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A day in the life of an Executive Housekeeper

Buenas dias, my name is Rubén and I am the Executive Housekeeper onboard. My responsibilities include the passenger cabins and all public areas, as well as the crew areas.

I have cleaning teams for all these areas and with the help of my 3 Assistants, Floor Supervisors and Night Managers, we keep this 2000 passenger ship clean and tidy.

Furthermore I am in charge of room service to guest cabins and for the pool attendants.

Every morning, when I go from my cabin to my office, I do the big tour around the ship, to make sure the night shift did a good job, dusted and vacuum cleaned, got rid off any garbage around the ship, that the pool deck is cleaned and the lounge chairs ready and lined up.

A day in the life of an Executive Housekeeper

My day starts at around 6 am and this way I can meet with the night supervisors, to get their report and to point out things that need to be done the next night. As you can imagine, besides the regular cleaning we have a plan for specialty cleaning such as shampooing carpets – one area at the time – or to strip and wax the vinyl floors in the crew areas.

After having met with the night managers, my 2 Assistant Housekeepers who have the day shift are arriving in the office and we go though the daily tasks and any special assignments for today.

The Stewards arrive shortly after, to get their section keys for the passenger cabins, the Floor Supervisors collect their keys and communicate any issues with guest areas or personnel issues.

Also the Laundry belongs to my department, so let's go down to Deck 1, see the Laundry Master and do a walk – through. Here we look at the general cleanliness, if the chemicals used in the Laundry are stored in the proper way, and make sure the linen is handled with care and in the proper way.

In the afternoon I normally have a break of a few hours, in order to be fit for the evening shift of the day. As you know, we do turn-down service in the passenger cabins, the Stewards clean the room a second time, make the beds ready for the night, fill up the ice-buckets, place that nice touch of chocolate on the pillow and replace used towels. At the same time, the Stewards deliver the daily program for the next day and any other flyers and info material to the cabins.

Today I also have a special assignment for the Floor Supervisors and Cabin Stewards. We have a Dry-Dock scheduled for next year and we need to prepare our "wish list" with items, which should be repaired/replaced during that time. This needs to be done well in advance. We have several bathtubs and shower bases which are damaged, cracked or discoloured. So I want them replaced or repaired. Therefore we need a detailed list by cabin number, on what is needed. Some instructions need to be given, since the shower bases have the drain on either the right or left hand side and that needs to be recorded correctly.

Tomorrow I will have the complete list together, can do some spot checks on if I agree with what needs to be replaced and repaired, and can send it off to our main office for getting these things organized.

The cabins Stewards should be done with the turn-down service by 10 pm and of course we need to make sure they all come back to the office and turn in their keys of the passenger cabins.

As you can see, today was a rather "easy day", the most challenging is the turn around day, when the guests from the past cruise disembark and the new guests arrive a few hours later. But you can spend another day with us in a few days, to see what happens there.

Have a good one and enjoy your evening.

Rubén Antúnez, Venezuela