Celebrated amongst his peers, Tarun Ohri the Housekeeping Manager at Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights Hotel & Residences is known for his persistence and commitment in his 11 years of hospitality career. Ohri has won a number of accolades including the very recent MECHF Award 2019 in 'The Best Housekeeper' category.

On being asked about why did he choose this career he says his mother has been his inspiration. He started his career in the year 2008 with Taj Hotels, India as a management trainee. Soon after he moved to UAE and joined the Hyatt Group in year 2011 as an Assistant Manager at Hyatt Capital Gate Hotel, Abu Dhabi. In December 2014 he was appointed as the pre-opening team member at Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights Hotel & Residences and was promoted to Housekeeping Manager in December 2016.

The beginning

I followed my mother’s footsteps as she made her career in the hospitality industry. Hence, I got myself enrolled for a bachelor’s degree in Hospitality and Hotel Administration. In my entire career I have learned a lot from my mentors and my associates, and they are the reason behind my success. I believe that this industry allows you to grow – professionally as well as personally. Not only do you improve your skills, but with time and commitment you develop other skills too, due to the multi-cultural environment at work, dealing with various clients and handling situations that will put you to the test.

As a Housekeeping Manager, I lead the team of professional housekeepers at Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights Hotel & Residences. I work with the team on a daily basis to ensure guests are provided with an enjoyable, comfortable and safe experience in both hotel and apartments.

Drive and passion

Housekeeping is a dynamic department wherein you are expected to handle various situations. It’s a journey which you start at ground level and with appropriate training and hard work leads to a managerial position. It is a pretty interesting and pleasant domain to get involved in. Like any other job, it has its ups and downs, and that’s the great part of it – there is always a scope for innovation and every day you learn something new.

Accomplishments

I believe joining the Hyatt Group was my biggest accomplishment. I have grown both professionally and as a person in the last eight years of my career with the group.

The best part of your job

The best part of my job is to beable to help my team grow in their respective careers. It gives me great satisfaction when I see my team learn new things, come up with solutions and grow in their life.

Housekeeping practices

The team at housekeeping department is expected to strictly follow Hyatt’s standards in order to provide outstanding service to our valuable guests. Each hotel room and apartment is double checked by floor team leaders before the guest arrival.

We have separate teams for deep cleaning, shower head cleaning and carpet shampooing in order to maintain the quality of rooms. We use the best equipment available to minimise the cleaning time for marble polishing. Also, for a better guest experience we have installed air freshener units, which help to reduce bad odour in the rooms, public areas and restaurants.

We make small training videos featuring the various cleaning practices and then share these videos among all our staff through WhatsApp mobile application so that they can refer to these videos clips at any given time.

Training

As most of our housekeeping team is outsourced we conduct training programmes in order to educate each and every team member about our brand values and different standard operating procedures with regard to housekeeping. Each team member goes through a proper departmental orientation before they start work in their respective areas. We also organise classroom trainings for the staff at regular intervals in order to further improve and enhance their skills.

Challenges

As 90 per cent of our staff in the housekeeping department is outsourced at our property, the most challenging part is to keep them motivated while ensuring that they become a better housekeeping professional. In spite of outsourcing the staff we have still maintained our cleaning scores at different online guests review platforms which indicate that it is possible to work with a different housekeeping structure in a property of 868 keys inventory.

Also, housekeeping is not a revenue-generating department; however, we are certainly involved in cost controlling measures. At Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights Hotel & Residences we always believe in providing the best guest experience. Hence, controlling costs without affecting the guest experience is the most challenging aspect faced by most of the housekeepers.

Sustainability

We do focus on adhering to ecofriendly practices at our property. A few initiatives we have launched include garbage segregation, replacing plastic laundry bags with biodegradable and/or woven ones, and implementing a new waste management system at the property. Besides, throughout the hotel’s operations we are opting for digital tools instead of paper. In addition, we also conduct training sessions to train our staff about the best practices to conserve water and energy while cleaning the guest rooms.

The future

The way this country is promoting sustainability I am sure eco-friendly guest amenities are definitely going to be the future for the hospitality industry. A housekeeper has an integral role to play in making a noteworthy difference towards sustainable practices in hotels.