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5 Star Turndown Service in Housekeeping | SOP

The housekeeping department plays a vital role the hotel business. In fact, I would argue that without HOUSEKEEPING there’s no Hotel! By definition, a hotel is an establishment that’s provides accommodation, meals and other service for travelers and tourists. The housekeeping department plays a pivotal role in ensuring that hotels guests get clean and comfortable accommodation.

 

Most luxury hotel brands, resorts, game lodges, boutique hotels and even some guest houses have included the turndown service, in order to ensure extra comfortability to their most valued guests. Of course some establishments give guests the option to choose whether they want a turndown service or not.

 

What is turndown service?

For those who may not be familiar, turndown service refers to the duties where hotel staff, mainly housekeeping or butlers, enter the guest room and prepare it and neaten it for the night, making it easy for the guest to come back to the room and find it easy to enter the bed. Mainly, turndown service includes “turning down” the bed linen, closing the curtains, etc. It is worth noting that turndown service varies from one hospitality establishment to the other, depending and a number of factors. Turndown service is practiced mostly in 4 star and 5 star hotels, game lodge and resorts.

 

What does turndown service involve?

The main purpose of providing such service is to ensure that the guest feels highest level of comfort before and during sleep. Turndown service was once reserved for VIP guests only but nowadays, turndown service has become a standard norm for all guests especially in exclusive game lodges, luxury hotels, boutique hotels and even some resorts.

 

What does turndown service involve?

In a nutshell turndown service involves the following:

• Turning down the bed linen – this includes removing cushions and throw/ runner from the bed.
• Switching on climate control to make the guest room comfortable
• Putting the room service and breakfast menus
• Placing chocolates on top of the menu
• Placing water on the bedside
• Placing bathrobes on the bed and slippers on each side of the bed.
• Emptying and cleaning and dirty ashtrays (in smoking rooms)
• Emptying rubbish bins
• Removing room service trays (if any)
• Closing curtains or blinds
• Turning on bedside lamps and turning off all other lights
• Removing used towels and putting fresh ones
• Arranging bathroom amenities
• Drying out the bath or shower
• Replenishing guest supplies as per the establishment’s standards.
• As mentioned earlier, each establishment has its own turndown standards.

 

When is turndown service performed?

Well, the idea of a turndown service is not only to ensure guest comfort but also to add that “element of surprise”. A perfect turndown is performed in the evening while the guests are out enjoying their dinner. An evening turndown service is performed from around 6:00 pm till around 10:00pm. Some Game Lodges that offer morning game drives also provide morning turndown service, usually from 6:00am – 10:00 am, before guests come back from their game drive. The idea of a turndown service is to delight your guests with unexpected touches of luxury. For example, if your guests are honeymooners, turndown service involves creating a romantic ambiance, including candles, rose petals, running the bath for the guests, champagne and glasses, etc.

 

Of course this may not always be possible as not every guest will have dinner at the same time. Sometimes, turndown service is performed with the guests inside their room.

 

Do Hotels Really Need Turndown Service?

The hospitality industry is a notoriously competitive industry! If you do what everybody does, then you may as well forget about impressing your guests. Whether you are running a 5 star hotel, game lodge or resort, your guests’ experience is extremely important. Hotels need to invest on fresh ideas in order to offer the guest something out-of-this-world!

 

What is 5 Star Turndown Service?

• Over and above what has been mentioned on what turndown service involves, the 5 Star Turndown Service means going way beyond the guest’s expectations. 
• Here are the components of the 5 star turndown service:
• Exceptional attention for detail
• Excellent skills in anticipating guests’ needs
• Attentive interaction to fulfill guests’ special requests
• Achieve a seamless and distinctive level of service
• Unparalleled service, transcending the expectation of guests
• Indulging guests with thoughtful and unexpected touches of luxury
• Creating a memorable experience through personalized service
• Exceptional Eye for Detail
• For the housekeeping department to succeed, staff need a sharp eye for detail. This means there’s no room for error. Every detail has to be taken care of.
• Anticipating Guests Needs
• Hotel guests book for varies reasons. It’s the housekeeping duty to ensure that with co-ordination with the other departments, to ensure that each guest’s needs is catered for. If the guest are on a honeymoon, housekeeping must delight the guests with unannounced romantic arrangements. If the guests are on business, the same should happen.
• Attentive interaction to fulfil guests’ special requests
• The housekeeping department plays an important role in ensuring that each guest’s special request is provided. Whether the guest falls under the VIP category, or they requested for certain amenities, housekeeping has to provide in accordance with the establishment standards.
• Indulging Guests with Thoughtful and Unexpected Touches of Luxury
• The art of towel folding forms part of our 5 Star Turndown Service. This is the art of folding towels into decorative shapes, e.g. the kissing swans, elephants, teddy bears and many others.