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Hotel Helpful Hints for Outsourcing
Maintenance
Hotel In-House Maintenance and continental breakfast assets need to be ins-
Outsourced Maintenance pected and maintained. Outsourcing hotel
kitchen maintenance is normal because of
I
n the past, I have written a great deal about hotel the lack of kitchen equipment expertise.
maintenance and the importance of using a • Elevators – Elevator service companies are
CMMS to organize, schedule and track work ma- common because it is not normally feasible
nagement. There is no doubt that the use of techno- to keep an elevator technician on payroll.
logy such as a CMMS system benefits major hotel • Inspections of specialized equipment – Boi-
organizations. lers, chillers and HVAC units require trained
maintenance staff to properly maintain.
Care of these assets with in-house staff
depends on the skill level of maintenance
teams.
• Roofing – An example of maintenance that is
normally outsourced to a vendor because of
liability, insurance and expertise concerns.
Guidelines for Making In-house or
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Outsourced Maintenance Decisions
The smaller the hotel, the less likely it is to have the
expertise or resources necessary to maintain every
asset with in-house maintenance staff. This makes
vendor management a crucial part of maintenance
In contrast, smaller and medium sized hotels may operations and hotel maintenance management.
not be able to afford the luxury of performing all
maintenance in-house and have a need to outsource Some maintenance outsourcing decisions are easier
some tasks and functions. Some examples include than others such as the need to outsource roof main-
but are not limited to: tenance. On the other hand, some situations call for
the maintenance manager to take a closer look at
• Hotel carpets/mats – Deep cleaning of car- the cost versus benefits of outsourcing maintenance.
pets and mats is necessary to avoid oil and The following can be used as rough guidelines for
dirt buildup which accelerates the degra- making a decision to outsource hotel maintenance.
dation of carpets. Outsourcing this function
may be necessary if the hotel does not have
the proper equipment to service.
• Kitchen equipment – Fuel lines, freezer
units, broilers, grills and even morning
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Hotel Helpful Hints for Outsourcing Maintenance
In-House Hotel Maintenance inspections and repairs based upon the
Considerations historical data collected using a CMMS solu-
tion. Better maintenance planning results
For the most part, hotels should try to keep mainte- in lower capital budget requirements, lower
nance in-house on critical assets whenever possible. labor costs and lower energy bills.
Critical assets are assets that have the potential to
drastically alter guest happiness such as having hot If you are not sure what skill levels you have avai-
water, clean sheets, working HVAC, plumbing, etc. lable in your hotel, we have put together an assort-
ment of hotel checklists that can be used for ins-
Keeping critical assets in optimal working order is pections and maintenance planning. If your staff
accomplished using a hotel CMMS system. This is can perform these functions you may not need to
because CMMS programs give the hotel the ability to outsource maintenance. Click the button at the bot-
perform proactive maintenance such as preventive tom of this post to obtain the checklists.
maintenance or inspections.
Hotel Outsourced Maintenance
Other considerations when making a decision to Considerations
perform maintenance with in-house staff or out-
source should include: Outsourcing hotel maintenance does not mean
a total loss of control but can actually be a good
• Core business: Knowing if the asset is cri- thing to do. The tools available in a quality CMMS
tical to your core hotel operations. If it is, can be used to schedule vendors as well as manage
then maintenance should be kept in-house. contracts and documents. Some examples of when
• Control Issues: Hotel maintenance ma- outsourcing maintenance tasks or services should
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nagement will have greater control over be considered include:
in-house maintenance and is not subject to
vendor availability or reliability problems. • Non-core business: If asset uptime is non-es-
• Response time concerns: Does the asset sential to your hotel’s core business func-
require a faster response time? Using a tions outsourcing may be a maintenance
CMMS to schedule work requests and work option.
orders is going to be faster than waiting for • Cleaning: Many hotel assets just need to
a call back from a vendor. All in-house work be cleaned on a periodic basis, specialty
(including unplanned work) is scheduled cleaners exist for carpets, mats, floors,
with a CMMS. upholstered furniture etc.
• A need for standard operating procedures • Specialized assets: This would include assets
(SOP): Even smaller hotel chains should that require maintenance expertise beyond
have effective standard operating pro- current staff abilities. Some examples might
cedures for similar assets at multiple hotels. be elevator maintenance or a new chiller.
A CMMS system enables maintenance ma- • Predictive technology: Infrared thermogra-
nagement to establish SOP for work mana- phy, ultrasound analysis, vibration analysis
gement. which can either be performed in-house or
• The ability to plan maintenance: Assets with the use of specialized vendors.
maintained in-house can be set up for re- • Ancillary services: This would include,
gular scheduled preventive maintenance, landscaping, payroll, general contractors,
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Hotel Helpful Hints for Outsourcing Maintenance
resurfacing, security services, software ven-
dors, cleaning services etc.
Hotel Vendor, Contract and
Document Management
As previously mentioned, managing vendors,
contracts and documents can all be done with a
CMMS system. The key to good hotel maintenance
management is knowing who your vendors are,
their terms of engagement and what services they
offer.
To help you obtain all of your hotel maintenance
needs we have put together a PowerPoint presen-
tation of frequently used vendor services, things to
consider when hiring them and links to associations
that can provide you additional information.
Checklists, CMMS, hotels, maintenance management
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Outsourcing Maintenance?
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