Hotel maintenance staff have a crucial role to play in the success of a property because they are responsible for ensuring technology, equipment, and facilities are in full working order and for fixing problems when they arise. In this hotel maintenance guide, you can access tips to optimize your maintenance strategy and increase profitability.

Table of Contents:

All You Need to Know About the Hotel Industry

Prior to exploring the topic of hotel maintenance, it is important to establish precisely what is meant by the term ‘hotel industry’. According to most accepted definitions, this refers to the industry that deals with guest accommodation. This accommodation must provide overnight stays on a temporary and short-term basis.

While ‘hotel industry’ is the widely accepted term for this part of the service sector, the industry is generally considered to include all forms of short-term guest lodgings, including hotels, resorts, inns, hostels, motels, guest houses, holiday cottages, bed and breakfasts, serviced apartments and roadhouses.

In “Hotel Industry: Everything You Need to Know About Hotels!” you will be able to explore this topic further, learning about everything from the different types of accommodation, to the value of star ratings.

What Is Hotel Maintenance?

Hotel maintenance can be described as preserving hotel standards and maintaining hotel technology, systems, and facilities. The quality of hotel maintenance efforts can make or break the guest experience, so those involved with running properties must give this issue sufficient attention and allocate the right resources.

Many different elements fall under the hotel maintenance umbrella. For instance, electrical maintenance ensures that electrical systems within a hotel are fully functional and electrical components are in working order. However, hotels must also maintain plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and other essential systems.

On top of this, employees responsible for hotel maintenance will also be tasked with the upkeep of hotel components, services, and facilities. This could include telephone lines, refrigerators, televisions, smart speakers, computers, furniture, lighting, elevators, etc. Maintenance staff can include engineers, technicians, supervisors, and managers.

Why Is Hotel Maintenance Important?

Maintenance issues are vitally important for those involved with hotel management because the hotel needs to provide a pleasant experience for customers, meeting their expectations or, ideally, exceeding them. A single issue with key hotel facilities, services, or components can negatively affect customers and your reputation.

Many customers will judge hotels by a combination of factors, but the facilities and services on offer are among the most important of these. Beyond this, hotels have health, safety, and hygiene issues to consider, and effective hotel maintenance can help ensure a property satisfies customers in these areas.

While good maintenance practices will benefit customers, they can also benefit hotels too. For instance, your annual hotel investment in new technology, repairs, and replacement items can be reduced through preventative maintenance efforts, while efficient, corrective maintenance can fix problems and limit any negative consequences.

Types of Hotel Maintenance

As outlined in the last section, hotel maintenance can be broadly divided into two main types: corrective maintenance and preventative maintenance. In the following sections, you can learn what these terms mean.

Corrective Maintenance

Sometimes known as breakdown maintenance, corrective maintenance is a maintenance approach based on responding to breakdowns, malfunctions, or unusual activity. For example, if a guest reports that the air conditioning in their room does not work, a technician or engineer will respond to this and correct the problem.

Corrective maintenance is a perfectly viable approach when dealing with components and technology that is not essential, as it means staff resources can be allocated as and when they are needed. However, it is not ideal when dealing with critical infrastructure because any issues here can significantly impact the guest experience.

Preventative Maintenance

The other main type of hotel maintenance is preventative maintenance, which takes place before issues occur, with the aim of preventing problems from manifesting. Preventative maintenance will involve regular checks of equipment and regular inspections of critical infrastructure to identify when problems are likely to occur.

A major benefit of preventative maintenance is that it allows hotel owners and their maintenance teams to take action before problems become severe, saving both time and money. Preventative maintenance also minimizes disruption within a hotel because the work can be carried out when it is least likely to impact guests’ enjoyment.

Video: Preventive Hotel Maintenance of Guest Rooms

80/20 Rule For Hotel Maintenance

Optimizing hotel operations with regard to maintenance can be a challenge, but there is a rule of thumb that can help hotels to try to manage the work of their maintenance engineers and technicians. This rule is known as the 80/20 rule, with the idea that 80 percent of maintenance work should be preventative and 20 percent corrective.

When carried out effectively, preventative maintenance work can stop problems from surfacing. It also follows the basic premise that investment in maintenance today can save on higher maintenance costs associated with shutdowns, malfunctions, or system failures further down the line, which will take longer to resolve and cause more disruption.

Unplanned maintenance, or corrective maintenance, is often much more costly and can have knock-on effects, such as damage to your hotel’s reputation if it adversely impacts the guest experience. Nevertheless, it is unrealistic to target 0 percent corrective maintenance because some issues are difficult to prevent or anticipate.

Tips to Optimize Hotel Maintenance

As hotel maintenance is such a broad field, it is important to take the appropriate steps to optimize maintenance efforts. The section below serves as a hotel maintenance guide, offering top tips in this area.

Use a Hotel Maintenance System

One of the most essential hotel trends to follow is the effective use of software solutions to optimize performance. While software should be used for many different elements of hotel management, it is extremely valuable for hotel maintenance purposes. It can alert staff to issues and allocate jobs to specific employees.

Your hotel maintenance system can form part of a wider hotel PMS (property management system), or you might opt for a standalone hotel maintenance solution. Regardless, the software should allow specific tasks to be explained and a schedule to be drawn up. The software can also be used to manage employee shifts and track performance.

Focus on Rapid Failure Response

When malfunctions or failures occur, the appropriate measures must be taken as quickly as possible. Try to prioritize response times to problems within the hotel and make sure your maintenance team is constantly learning from previous issues so that staff knows the best course of action.

Your maintenance team should inspect problems quickly and identify solutions immediately. Rapid failure response can also be helped by preventative maintenance efforts, because these efforts can avoid the worst malfunctions and failures, meaning that any issues that do arise are more likely to be resolved quickly.

Improve Hotel Housekeeping Practices

Another great way to optimize hotel maintenance efforts is to take the time to train housekeeping staff properly. These employees can potentially carry out basic checks of hotel equipment and facilities, freeing maintenance technicians and engineers to focus on some of the more complex tasks.

It can be beneficial to make use of the latest housekeeping technology, including software, AI, and robotics. Housekeeping staff can also be ideal candidates for training to work with the maintenance team in the future. In “Housekeeping Technology; The Latest Tech Used in Hotel Housekeeping”, you can explore tech options.

Invest in Communication Technology

In addition to generalized maintenance software packages, some of the most crucial hotel packages are communication-related. Two key areas require attention here: communication solutions for the entire hotel and communication solutions aimed solely at your maintenance team.

It should be as easy as possible for different departments to communicate with one another, as this allows maintenance teams to be alerted to issues quickly. However, maintenance staff also need effective ways to communicate, share technical details, view plans, send photographs, and request assistance from other team members.

Prioritize Tasks According to Risk Levels

At times, hotel maintenance tasks may become overwhelming, and there may be a need to juggle competing demands. The best way to deal with these situations is to prioritize the various tasks according to the level of risk.

So, for example, any maintenance work that can improve guest safety should be prioritized. Meanwhile, the risk associated with hotel heating systems or electrical systems failing is high, and repair is likely to be expensive. Therefore, it makes sense to prioritize tasks that can help to prevent failures in these kinds of areas.

Track Incidents for Saving Opportunities

Another way that software can be used significantly is by tracking maintenance efforts and, in particular, the specific incidents that require action. So, for example, you could track the number of times a particular piece of equipment has been repaired and keep a record of the associated costs.

Tracking hotel maintenance activity can help you to identify areas of your hotel that are most costly and can also potentially lead to significant savings if you identify components or technology that would be cost-effective to replace.

Optimize for Weather and Seasons

Finally, it is essential that hotel maintenance efforts are optimized for the different weather conditions and seasons. For example, in an ideal world, maintenance work on heating systems can be carried out in the warmer spring and summer months so that it is in full working order when it is most needed during the winter.

The winter months can be used to ensure air conditioning units are in good condition ahead of the spring and summer. This should then help to minimize any maintenance work needed on these units when they are most essential.

Key Things to Consider When Opening a New Hotel

There are many different things to consider when starting a hotel business, from securing hotel financing to recruiting staff for everything from reception and the restaurant to hotel maintenance and housekeeping. On top of this, you need to think about competitors, devise a marketing strategy and establish a realistic yearly budget.

In the “Hotel Business: Factors to Consider When Starting a Hotel Business” article, you can read a list of the most important things to think about in order to minimize the risk of overlooking a critical aspect of planning.

The Role of Front Office Technology

One of the most essential hotel departments is the front office, which serves as both the “face” of the hotel and the first point of contact for guests. Much like with hotel maintenance staff, however, front office employees require the right technology to exceed customer expectations and fulfill their duties effectively.

In “Front Office Technology: The Latest Tech for the Reception Department”, you can learn about the importance of investing in technology for the front office and read about the most significant tech trends in this area.

The Role of Hotel Concierge Staff

Hotel maintenance staff will need to communicate effectively with other departments, including hotel concierge employees, who are often the first to hear about maintenance requests. With that said, the role of concierge staff is varied and can include providing information, arranging transport for guests, and much more.

In the “Hotel Concierge: Learn About Guest Services Representatives of a Hotel” article, you can explore the topic of hotel concierge staff further and gain a deeper understanding of how to maximize guest satisfaction.

Hotel Maintenance FAQs

1) Inspection, which includes carrying out regular checks on equipment and hotel facilities. 2) Prevention, which involves carrying out upkeep tasks that help to stop issues from occurring. 3) Correction consists of either repairing damages or replacing broken items. 4) Documentation is the process of recording all maintenance activities.

Technicians carry out repairs and are responsible for general hotel upkeep. They will monitor electrical systems, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing and other equipment and facilities.

Maintenance technicians carry out routine inspections of all key hotel areas and use preventative maintenance strategies to keep systems functioning. When equipment does break or malfunction, repairs are carried out as quickly as possible and records are kept, documenting the work performed.

HVAC systems, electrical systems, roofing and pools all require frequent inspection and/or maintenance, while it is also important to keep a close eye on public spaces and plumbing.

Computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) can boost maintenance efforts by tracking repair work and helping maintenance teams schedule tasks. These systems also assist with preventative maintenance and store historical data on maintenance work.

Hotel maintenance plays a key role in the successful running of a hotel, and the tips provided in this hotel maintenance guide should help you optimize efforts and increase profitability.

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Revfine.com is a knowledge platform for the hospitality & travel industry. Professionals use our insights, strategies and actionable tips to get inspired, optimise revenue, innovate processes and improve customer experience. You can find all hotel & hospitality tips in the categories Revenue Management, Marketing & Distribution, Hotel Operations, Staffing & Career, Technology and Software.

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This article is written by:

Martijn Barten

Hi, I am Martijn Barten, founder of Revfine.com. With 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, I specialize in optimizing revenue by combining revenue management with marketing strategies. I have successfully developed, implemented, and managed revenue management and marketing strategies for individual properties and multi-property portfolios.