Importance of Preventive Maintenance for a Hotel - Facilities Management

This report analyzes the importance of preventive maintenance for a hotel, focusing on the benefits, categories of maintenance, and outsourcing in facilities management. It also discusses the responsibilities of the facilities manager after outsourcing.

Running head: FACILITTIES MANAGEMENT
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
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Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to analyze the importance of preventive maintenance for a hotel.
The report summarizes that preventive measures can not only benefit a hotel in terms of
productive use of labor, but also in terms of various costs. The report analyses why and how a
particular equipment like a smoke alarm should be maintained to avoid disruptions in the
facilities department. It also concludes that under some circumstances, facility management
tasks have to be outsourced to external contractors. However, the facilities manager retains
some responsibilities even after the outsourcing.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Discussion..............................................................................................................................3
Maintenance in Hotels (Q1)...................................................................................................3
2.1 Categories of Maintenance in Hotels...............................................................................3
2.1.1 Establishment’s Benefits...............................................................................................5
2.2 Preventive Maintenance of an Equipment.......................................................................6
2.2.1 Preventive Maintenance Instruction..............................................................................6
2.2.2 Inspection Guidelines....................................................................................................7
2.2.3 Preventive Maintenance Schedule................................................................................7
2.3 Benefits of Preventive Maintenance in Productive Labor Use and Costs.......................7
2.4 Outsourcing in Facilities Management (Circumstances) (Q2).........................................8
2.5 Responsibilities of Facilities Manager After Outsourcing...............................................9
3. Conclusion............................................................................................................................11

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1. Introduction
The hotel industry has been one of the fastest growing industries in the recent
decades, and hence, maintenance has been a key factor to ensure that the operations of the
hotels continue without hindrances (Chan, Lee & Burnett, 2011). It is a crucial factor to
ensure that guests do not get the scope to complain on any aspect about the functioning and
the quality of service that a hotel provides, thus enhancing the brand image of the hotel
(Sigwau & Enz, 2013). This report will be focusing on the maintenance department of a hotel
and attempt at assessing the various maintenance departments and their importance to the
establishment. In order to serve that purpose, the discussion in this report will be focusing on
the key questions. These questions include what the key categories of maintenance in a hotel
are, their significance to the hotels, how preventive maintenance of a regular equipment
should be outlined, and how preventive maintenance contributes to the productive use of
labor and other costs associated with it. It would be also discussing about outsourcing of
facilities management tasks, and how some job roles of the facilities manager remain the
same even after outsourcing.
2. Discussion
Maintenance in Hotels (Q1)
2.1 Categories of Maintenance in Hotels
The various categories of maintenance in a hotel involves:
 Preventive Maintenance
 Routine Maintenance
 Scheduled Maintenance
 Emergency and Breakdown Maintenance

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In the first type of maintenance, focus is given on maintaining equipment that are in
regular use for the proper provision of service by the hotel. The principle is that the
particular equipment are of utmost importance, and hence, must be monitored and
maintained regularly so that they do not breakdown and cause a situation of operational
crisis in the hotel (Cesarotti & Spada, 2018). For example, it is important to regularly
monitor and maintain the smoke alarm, which is used almost on a daily basis to detect
smoke. If not maintained well enough, it could suffer a breakdown, which could be
disastrous for the establishment during an unfortunate event.
Routine maintenance is a category of maintenance in which some routinely specific
maintenance tasks are undertaken which are dedicated towards the upkeep of the property
(Chan, Lee & Burnett, 2013). These maintenance activities are carried out on a regular
basis and no formal order from the operational authority is required to initiate these
maintenance activities, indicating that these are mandatory maintenance activities. The
activities include general maintenance tasks without which a hotel would lose out on
basic features such as the cleanliness and aesthetic appeal of it. For example, generally
every hotel undergoes lawn-mowing about once a week, to ensure that the length and
amount of grass is acceptable for the guests and the lawn does not look clumsy or
unhygienic.
Scheduled maintenance tasks are those maintenance tasks which are carried out on a
formal order, on specific schedules, to check the functioning and efficiency of particular
equipment. The order of these maintenance tasks specifies problems and needs to be
addressed, and has to be carried out in the property following a scheduled manner
(Paraskevas, 2017). Sometimes, these are in some way a form of preventive maintenance.
For example, checking oil levels in a vehicle or a machine to ensure that it does not run
out of oil while in function.

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The emergency and breakdown form of maintenance looks after maintaining
equipment that are not of critical importance for the upkeep of the property. However, the
principle behind this form of maintenance is that these equipment might be required on
some occasions in the future, and hence, restoring or maintaining them is important as a
preventive measure. For example, refilling the fire extinguisher or lubricating the
emergency doors from time to time.
2.1.1 Establishment’s Benefits
The categories of maintenance discussed above are of critical value to the hotel in
many ways. For example, preventive maintenance ensures that equipment which are required
on a daily or a frequent basis do not malfunction. This ensures that the establishment does not
come to a standstill as far as housekeeping is concerned, when an important equipment like a
box sweeper malfunctions. Maintaining the equipment to prevent a possible breakdown of
them, not only lets the establishment provide a quality housekeeping service, but also helps it
in customer retention and satisfaction arising out of the brand image.
Routine maintenance helps an establishment create and maintain the aesthetic and
visual appeal of an establishment, which increases can increase both brand value and brand
image of the establishment, and attract more guests and satisfy them with the ambience of the
hotel, since it is the most important aspect which any hotel would look for. On the other hand,
scheduled maintenance activities ensure that the hotel does not fall in a situation of crisis or
emergency with one of its equipment when it is most required, and also ensure that its
maintenance activities are undertaken and completed on time and does not disrupt the
schedule of the housekeeping department. Emergency and breakdown maintenance ensures
that the establishment can make use of certain equipment which are rarely used, in
emergency situations, so as to effectively use alternative ways or handle crisis situations
when required. Failing to do this would otherwise lead to a chaos in the property.

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2.2 Preventive Maintenance of an Equipment
The equipment to be referred to in this section of the report, is a ‘Smoke alarm.’
The above picture is of a smoke alarm. This machine is used for alerting people in case of
smoke of any form being detected by its sensors, to ensure that quick action is taken against
the spread of fire inside a premise (Nakajima, 2015).
2.2.1 Preventive Maintenance Instruction
 Regular brooming of the smoke alarm.
 Vacuum cleaning around the vents of the detector to ensure that dust particles do not
get accumulated.
 Spraying insect sprays around the surface of the smoke alarm, in a way that the spray
does not come in contact with the sensors.
 Replacing the batteries regularly.

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2.2.2 Inspection Guidelines
 It must be regularly checked that the sensor is clean.
 The sensors should be checked by pressing the test button.
 Battery levels must be checked on a regular basis.
2.2.3 Preventive Maintenance Schedule
Day of The Week Maintenance Task to Undertake
Sunday Brooming the surface of the smoke alarm.
Monday Checking battery levels.
Tuesday Vacuum cleaning around the vents.
Wednesday Spraying insect sprays.
Thursday Testing the sensors.
Friday Inspecting the cleanliness of the sensors.
Saturday Brooming the surface of the alarm.
2.3 Benefits of Preventive Maintenance in Productive Labor Use and Costs
Preventive maintenance ensures that labors do not get caught up in their duties due to
breakdown of equipment. Since most of these equipment require manual handling, the
smooth and productive functioning of the equipment will automatically ensure smooth and
productive use of labor as well. In other words, if a labor is working with a fully and
efficiently functioning equipment, his work would be much more productive and less time
consuming than if he were to work with an ill maintained machine. The principle here is that
properly functioning machines reduce the effort required manually to get a work done.
Hence, labors can use lesser effort for a work if he is working with a fully efficient machine.

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In terms of cost, it should be noted that maintenance of equipment to ensure that they
do not malfunction incurs some cost to the establishment. However, it saves the
establishment from incurring higher costs (Chan, 2018) in the event of breakdown of a
machine due to poor preventive maintenance. For example, if the equipment breaks down, the
cost of repairing could be higher than the maintenance cost of the equipment. If worse, the
establishment might even have to purchase a new equipment, which would be even higher
(Johanson & Nilsson, 2014). Apart from monetary costs, preventive maintenance also recues
the establishment from incurring costs like poor customer satisfaction, operational standstills
in housekeeping, and a drop in brand image (Dagger, David & Ng, 2013). This is the reason
why preventive maintenance is of so much importance in the hotel industry.
2.4 Outsourcing in Facilities Management (Circumstances) (Q2)
There are various circumstances under which a facilities manager might want to
outsource a particular facilities management task to an external contractor. These
circumstances are to be discussed in the following paragraphs.
Firstly, outsourcing a service can be cheaper than what is needed to be paid to
internal employees for getting the same work done (Usher, 2013). There could be some
instances where the general manager would order the facilities manager to get a particular
task outsourced since it would be best for the economy of the establishment. This generally
happens when the establishment in need to save its finances for various reasons. At that time,
it is important that a facilities manager outsources a particular task to an outside contractor,
who would be able to professionally get the task done for the establishment. This would in
turn help the establishment in terms of cost effectiveness, arising out of procedure and labor
optimization (Drion, Melissen & Wood, 2012).

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Secondly, the services of an external contractor would be highly time efficient, as
they are professionals in those tasks, and earn their business from it. At times, it could be
observed that the internal employees of the establishment are struggling hard to cope up with
the tight schedule. In those times, the facilities manager might want to outsource the tasks to
an external contractor. This would improve the timeliness of the task which is required to be
done.
A facilities manager might also want to outsource a task if he thinks that a particular
task or a set of tasks is not meeting the requirement in terms of quality within the
establishment. Quality is of foremost importance for a facilities manager, and if he thinks that
the quality which is being met by the internal employees is not upto the hotel standards, he
could well consider outsourcing it to external contractors, once again because they are highly
skilled professionals earning their business from it.
Another circumstance is flexibility (Hui & Tsang, 2014). An organization is ever
changing in accordance to the dynamic market needs and demands of the clients. Hence,
there could be a lot of different approaches which the establishment would need to consider
adopting, in order to meet those needs. These changes may not be well adapted to by the
internal employees of the establishment. Therefore, the organization might be suddenly
finding themselves under the threat of lacking the necessary skills required to cope up with
the rising dynamism within the facilities department. As a result, the facilities manager would
be left with no other option than to outsource the task to an external contractor, pertaining to
the perfect skills which the staffs of those contractors possess in these services.
2.5 Responsibilities of Facilities Manager After Outsourcing
Numerous responsibilities remain with the facilities manager even after outsourcing
facilities management tasks. Perhaps, his responsibilities increase after the same (Harland et

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al., 2015). Some of the key responsibilities of the facilities manager after he outsources a
particular task, are discussed in the following paragraphs.
Firstly, the facilities manager is required to keep a schedule and update it according to
the requirement of the establishment, and timely hand them over to the contractors. These
contractors are required to follow this schedule and serve the hotel accordingly. This is a
responsibility which the facilities manager retains. Scheduling is a vital part which the
facilities manager needs to be more responsible about after outsourcing. This is because
getting the objectives communicated to an external contractor is much critical and tougher
than getting them conveyed to the internal employees (Shah, 2018).
The facilities manager is also required to conduct and demonstrate the management
tasks which the external employees would be taking under, in the same way as demonstrating
them to the internal employees. Proper instructions from him on how to get a job done
properly and in accordance to the standards of the establishment is a crucial thing to ensure
that the outsourcing of the tasks proves to be effective and this is the responsibility of the
facilties manager.
Even after outsourcing a task, a facilities manager still requires to maintain the
coordination and notification of the external staffs that work under him. It is important for
him to ensure that they stay informed about the latest developments in the plans and
implementations within the department, and keep notifying them about urgencies when they
arise. The facilities manager retains this responsibility from the time while working with the
internal employees of the company. He must continue formulating the communication plans
within the department, and ensure that communication takes place effectively.
Last but not the least, a facilities manager also requires to look after the work and the
progress of the tasks which have been taken over by the external contractors. The job still

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remains the same for the facilities manager as when working with the internal employees of
the organization. He must check that every task is going according to plan and is indeed
meeting the standards of the establishment.
3. Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be deducted that maintenance is of utmost
importance for a hotel, to ensure that it functions flawlessly. If not looked after properly, poor
maintenance can lead to significant consequences. It comes in various categories, namely
preventive, emergency and breakdown, scheduled and routine maintenance. Each of these are
equally important to upkeep the property in terms of both aesthetic and service values (Peters,
2017). The report particularly focuses on preventive maintenance and its importance, and the
ways in which a particular equipment can be taken care of via preventive maintenance, which
in this report, referred to a smoke alarm. Inspection on the regular condition of the machine
must be done to keep a track of its condition. Preventive maintenance not only benefits the
establishment in terms of productive use of labor, but also in terms of costs. There are also
some instances where a facilities manager might have to consider outsourcing specific tasks
to external contractors. However, his job roles even after outsourcing them remain more or
less the same.

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