Hotel operations software provider Optii Solutions released new data highlighting the additional costs hotels adhering to new hotel cleaning guidelines will likely bear. These costs are estimated at an additional $130k per year, per hotel and add an extra 3 minutes cleaning time per room.
In a recently released report, Optii Solutions, which provides hotel operations software, analyzed the new cleaning procedures many hotels are now following or encouraged to follow and attempted to put a number on them.
Their report suggests that hotels will need to budget an additional $130,000 per hotel for the enhanced cleaning measures. This assumed an average 250 room hotel operating at 60% occupancy.
The data noted that currently, hotel room cleaning time runs 39.3 minutes per room. The enhanced measures add an additional 3 minutes to each cleaning bringing the total time to clean a room up to 42.3 minutes. The average cost to clean a room pre-COVID hovered around $9.42. The new cleaning measures would potentially increase the average cost to clean a room by about 70 cents bringing the total to $10.12 per room.
Optii Solutions predicts that the typical hotel will need to hire one additional housekeeper per hotel to keep up with the demands as well as an additional team member to keep up with the distribution of previously in-room amenities like hairdryers and extra pillows which will likely be only supplied to guests on-demand.
Their report states:
“Hotels are also carefully considering the supply of in-room amenities such irons, hairdryers and additional pillows, and most will now mandate that these items will only be supplied to guests who request them from the front desk. This will put further pressure on service staff and will require additional staff to be hired to fulfill requests efficiently. We anticipate that hotels will also need to hire at least one full-time service team member to fulfill the additional service requirements. In total, the additional two staff combined with the added cleaning payroll costs will cost hotels on average around $132,000 per hotel, per annum.“
Optii Solutions suggests that hotels may be able to defray some of these additional costs and in fact generate new revenue if they employ more selective cleaning methodologies. For example, if a hotel were to implement a cleaning program that only cleans the room every 4th night (for a single “stayover” guest on a longer duration stay) the hotel could save $110k. Additionally, the hotel could potentially generate revenue by offering additional deeper cleaning services or more frequent cleaning services for a fee.
In other words, if a guest were on a week-long stay they might only get their room cleaned once, but would have the option to purchase additional cleaning services. Perhaps a more frequent changing of their hotel sheets would be a revenue generating event for the hotel, thus helping defray additional cleaning costs.
We can see it now: Use your Marriott Bonvoy points to order an extra cleaning. Or, a new perk for Hilton Diamond members is “daily cleanings.” Hotel hackers will devise ways to scheme the system and score/hack another cleaning. <sigh>.
Their reports ends with this telling and important statement from Optii’s Chief Strategy Officer Soenke Weiss:
“Hygiene guarantees are going to be one of the key factors that will enable the hospitality market to start successfully operating again as people seek guarantees for their safety when travelling. But there is no doubt that running a hotel post-pandemic is going to be more expensive in order to deliver these reassurances. Added to this, hotels are currently facing revenue battles on many fronts including very low consumer numbers, capped occupancy rates and restrictions on banqueting revenues.”
In our previously published piece detailing new hotel cleaning measures we predicted an increase in costs related to the measures and hinted at these costs being passed onto the customer. That is likely going to be the case.
How about you? Would you pay more for a more frequently cleaned room?
