Guess who’s doing the hotel beds

 

All hands on deck: A housekeeping manager helping his staff clean a room at a hotel in George Town, Penang. — LIM BENG TATT/The Star

GEORGE TOWN: No one will admit it but it is an open secret that the person who made your hotel bed or vacuumed the room may actually be the finance executive or even the sales director.

There are so few workers in Penang’s hospitality sector that some staff in the finance, human resources or administration department have to occasionally wear the uniforms of the housekeepers, bell boys and receptionists.

“Never in my 20 years’ career have I experienced this,” said the sales director of a five-star resort in Batu Ferringhi.

He was out of breath when he answered the phone as he was just done lifting a king-size mattress to replace the linen.

One administration executive of a four-star hotel in George Town said: “You don’t know what it is like until you have to change the linens of 30 beds in a row.”

The lack of manpower has led to hotel staff being overworked while guests find themselves having to put up with a long queue to check in.

“Hotels can’t get the rooms ready in time. There are just not enough housekeepers to clean the rooms according to standard for the next guests,” said Malaysian Association of Hotels Penang chairman K. Raj Kumar yesterday.

In the past, hotels relied on cleaning agencies, which had their army of foreign workers, but all that is gone with the pandemic.

“We were closed for so long that the agencies contracted their workers out to factories. They can’t just take them away from the factories now and send them back to us,” Raj Kumar said.

He said the shortage was compounded by the fact that many foreign workers were sent back when their contracts ended and the agencies had trouble bringing in new batches because of international travel restrictions.

In desperation, he said hotels would hire casual workers from among locals but that did not solve the problem.

“These workers got a ‘taste’ of the housekeeping job and the next day, they would say they have a backache and won’t come back.

“Some hotels would offer RM10 to RM12 per hour and still can’t attract casual workers,” he said.

He spoke about the rigours of the job.

“It’s not like cleaning your house. For a five-star room, we have very strict housekeeping protocols.”

So even if only one casual worker does not turn up, the hotel will not be able to clean 10 to 15 rooms in time for the next guests, he said.

Earlier, Raj Kumar had issued a statement appealing to the government to allow cleaning agencies to bring in foreign labour again.

“It is a brand new challenge for hospitality players. We lost staff because of pay cuts and retrenchments. They found other things to do and don’t want to come back. We have to train new people all over again,” he added.

That was what happened to a former four-star hotel receptionist in George Town who wanted to be known only as Jimmy.

“My take-home pay was about RM2,000. After getting retrenched, I managed to join a factory. I am now earning almost RM4,000, including overtime and allowances.

“It is a multinational corporation and it is so organised. I feel proud to be in my new company now although I have to work long hours. I am never going back to the hotel line,” said Jimmy, who declined to specify his current job scope. - Star