The tipping point for green cleaning practices came in 2014, with a hotel guest’s expectations for green cleaning practices peaking at 62%, with 58% of them expecting to pay no more, if not less for green cleaning and only 17% prepared to pay for this initiative, according to Tatjana Ahmed, Housekeeping Manager, Grand Hyatt Dubai.
In a keynote presentation, entitled ‘Sustainable Cleaning Practices’, Ahmed told a packed room of delegates, at the inaugural Hotels News ME Executive Housekeepers Summit, that today hygiene means health.
Ahmed urged delegates to take up 100% plant based biodegradable cleaning chemicals, like SURE, as the and green option, and to switch to microfiber tools, which are often overlooked in modern day cleaning, despite being perfect for trapping and holding dirt efficiently and eliminating 99.9% of germs without chemicals.
She said: “We must embrace new, sustainable, cost effective and efficient cleaning practices to become saving centres instead of cost centres.
“Cleaning can save billions of dollars in keeping facilities in good shape. We provide value for an outlet with clean and well maintained guest rooms. No longer are we a cost centre.”
According to Ahmed, the key to efficient cleaning practices lies in embracing modern technology. She added: “Phones, remote controls and door handles may be teeming with germs and must be looked after with technology like the System Sure Plus, which can measure the level of bacteria on a surface that has been cleaned.”
Ahmed also suggested that mop cleaning is inefficient, can lead to cross contamination by spreading germs. “Machinery is far more efficient than a mop, consuming less than a third of the energy of manual mopping.”
According to Ahmed, hotels also often overlook the importance of mattress protectors: “We can’t stop bed bugs but we can avoid them coming into mattresses with a proper mattress protector, which also stops food spills and bodily fluids.”
Furthermore, modern machines can dramatically improve housekeeping operations by reducing costs and increasing efficiency, argued Ahmed. She suggested that the future of laundry lies with the new Xerox machine which can use 70% less water and cut detergent and electricity in half by using polymer beads to clean clothes. Ahmed also recommended Intellibot hands free floor cleaning machines, which have a four stage filtration system and use 85% less water and chemicals.
