If you’re keeping up with things in the hospitality industry, you’ve no doubt heard the term preventative maintenance or PM. And if you work at a hotel, you know it’s required at your property-but you might find yourself wondering how important it really is. The short answer: very! But there’s so much more to it than that.
Preventative Maintenance vs. Just-in-Time Fixes
Preventative maintenance is what stands between a well-serviced HVAC and premature HVAC replacement. It allows you to catch things before they require just-in-time repairs, last-minute fixes and sudden, unexpected expenses.
An air filter that’s gone four months without being replaced can reduce HVAC efficiency by up to 10%.
Having a regular PM plan in place keeps your hotel running smoothly, increases overall guest satisfaction, cuts down on large expenditures and ultimately, saves your staff time. It’s also important for general safety, cleanliness and, in many cases, compliance with brand standards. Read on to see how important it really is to implement preventative maintenance procedures.
Preventative Maintenance and Guest Experience
Hotel Online notes that “over 70% of guest problems reported are engineering, most of which are room-related issues.”
And in a study conducted by the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell, researchers found the guest satisfaction had a lot to do with return guest stays: “57 percent of Delighted guests stated they would definitely return to the hotel chain and 89 percent stated they would definitely recommend the brand.”
Guests are generally more satisfied with their stay, and more willing to return, when they experience fewer issues and when any issues they might encounter are resolved quickly and efficiently. Beyond increased guest satisfaction, though, preventative maintenance can save you and your staff valuable time and money.
Save Money, Save Time-Plan Ahead
Adopting PM processes might seem like a lot of work upfront. But with the right strategy, and maybe even some help from modern PM technologies-hey, Quore helps with that!-it ultimately results in time, and money, gained rather than lost.
A business can save 12%-18% by implementing preventative maintenance.
Getting ahead of maintenance needs ensures that you won’t waste time on appliance replacements happening out of the blue. When an appliance suddenly breaks down, your engineer has to jump on it quickly to keep the guest happy. When the fix ultimately results in an appliance having to be replaced, your team spends extra time getting expense approval and documenting the fix, or lack thereof. And the guest pays the price, too.
Performing regular maintenance and checking appliance stats ahead of time allows you to spot potential issues quickly and make sure they’re resolved before the guest even arrives! Plus, getting a preventative maintenance plan in place allows you to take full stock of your hotel inventory and note anything that might be missing, need updating or need to be replaced.
This saves you money in multiple ways: firstly, guests will be happier, and they’ll be more likely to return to your hotel-which we’ve already seen adds valuable revenue at your property! Secondly, your appliances will operate to the full extent of their ability, giving you more bang for your buck and more time to plan, and budget, for asset replacement.
Increase Value Across an Entire Portfolio
Keeping up with maintenance needs and ensuring quality and brand standards across an entire portfolio can be daunting without proper systems in place. Having a clear preventative maintenance plan helps you do this at scale to maintain credibility and identify areas for improvement across properties.
Plus everything we’ve mentioned above applies here: you’ll improve guest experiences and save time and money on a property-wide scale with the right preventative maintenance processes across potentially hundreds of properties and thousands of rooms. Think about those kinds of savings!
Preventative maintenance makes your entire portfolio more valuable.
The Future of Preventative Maintenance
There are plenty of tools on the market now that help you to track assets and manage preventative maintenance. You can find lots of software solutions on sites like HotelTechReport and Hospitality Technology. Even a quick Google search of “preventative maintenance software” will lend you a multitude of options for your property.
If you’re looking for an all-in-one, cloud-based solution for PMs and more, Quore has your back!
Don’t Let Sudden Repairs Get You Down
Whatever approach you take, preventative maintenance processes can help you to be more prepared. That’s why it’s so important that your property complies with any required preventative maintenance programs!
Whether you’re looking for money-saving solutions, better asset management, more efficient engineering workflows, increased guest satisfaction scores or all of the above, taking stock of your hotel’s maintenance needs and putting preventative maintenance processes in place will benefit your property.
