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Sir Plantin Hotel Antwerp • Trendy lifestyle hotel • Living room concept • Great significance for money• Added value and service concepts

Our competitive edge :

• An excellent prize-quality ratio

• Exceeding expectations of our guests (also in the high housekeeping standards)

• The offering of warranty-concepts like Sir’s ‘No Excuse’ program and the ‘100 % Conference Satisfaction Guarantee’

• Complementary services & added value as free minibar, free Express Sir’s

Grab & Run breakfast and free Wi-Fi

Brief presentation Sir Plantin Hotel

Summary of the facility organization

• Increase strength by thinking cost effective

• 1 partner (ISS)

• ISS • Cleaning from rooms, public & back of house areas• Washroom services• Night survaillance with soft check-in and check-out facilities• Setting up meetingroom• Catering (breakfast, banqueting, bar and seminar service)• Windowcleaning, gardening, handyman service, pest

control, HVAC, snowplowing, Christmas decoration

• Direct communication between Housekeeper Manager and Operation Manager of Sir Plantin & decisions will be taken together

Housekeeping Manageru

= A critical role to the success of the operation

• Has complete ownership and responsibility of the Housekeeping service

• Is our contact person for all the services provided

Supervision

• Responsible for checking the quality of cleaning and standard on a daily basis

• Report all maintenance faults + monitore on a daily/weekly basis

• All supervisory lever employees will have previous experience of the role in a similar brand hotel or will have been recognized as a ‘star of the future’ and will be fast tracked through a supervisory training program

Catering

• Breakfast (Express grab and run and Breakfast Buffet)

• Meeting and events

• Bar

General description of the project

• Starting up a new hotel -> decision: outsourcing of certain services

• Providing solutions to the flexibility-problems who frequently occur to hotels

• Facility services have an impact on the organisation and HR workforce of the hotel + customer experience

• Quality control of the facility services = based upon measurable results (customer comments, visits from mystery guests, routine inspections & daily reports from the responsible from the hotel)

Detailed description

• Start April 2010

• Different stadia?• Bidding and negotiations phase of the project• Detailed constructive phase• Major pre opening clean-up (also industrial cleaning)• Startup phase / daily operations of the project

• Implementation completed? • Our cooperation has no end-date

• Evaluation degree of success?• After the startup phase we noticed

from our own monitoring reports the success of the operation

• Booking.com 8,5/10 based upon 248 guest comments till 21/03/2011

• Investment project?• ISS carried certain investment fees (Eg purchasing of housekeeping trolleys, installation of linnen and storage room, housekeeping office, working equipment, staff uniforms and lockers, products,...)

• Involvement ISS?• About 25 people from different divisions

• Management and operational • Commercial • Implementation & representation for each division

(Eg pest control, catering, washroom services, window cleaning…)

• Involvement Sir Plantin?• The general manager• Operations manager• Front Desk

• Survace?• 8370 m²

Objective of the project

• Situation added value? • Reduction indirect costs (No HR department and related cost)• Scalability of the cost in function of the hotel’s occupation• Quality service• Housekeeper manager on duty who co-ordinates with the

hotelmanagment

• Innovativeness?• Budget and cost control • Integrated facility outsourcing

• Evolution? • From supposed high internal staff count (50+) to a small

headcount of approx. 15 co-operators

• Expected results? A successful company where bookers, guests, employees,

shareholders, management company and all stakeholders such as ISS are satisfied

• Concerned departments? • Purchasing, Finance, Logistic

• Reducing workload purchasing• No HR inside Sir Plantin• Simplification budget A&G

• Involvement Senior Management?• Follow-up• Major decisions and changes• Evaluation of provided facility services

• External help of consultants?• The project was initiated by the management of the Sir Plantin

Hotel Antwerp and was developed with the local team

Project Management

• Management of initial problems?• Recruitment of qualified staff• Planning of flexible work schedule• Budgeting of facility costs• Cost-analysis for facilities• Social HR-aspect

• Objectification and quantification of needs?• Based upon ‘Outsourcing Quickscan’- document

• Evaluation of the necessary investments?• Saving time from recruitment & setting up HR department• Purchase & contract negotiation with suppliers• Training of staff

• Preparation of the action plan and the procurement?• Preparation of action plan and the procurement by making

discussions with potential facility providers• Dialogue between all departments• Establishment of a pro- and counter plan per department• Financial analysis

• Measurable performance indicators?• Comments of our guests• Reviews directly or through third party given at the hotel• Management by ‘walking around’

• Through which information sources?• By guest-questionnaire• Assessment pages on the websites of third-party booking

channels• Evaluation reports from our mystery guests

• Use of specific instruments to determine success?• Every guest rates hotel facilities at a number of criteria• Daily evaluation reports• Biennial audit of a mystery guest who is also specialized in the

field of hotel facilities

• Have been used for this project?• These are commonly used techniques who allow us a finger on

the pulse and quick response to make adjustments

• Communications to the management of the organization:• The management was narrowly involved• Few communication problems where solved by

• Team room of ISS• Central management and easy access to documents• The management was involved in commercial and transition

steps

• Involvement suppliers and staff?• Staff of Sir Plantin Hotel were informed in early stage • Communication with suppliers from different pathways

• Press Releases• Social Media, such as Facebook/Twitter/ LinkedIn

• Management communication by Sir Plantin during periodic meetings within the tourism organization of Antwerp

• Within ISS through a news-mail and intranet + staff magazine

• Directly affected users?• Guests are not directly informed• The objective is to optimize customer service • Towards the guests, the hotel retains full responsibility for its

outsourcing policy

Implementation of the project

• Obstacles with the development?• Regular adjustments depending on the situation• Review of the concept to the legal framework to achieve a

workable and manageable task within the partnership

• Solutions?• Open communicaton between hotel & facility providers

• Implementation within time frame?• The main deadlines were not met as was evident by the

numerous changes of the new hotel opening date

• Which delays were incurred of the time table?• With a delay of time in opening date this project was pushed

back which put the flexibility of both companies to the test

• Could these delays be caught up again?• It was impossible to restore the time lost• Therefor both parties had to make major efforts such as

additional staff, to work under a lot of pressure until creative solutions were found

Results• Financial results of the project

• Costcontrol in the areas of:• HR• Executive housekeeper and supervisors

• Less confrontation with:• Fluctuating schedules (weekends – weekdays)• Absenteeism problem• Associated costs

• What is in this perspective the return on investment?• Startup of the hotel gives fluctuating occupancy -> outsourcing

has a positieve influence on the ROI

• Simplify the procedures? • Simplification of internal stress and worries• Less own employees• Fewer staff expertise (HR, Exec HK)• Clearer procedures

• Increase of the efficiency & quality?• High flexibility and quality service (ISO norms)• Assurance of quality is important in a service providing

organization like ours

• What is the impact of the project on user satisfaction? • Increased guest satisfaction• Less stress moments provided by secured service• Higher expectations of the guests

• Which positive impact the project had on the environment?• ISS helps us in different ways:

• They have the ISO14001 tag• Partnerships with suppliers of green cleaning lines• Based on several initiatives regarding diversity• Golden Service Award in 2010 for Sustainability

• Which impact has the project on the company / community?• A positive working environment within the company• Happy Staff = Happy Customers = Happy Employers• Our customer-driven team can be more focused on guest

satisfaction and offering services beyond expectations

Benchmark

• To what extent is this project a model for the best practice case within the organization?• Learning experience for our hotel, our management company

and as a fact for the Belgian hotel sector in general as we are experimenting the implementation of the first full integrated facility concept

• To what extent is this project a model for best practice case against the art of Facility Manager?• Deeper penetration in the non-core activities of the hotels ->

possibility of greater service delivery and on-site management to take on

• Its evolution into a total provider of facility services• This gives hotel the opportunity to focus more on the essence of

the hotel industry and core business success of the company