Head Housekeeper / Housekeeping Manager
The Dalmeny Resort Hotel, Lytham St Annes
Salary: From £30,000 per year, depending on experience
Hours: 40 hours per week, working five days out of seven
Job type: Full-time, permanent
Work location: On-site
About the role
The Dalmeny Resort Hotel is a busy, family-owned resort hotel situated on the Fylde Coast. We are looking for an experienced Head Housekeeper to take full responsibility for managing our Housekeeping Department.
This is a senior Head of Department position. It is not primarily a room-cleaning role.
The successful candidate will lead a team of approximately 20 employees and be accountable for departmental standards, staffing, payroll, compliance, purchasing, productivity and performance. Applicants must therefore have substantial previous experience managing the housekeeping operation of a large hotel.
Essential experience
To be considered, applicants must:
- Have at least two years’ experience as a Head Housekeeper or Housekeeping Manager in a hotel with 80 or more bedrooms.
- Have direct experience managing a sizeable housekeeping team, including supervisors, room attendants and public area cleaners.
- Be able to manage a department independently and take full ownership of its daily operation.
- Have experience managing rotas, payroll costs, productivity and departmental budgets.
- Have a strong working knowledge of hotel housekeeping health and safety, COSHH requirements and statutory, preventative cleaning schedules and mattress turning.
- Have experience managing employee induction, performance, attendance, conduct, training and other departmental HR matters.
- Be able to demonstrate that they have worked successfully against measurable standards and KPIs.
Applicants whose experience is limited to room cleaning, team-leading or supervisory duties will not meet the requirements of this role.
Key responsibilitiesDepartmental leadership
- Take full responsibility for the day-to-day management of the Housekeeping Department.
- Lead, motivate and manage a team of approximately 20 employees.
- Set clear expectations and ensure employees understand their responsibilities and required standards.
- Organise daily workloads, allocate duties and ensure all areas are appropriately staffed.
- Maintain a visible management presence throughout the hotel.
- Attend and contribute to Head of Department and operational meetings.
- Communicate effectively with Reception, Maintenance and other hotel departments.
Staffing and HR management
- Recruit, induct, train and develop housekeeping employees.
- Produce efficient rotas based on occupancy, departures, stayovers and operational requirements.
- Manage holidays, absence, return-to-work meetings, timekeeping and attendance.
- Address performance, conduct and capability concerns promptly and appropriately.
- Complete employee reviews, probation meetings, investigations and other departmental HR processes, with management support where required.
- Ensure departmental timesheets and payroll information are accurate and submitted on time.
- Build a reliable, accountable and productive housekeeping team.
Cleaning standards and quality control
- Maintain consistently high standards across all guest bedrooms, bathrooms, corridors, public areas and back-of-house spaces.
- Carry out documented room and public-area inspections.
- Ensure bedrooms are released on time and meet the hotel’s required presentation standards.
- Establish, manage and monitor structured deep-cleaning programmes.
- Maintain planned cleaning schedules for items including showerheads, bathroom fittings, ventilation grilles, high-level areas, soft furnishings and other periodic or regulatory cleaning requirements.
- Ensure identified defects, damage and maintenance issues are reported and followed through to completion.
- Investigate recurring cleanliness issues and implement corrective action.
Health, safety and compliance
- Ensure the department complies with all relevant health and safety requirements.
- Maintain appropriate COSHH documentation and ensure chemicals are stored, labelled, diluted and used correctly.
- Ensure employees receive suitable training in manual handling, chemical safety, equipment use and safe working practices.
- Complete and maintain departmental risk assessments, cleaning records and compliance documentation.
- Ensure regulatory and preventative cleaning schedules are completed, recorded and available for inspection.
- Report and investigate departmental accidents, hazards and near misses.
- Keep up to date with relevant housekeeping, hygiene and workplace safety requirements.
Financial and cost management
- Manage the department within the hotel’s agreed budget.
- Control payroll through effective scheduling, productivity management and appropriate staffing levels.
- Monitor performance against agreed departmental KPIs, including labour cost, hours per room and rooms cleaned per shift.
- Control expenditure on chemicals, guest supplies, linen, laundry and housekeeping equipment.
- Monitor stock levels, ordering, usage, wastage and loss.
- Review laundry costs and linen usage and take action where costs or losses exceed expectations.
- Identify practical opportunities to improve efficiency without reducing cleanliness, safety or guest satisfaction.
- Provide accurate departmental forecasts and explanations for any budget variances.
Guest service
- Take ownership of housekeeping-related guest concerns and resolve them promptly and professionally.
- Investigate complaints, establish what happened and implement action to prevent recurrence.
- Work with Reception to manage priority rooms, special requirements and guest requests.
- Ensure the department contributes positively to guest satisfaction and the overall reputation of the hotel.
The successful candidate will be
- An experienced hotel Head Housekeeper with a strong management background.
- Self-motivated, organised and capable of managing competing priorities.
- Confident in holding employees accountable and addressing performance concerns.
- Commercially aware and comfortable working with budgets, payroll reports and KPIs.
- Knowledgeable about housekeeping compliance and planned cleaning requirements.
- Calm and decisive in a busy hotel environment.
- Hands-on and visible, while understanding that the role’s main responsibility is to manage the department effectively.
- Flexible and available to work weekends and peak operating periods as required.
Employee benefits
- Training and development opportunities.
- Uniform provided.
- Complimentary meals for employees working a qualifying six-hour shift.
- Complimentary use of the hotel’s 20-metre swimming pool, gym, sauna, steam room and Jacuzzi, subject to applicable terms.
- Hospitality Employee Assistance Programme.
- On-site parking.
Application requirements
Please submit an up-to-date CV clearly demonstrating:
- At least two years’ experience as a Head Housekeeper or Housekeeping Manager.
- The size and bedroom capacity of the hotel or hotels you have managed.
- The approximate number of employees for whom you were responsible.
- Your experience of managing payroll, budgets, KPIs, health and safety, compliance and departmental HR matters.
Applicants who do not have the required senior housekeeping management experience within an 80-plus-bedroom hotel will not be progressed.
Schedule:
- 40 hours per week.
- Five days out of seven.
- Day shifts.
- Weekend and bank-holiday availability required.
Pay: £30,000.00-£32,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Canteen
- Company pension
- Employee discount
- Free parking
- Gym membership
- On-site gym
- On-site parking
Work Location: In person
