Hotels rely on facilities managers for great guest experience
When people think about customer experiences at hotels, they often imagine comfortable beds, continental 
breakfasts, freshly chipped ice and verdant manicured grounds. They are more likely to attribute their best stays to the smiling front desk staff members or accommodating hotel managers than facilities maintenance staff. However, a hotel’s reputation largely falls on the shoulders of its facility manager and maintenance staff, according to Hotel News Now.
If asked about their greatest concerns, hotel general managers will explain they are worried about break downs, emergency situations or system failures, the media outlet asserts. While a guest service employee might be the person to deliver a new television set to a room with malfunctioning equipment, it’s the facilities management team that can identify whether issues are related to electrical systems, glitches in a new device or the results of outdated technology.
Moreover, they are the people in charge of asset management software who know where replacement sets are kept and will update records so the TV can be traced to a specific room if the need arises.
Facilities teams also have access to data that can help hotel managers plan strategically for the future, according to PhD student Ahmed Hassanien and Erwin Losekoot, a Sir Hugh Wontner Lecturer in Hospitality Management, both of the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow’s The Scottish Hotel School. Hassanien and Losekoot wrote a report, called “The Application of Facilities Management Expertise to the Hotel Renovation Process,” in which they explain that FMs possess knowledge about equipment life spans and space utilization that can inform renovation and expansion plans if hotel managers inquire.
Now that FMs have advanced tools like integrated workplace management systems (IWMS) and facilities management software , they can demonstrate these needs even better. Fact-driven reports and data-heavy presentations can convince decision-makers that it’s time to invest.
