There is a clear trend within the hotel world that is the acceptance of pets. The entry of pets in the room and public spaces of the hotel entails a change in the way of working, an update and evolution in the treatment of rooms and clothing where we have had the presence of pets. In the end, it is an occupation of space with its peculiar and different needs than we are used to, that we must give a differentiated treatment.
The behavior of the animal is less “predictable”, this means that, although we have prepared some areas and material specifically for them, it does not mean that it is so and it can affect all the rooms of the hotel, in particular the rooms.
The hotel has its pet acceptance policies (we let or do not let, and if we let them in the entire hotel or partially), these must be accompanied by a clear policy on the working method for these spaces intended for them, that is, how do you clean a room where a pet has stayed? How do you clean the clothes in the rooms with pets? How does the laundry proceed if we have dirty clothes from a pet?
In addition, we must consider that pets bring new things that we are not used to, we are going to give an easy-to-understand example: dog or cat hair, which goes on the sheets, towels, carpets, rugs, … animals, sometimes, relieve themselves in an uncontrolled place since they feel outside their usual space. We must think that the urine of an animal is denser and with more coloring than ours, and that is why the washing procedure should be different.
What changes us?
The first thing that comes to mind is that the staff that makes the rooms would have to separate the linen that has been in contact with the animals, so that they can be treated in a specific way. This means that room trolleys must have this possibility of classification, which has not been contemplated until now. Let’s not only think about the clothes designed for animals, but it can affect all the lingerie in the room.
Once we have classified these clothes in contact with animals, how do we proceed? Do we have the laundry ready to work with these clothes? Will everyone be treated the same? If we want to reach the total cleaning of the lingerie, and ensure that we have really treated it correctly, it is possible that we would have to carry out a different washing process and programs, which in many cases implies that we must use more specific chemical products.
The procedural policy for cleaning a room in which there have been pets must be defined (room aeration, waiting time, dedication time, …)
In many cases, we have to provide cleaning products for different possibilities in all hotel rooms for when we have some kind of incident with a pet.
We have to keep the hotel perfect, even if we have a new guest!
Liliana Domingo
Vocal ASEGO Catalonia
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