The Northern Ireland Hotels' Federation annually run a Hotel & Guesthouse Housekeeping Competition for its members. This year the Housekeeping team at the Belmore Court & Motel decided to enter the competition.
Housekeeping is an extremely important part of the accommodation busy. The housekeeper cleans the room your enter, makes the bed you sleep in and santises the bathroom you wash in. Overall the guest has more direct contact with housekeeping that any other department.
Last Tuesday the Housekeeping Supervisor, Romana and Housekeeper, Diana, travelled to Belfast to particiapte in the assessment day at the Wellington Park Hotel. There were two sections; less than 60 rooms and 60 or more bedrooms. The Belmore Court & Motel were in the larger section and were competing with 21other hotels.
The session began with an ice breaker which Diana won and recieved a bottle of champagne. After this the group was divided into 4 sub groups. Each group then had to participate four different tasks.
These tasks included making a bed, finding delibrate mistakes in a room inspection, sorting a basket of bathroom utensils & giving advice to a family looking for local information.
At the end of the day the two ladies had really enoyed the whole experience and were told to visit the NIHF website the following evening to see the shortlist. On Wednesday evening when we checked we were over the moon to find that our team had been shorlisted along with:
Hilton, Belfast
Killyhevlin Hotel, Enniskillen
La Mon Hotel & County Club, Belfast
Park Inn, Belfast
Radisson Blu Hotel, Belfast
Slieve Donard, Newcastle
On Friday a judge arrived unannounced to inspect a number of bedrooms to help the panel make their final decision.
There is a Black Tie Ball on Wednesday 9th March in the Wellington Park Hotel, Belfast were the winners will be announced.
Good luck to all participants but extra special luck to the Belmore Court & Motel team.
