Guide to Hotel Housekeeping Part 1

Guide to Hotel Housekeeping.

by Mary E. Palmer.

A FOREWORD.

My chief purpose in writing this book was to place a few guide-posts along the route of hotel housekeepers to warn them against certain errors common to women engaged in the arduous and difficult occupation of keeping house for hotels.

If anything that I have set forth herein shall make the work of hotel housekeepers easier, more inviting, or more efficient, thereby contributing to the satisfaction of proprietors and to the comfort of patrons, I shall feel amply repaid for writing this book.

MARY E. PALMER.

Hotel Ruffner, Charleston, West Va.

March 1, 1908.

THE MANAGER AND THE HELP.

The average hotel manager is only too p.r.o.ne to complain of the incompetency and the inefficiency of hotel "help."

It is true that it is difficult to secure skilled help, for there is no sort of inst.i.tution that trains men and women for the different kinds of hotel work. Each hotel must train its own help, or obtain them from other hotels.

Thus there is no uniform and generally accepted standard of excellence in the different departments of hotel-keeping.

A good word should be said in behalf of the Irish-American girls, who const.i.tute a majority of the laundry help, waitresses, and chambermaids in American hotels to-day.

With a high regard for honor and rect.i.tude, handicapped by poverty, they find employment, at a very early age, in hotels, and perform menial duties in a manner that is greatly to their credit.

The Irish-American girls are not s.h.i.+ftless, remaining in one place for years until they either marry or leave to fill better positions, which is the privilege of every one living under the "Stars and Stripes."

Some improve their spare time in study, thereby fitting themselves to become stenographers and bookkeepers. Some adopt the stage as a profession, one instance being that of Clara Morris, who takes delight in telling of the days when she washed silver in a hotel.

_An ex-Governor Peeled Potatoes._

Ex-Governor h.o.a.rd, of Wisconsin, boasts of the time when he peeled potatoes in a hotel.

The success of hotel-keeping depends largely on the manager. He should possess patience, forbearance, and amiability. He should know that the best results are obtained from his help by kindness, and that good food and good beds mean better service.

The manager should realize that the working force of a hotel is like the mechanism of a clock: it has to be wound occasionally and set going. No novice can operate this wonderful piece of mechanism; it requires a skilled mechanic.

The proprietor of a hotel should be a good loser; for there are periods of the year when the employes outnumber the guests, and the balance-sheet shows a heavy loss.

One of the most successful hotel men of the writer's acquaintance is Mr.

Louis Reibold, formerly of the Bates House (now the Claypool), Indianapolis, Ind. Mr. Reibold's fame rests in his liberal, kindly treatment of his help. He never called them "help," but always referred to them as "employes." Reception, reading, and writing-rooms were furnished for their use, and he himself saw that good food was provided and that the tables were spread with clean, white table-cloths once a day.

He remembered his employes at Christmas, each one receiving a gold coin, some as much as $20.

When a girl in his employ lost her arm in a mangle, he presented her with a house and lot, provided her with ample means to furnish the house and to keep her the remainder of her lifetime.

Mr. Reibold is a multi-millionaire, and he has the admiration and love of every woman and man that ever worked for him.

FEEDING AND ROOMING THE HELP.

Employes, such as housekeepers, clerks, cas.h.i.+ers, stenographers, stewards--though few stewards use the privilege--and bartenders, are permitted to take their meals in the main dining-room.

Other office-employes take their meals in the officers' dining-room, from the same bill of fare used in the main dining-room.

Chambermaids, bell-boys, and other "help," are served in the "helps'

hall," from a separate bill of fare. Their food is good, as a rule; when it is not, the fault usually lies with the chef in the kitchen. All proprietors want their help to have good food.

The housekeeper can do much to make the help comfortable. She can see that their rooms are kept clean and sweet, and free from vermin. She can give them soft pillows and plenty of warm covering. It is her duty to add to their comfort in every way she can.

In a majority of hotels, the help are roomed and fed equally as well as are the patrons.

REQUIREMENTS OF A HOUSEKEEPER.

Every profession or trade is made up of two cla.s.ses: the apprentice and the skilled workman. The young woman looking for a position as hotel housekeeper should not forget that careful training is fully as important and necessary in her chosen vocation as it is in medicine or cooking; that she must learn by slow and wearisome experience what it has taken years for the skilled housekeeper to acquire.

The apprentice may stumble on the road to success and may even fall by the wayside. In order to succeed, she must give her time wholly to her occupation. She must be thankful for the successes that come to her and not fret over the failures, remembering that hotel housekeeping, like all other occupations, demands experience, patience, and perseverance, as well as skill, in its followers.

The profession is overcrowded with novices to-day; they are the ones that have demoralized the profession--if the word, profession, may be applied to hotel housekeeping. The failure of many housekeepers is due to the lack of proper training; it is only the skilled housekeeper that wins lasting approval.

A trained nurse must remain in a training school at least three years, possibly four, before she is given a certificate to care for the sick.

The chef of the hotel kitchen, in all probability began his career as a scullion, serving at least ten years' apprentices.h.i.+p in minor situations in the kitchen. The housekeeper must not be above gaining knowledge in the laundry and the linen-room. A woman that is ambitious to become a good housekeeper should first serve as a chambermaid. If she is wise, she will secure the good graces of the linen-woman by offering to help her mend the linen, hem the napkins, sort the linen, and mend the curtains.

In this way, a clever chambermaid may learn many useful things that will help her to a better position. From the linen-room, it is only a step to the position of a housekeeper. When a housekeeper leaves on her vacation, or is called away to fill another place, or drops out on account of illness, the linen-woman may seize the opportunity of showing her executive ability. After she has worked faithfully in the linen-room for three years, there is not much danger that a linen-woman of ability will fail to find employment as a housekeeper. If she should have any trouble getting a situation, one way out of the difficulty is to offer her services one month on probation to a hotel man in need of a housekeeper; and, if she is granted a trial and mixes brains with her enthusiasm, she will receive a housekeeper's salary at the end of the month.

Just what a housekeeper's work should be is a vital question. We hear of housekeepers meddling in the steward's department and with the affairs of the office. This is, at least, no less wrong than the idea that the housekeeper owes servile obedience to all other heads of departments.

The essential requirements of a housekeeper are the same, whether she is in a hotel with the capacity of a thousand guests or in a hotel of two hundred rooms. The young housekeeper, looking for a position in a first-cla.s.s hotel, should read the following requirements, which were submitted to the writer by the manager of a first-cla.s.s Western hotel a few years ago:

_A Housekeeper's Requirements._

Must be morally correct.

Must have a dignified and respectable appearance.