drinks at a bar or in a cocktail lounge.

Pantry: A small room for storing dishes and other kitchen or dining room equipment. It often has facilities for warming food.

Snack Bar: A place where fast food service is available. Fast food is food that can be cooked quickly without much prior preparation, such as hamburgers.

Vocabulary Practice

1. What is a continental breakfast?

2. What is a concession? What is the person or firm called that performs such a service?

3. What does room service involve?

4. What is napery?

5. What does the storekeeper in a hotel food and beverage service department do?

6. Who is a chef? What is the distinction between a chef and a cook?

7. What does a kitchen helper do

8. What do waiters and waitresses do?

9. What does a captain in a restaurant do? What is another term for captain?

10. What is a hostess?

11. What does a busboy in a restaurant do?

12. What does a wine steward do? What is another expression for the same job?

13. What does a bartender do?

14. What is a pantry?

15. What is a snack bar?

Food and Beverage Service

Virtually every modem hotel offers some form of food and beverage service. In some, facilities are available only for a conti­nental breakfast—that is, a light meal of bread or rolls and coffee while others have a small coffee shop or restaurant on the premises. In many small hotels or motels, these food services are often operated on a concession basis: the facility is leased to an outside operator the concessionaire, who pays the owners of the hotel either a fixed rent or a percentage of the income. Many other hotels have complete restaurant service and also offer room service for guests who desire food and beverages served to them in their rooms. Large hotels, including the more luxurious resort hotels, usually offer a variety of restaurants and bars for their guests to choose from. The restaurants may have different price ranges and/or different menus.

Food and beverage service is a major factor in hotel operation. In some large hotels, the income derived from this source actually exceeds income from room rentals. The food and beverage income in many hotels is increased by providing service for banquets and conventions, which we will discuss in the next unit.

Because of the large proportion of income contributed by a hotel's bars and restaurants, the food and beverage manager is a key member of the management staff. Although he reports to the manager of the hotel, he often enjoys a considerable degree of discretion and freedom of action within his own department. He has the overall responsibility for planning the food and drink operation and purchasing the hundreds of items that arc necessary for the restaurants and bars. Because food can spoil quickly, ordering supplies is a daily activity. In a very large establishment, two people may be assigned to this task—one to order food and the other to order wines and spirits. The purchase and care of some items, such as table linens—sometimes called napery—оr aprons for the kitchen help, must be closely coordinated with the housekeeping department. The food and beverage manager's staff may also include a storekeeper, who stores and issues food, beverages, and restaurant and kitchen supplies.

The kitchen itself is almost a separate kingdom within the hotel. The head cook, almost always designated by the French word chef, is the boss of this hot, steamy, and at times chaotic area. The chef is responsible for planning the menus—that is, the food that is being served on a particular day—and for supervising the work of the other chefs and cooks. In very large or elaborate setups, the head cook is called the executive chef, and his responsibilities are largely those of a manager. He plans, purchases, and frequently coordinates the opera­tion of several restaurants

Depending on the size of the establishment, several assistant chefs report to the chef. These include a sauce chef, a salad chef, a vegetable chef, and so on. Under the chefs are the cooks who actually cook the food and then place it on the plate for the waiters to pick up. Under the cooks' supervision are the kitchen helpers who, for example, peel potatoes, cut up vegetables, and bring food from the storeroom to the kitchen. The kitchen staff also includes dishwashers, even in a kitchen equipped with electrical appliances, since pots and pans usually need special attention, and someone must load and unload the machines.

In the restaurant, as well as in the kitchen, there are also different kinds of jobs. The person who seats the guests is called a captain or maitre d' (short for maitre d'hotel, another French expression that keeps appearing in the hotel and restaurant business), or a hostess, if a woman. In restaurants with a very formal style of service, the captain also takes the guests' orders. The meals are served by waiters or waitresses. In less formal restaurants, the waiters and waitresses take orders and serve the meals. Most restaurants also employ busboys, who pour water, clear and set tables, and perform other similar chores. In some restaurants, however, the waiters and waitresses carry out these tasks. In an elaborate restaurant, there is often an employee called the wine steward, or sommelier, who takes orders for wine and sometimes for other alcoholic drinks. Finally, there are cashiers who receive payment or signed bills from the guests. When the guest puts his restaurant bill on his hotel account, this information must be passed along to the accounting office as quickly as possible.

In addition to a restaurant, most hotels also have a bar or cocktail lounge where drinks are served. Bartenders work behind the bar, which, of course, is the long counter familiar throughout the world. (Note that the word bar is used both to denote the room in which the drinks are served and the counter itself.) They mix drinks and serve them to the customers at the bar. Additional waiters or waitresses arc needed to serve customers who are seated at tables. In a very busy bar, one bartender may fill orders only for the waiters and waitresses, while others take care of the guests at the bar. The bartenders usually act as cashiers in addition to their other duties. The bar or cocktail lounge may also offer food service, although it is usually simpler than the food served in the hotel dining room. Fast food, such as sandwiches or hamburgers, is customary.

Providing meals and drinks in the guests' rooms is another service extended by most hotels. Room service is ordered by telephone. me from a menu that is placed in each room. The menu itself in some cases is the same as the one for the dining room, but more often it is simplified to make for easier preparation and service. Special employees take the orders and special waiters carry them to the rooms. To cut down on orders for ice and soft drinks, many hotels nowadays have machines on each floor to dispense these items.

Room service in most hotels closes down at the same time the kitchen does, normally between ten o'clock and midnight. A few hotels, however, are prepared to provide sandwiches even during the late-night hours. Some luxury hotels have small kitchens or pantries on each floor that are used either for warming food or for preparing breakfasts. More room service orders are for breakfast than for any other meal. In some hotels, the guest can order breakfast before he goes to bed by filling out a slip which he leaves outside his door. The meal is then served at the time the guest has specified.

Even in hotels with more than one restaurant, there is usually just one central kitchen. The special types of food served in the various restaurants are normally prepared by different chefs and cooks rather than in separate kitchens. The food and beverage service is then supplemented and the delivery of it speeded up by means of service bars and pantries. There are, of course, exceptions to this arrange­ment, but the efficient use of space dictates it as general practice. Like the housekeeping department, the food and beverage depart­ment needs additional space for storage of the many items that must be kept on hand for the restaurants and bars. These items include not only the food and beverages themselves, but items such as table linens, dishes, knives, forks, spoons, plate warmers, trays, ashtrays, aprons, and dish towels.

One food and beverage facility that is often not connected with the main hotel kitchen is the snack bar. The snack bar is a small unit that provides fast-order food and drink service to guests who are using the hotel's swimming pool or some other recreational facility. Snack bars are a prominent feature of resort hotels. Where the recreational facilities are in great demand, the snack bar often has its own staff of cooks, usually of the short-order variety, and waiters or waitresses.

We have previously noted that hotels generally employ a large number of workers in proportion to the number of guests; this is especially true in the food and beverage department. The restaurant business as a whole is one of the most labor-intensive of all industries, and this is true whether the restaurant is in a hotel or not. Much of the activity in connection with food and beverage service is invisible to the guests (the bustle of the kitchen, for example), but many of the employees in the department have frequent contact with them. These especially include the dining room and room service personnel. They must adhere to the same standards of hospitality and courtesy as all the other employees who meet and talk with the guests in the hotel.

Discussion

1. What kinds of food and beverage service are offered by hotels?

2. Why is food and beverage service a major factor in hotel operations?

3. Why is the food and beverage manager a key member of the management staff? What is his overall responsibility?

4. What employees may work on the food and beverage manager's staff?

5. Who is the head of the kitchen staff? What is he responsible for?

6. What does the job of an assistant chef consist of?

7. Who are some of the other employees in the kitchen?

8. What are the duties of the captain in a restaurant?

9. What are the duties of the waiters and, waitresses? What may they do in restaurants that do not have a formal style of service?

10. Who performs chores such as clearing and setting tables?

11. Who takes orders for wine and other drinks in some restau­rants?

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