One of the largest owners, operators, and franchisors of select-service hotels in the U.S. with approximately 84,000 rooms, La Quinta Holdings says its Grand Master/Maintenance (Red Belt) certification process represents excellence and passion more than any other program the organization has in place. The certification drives customer and employee satisfaction and boils down to what the organization does every day as hotel managers and operators. With everything in its place, it is easier for the team to find supplies and makes it easier for them to do their jobs—ultimately taking better care of guests. Happy Employees = Happy Guests.
Program Details
The Red Belt criteria and certification requires a property team to be engaged, focused, and dedicated to each part of the process. The team must have a complete understanding of all procedures and processes in place, and must implement and maintain all of these processes and procedures. This includes the room cleaning process, satellite storage, proper laundry procedures, the preventative maintenance (PM) process, and a smooth work order process. All product quality and process inspection processes must be in place, operating smoothly and generating effective results.
Grand Master preparation includes:
Room Cleaning Process
- General Manager certified to Black Belt
- Entire management and Heart of the House team trained, certified, and using process for both
Check Out and Refresh
- Proper cart set up: clean, organized, stocked correctly, and proper tools
- Stained linen tied in knots and/or sorted in separate bags
- Labor used efficiently within labor standards
- MPR tracking
- Completed process inspection and product quality inspections
- New hire orientation and training
Satellite Storage
- Designated appropriate number of satellite storages (minimum of one on every other floor or where possible)
- Proper supplies, linen, terry, and EcoLab chemicals
- Process for inventory, including posted inventory tracking form per storage area
- Process for removal of trash and dirty linen and restocking of clean linen and supplies
- Clean, organized, and well maintained
- Process for maintaining and cleaning of storage area
Laundry and Stain Mitigation Process
- Clean, organized, and well maintained
- Clear approved stain reclamation process in place
- Washing full loads
- Appropriate fill and setting on dryer
- Resting linen in place
- Washers programmed with proper wash cycles
- EcoLab annual training
Preventative Maintenance and Problem Resolution
- Clean, maintained, and well organized shop and PM Cart
- Minimum of one PM (preventative maintenance) per room annually and tracked on PM tracker
- Maintenance calendar utilized and complete
- Documented process for completing and tracking of work orders
- Problem resolution log in use
- Additional storage rooms clean and organized
- Out of Order Rooms—minimal and completed in timely manner
Results
Grand Master Red Belt hotels have experienced significant results relative to non-Red Belt hotels:
- The Net Promoter score was up 3.3 points year-on-year for Red Belt hotels vs. up 1.3 points to non-Red Belt hotels.
- The percentage of problems was down 1.1 percent year-to-date 2014 for Red Belt hotels vs. non-Red Belt hotels being up by 0.8 percent.
