In praise of housekeepers

— -- Business travelers depend on many individuals to improve their quality of life on the road. One person who toils daily in the background yet rarely receives recognition for their important role is the housekeeper who cleans your hotel room. Next week (Sept. 14-20) is International Housekeepers Week, and as such, I would like to devote this column to those most underrated and unsung heroes and heroines of the travel industry.

"Housekeeping is a critical function," says Thomas Jones, Associate Professor at the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, yet housekeepers are among the lowest paid hotel employees and their vital work "doesn't get much respect."

For the next two weeks that will change. As a prelude to International Housekeepers Week, over 16,000 housekeeping and cleaning industry professionals from the International Executive Housekeepers Association and the International Sanitary Supply Association are in Las Vegas to celebrate the importance of housekeepers. The conference includes a "Housekeeping Olympics" where teams from individual hotels compete in bed-making and vacuuming contests.

"International Housekeepers Week recognizes those dedicated, hardworking professionals who maintain a safe and clean, healthy environment on a daily basis," says Tony Gallow, Housekeeping Manager at Bally's Las Vegas Hotel. Bally's is one of 20 contestants in this year's Olympics.

During International Housekeepers Week, many hotels bestow praise, parties, gifts and prizes upon their staff. At the Four Seasons Hotel in Irving, Texas, housekeepers are treated to breakfast, ice cream, and a weekend banquet, according to Louanna Henning, Director of Housekeeping and Laundry.

The Omni San Francisco Hotel conducts its own Olympics and a week of festivities, according to the hotel's general manager, Bob Graney. Omni Housekeepers are greeted with roses one morning and doughnuts and coffee the next. At a full banquet luncheon, housekeepers receive certificates redeemable for air travel, groceries, movie theaters, public transport or days off with pay. Plus Omni managers try their hand at housekeeping: "I never knew how difficult it was to make a bed," Graney told me.