The working tools
For everything there is the right tool: would you ever think of washing your car using an eyedropper?
The problem is that some people still think of cleaning ( in a proper way) a hotel with a bucket and a mop.
Let's analyse together what is one of the processes of the accommodation business with many critical aspects, from the point of view of results and costs.
Thanks to my job, I am lucky enough to visit hundreds of establishments every year, some with just a few rooms, others very large. I am still sometimes surprised to see how - even large organisations - persist in using prehistoric cleaning methods?
Before delving into cleaning techniques and materials, a preliminary remark must be made.
We know that a room used by hundreds of different people a year has greater risk factors than our own home: our commitment (and our conscience) should always guarantee effective sanitisation of the environment, i.e. the adoption of methods that, using certain detergents, significantly reduce the number of bacterial contaminants present on objects and surfaces.
Let's face it: just think about the buttons on the TV remote control and you'll get the shivers.
A research carried out by CBC Television Canada, if you feel like hurting yourself, will confirm that the problem also affects the big and emblazoned chains.
Let's go back to the classic bucket with a dose of detergent thrown in for good measure and which has its good 5 (let's be optimistic) chambers. At the first one we will dip our cloth in clean water...but at the last room what will arrive? Maybe the dirt from the remaining 4?
If this is the method we adopt then our guests must always be very lucky.
Sometimes (often to tell the truth) I see carts with double buckets from afar and I breathe a sigh of relief thinking that yes, the situation is not at its best, but at least they use one with dirty water and the other with clean water. Then I get closer and discover that one of the two is used as a glove compartment and I shudder thinking about the floor that I stepped on without shoes.
Still snooping around in the technical rooms of the facilities I am inspecting, I find dirty rags and equipment like the ones in the photo. Yes, it's a real photo that I took myself.
Now let's imagine for a moment that we are in the hallway of the hotel we have chosen for our holidays and, parked outside a room undergoing renovation, we see a tool (which is supposed to be for cleaning) in such a state. What is our perception?
As always, it is a question of working tools.
There are a number of solutions that not only really guarantee the hygiene of a room, but also save a lot of money in terms of purchases and working hours. Why insist on lighting a fire with a stone if we can have a lighter? Partiamo dai prodotti.
Quelli da supermercato saranno anche ottimi e la nostra governante sarà irremovibile nel dire che si deve usare questa marca perchè così fa a casa sua.
But - as we said - they are not professional products. And they cost money. And we consume non-domestic quantities.
If we turn to some serious wholesaler who deals in serious brands, we will discover that magically with just 3 or 4 products we can really clean everything, effectively and quickly, and without racking our brains and making hundreds of small bottles and jerrycans disappear: a product for bathrooms, a universal degreaser, a glass cleaner for wood and various surfaces and the last one for floors.
Professional products have other advantages: there are peristaltic dispensers that create ready-to-use bottles, sprayers and buckets mixed in the exact quantity.
Having the right concentration of product, as well as avoiding costly waste for your pocket and the environment, also means cleaning well, without excess and without rinsing.
Your dear housekeeper who dumps - always 'by eye' - half a bottle of washing powder into a bucket is counting the hours.
