There are two words to describe our two Michelles – housekeeping heroes!

It’s a military manoeuvre mapping out all the housekeeping chores at The Stay Company, but one thing is certain – every ‘clean’ is carried out to perfection.

Each night, at around 8pm, our two Michelle’s – Michelle Power and Michelle Cashin – download the tasks for the next day, call each other and start planning their teams, their locations, and their workload.

“It takes about 40 minutes to plan the following day’s timetable,” explains Michelle Power, Head Housekeeper. “I call Michelle and we discuss who’s going where and what needs to be done.

“We work from daily data supplied by our reservations team that tells us which apartments need a weekly service clean, and which apartments have been vacated and need to be completely turned around in time to welcome new guests.

“This evening planning session is vital in ensuring that everyone knows where they’re going the following day and what apartments need our attention.”

Teamwork makes the dream work

Michelle, and her aunt, Michelle, look after a 19-strong team of housekeepers, and are jointly responsible for nearly 100 serviced apartments, located across various sites in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

They’re a dynamic duo who care deeply about doing a great job, no matter how long it takes. They also say they’ve a hand-picked ‘enthusiastic team’ who are as passionate about the role as they are.

Michelle said: “We are both obsessed with cleaning – so we’re in dream careers and because we’re family, it’s even better.

“It is so important to us that every single serviced apartment is perfect for guests, and we just love working together.”

Serviced apartments with the wow factor

Since joining us, our two Michelles have created a whole host of new working practices here at The Stay Company. They’ve compiled a check list for their housekeeping team, so staff can tick off tasks and ensure every serviced apartment has been rigorously cleaned. They have also created an electronic form which ‘goes green’ when the serviced apartments have been cleaned. This means guests wanting to book an apartment never face delays.

Michelle Cashin, Stay’s Housekeeping Manager, said: “Planning is key, and it is essential that the housekeeping team is organised. We can’t make rooms available to the reservation team until a member of our team has serviced it.

“When a guest has vacated, we like to get in as soon as possible because the apartment might be needed by someone else.

“Our job also involves keeping a close check on our stocks and always ensuring we have enough linen, cleaning products, and things like shampoo and items for our complimentary welcome packs.”

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life

What makes the magic happen here is seeing how well the two Michelle’s work together.

They’re passionate about what they do. They’re a solid team and they care deeply about giving guests a great place to stay.

They want people to both arrive and leave with a smile. They want to wave off satisfied guests, welcome returning guests and celebrate all the little wins in between.

“We just love our jobs,” they said together.

“It’s true,” they laughed – realising they’d just said the exact the same words, at the exact same time. Again.

Like we said at the beginning of this blog – they’re our Housekeeping Heroes!