Dos and Don’ts of Maintaining Your Hotel’s Furniture — A Guide for General Managers

The appearance and comfort of your hotel furniture play a crucial role in portraying a professional image to your guests. It enhances the overall experience, encouraging your guests to always stay at your hotel when they’re in town. As a hotel general manager, you often have too much on your plate, from training and monitoring staff to ensuring your guests’ needs are met. With so many responsibilities, it’s possible to overlook hotel furniture and its maintenance. As a leading hotel furniture repair service provider, we have prepared a detailed guide on furniture maintenance tips.

Dos

1. Regular Cleaning and Maintenance

Regular cleaning, dusting, and, disinfecting are crucial for hotel maintenance. Unclean surfaces and inadequate cleaning practices not only leave a negative impression on your guests but also causes damage to expensive furnishings. Implement regular cleaning scheduling and use appropriate cleaning techniques for different materials, such as wood, leather, fabric, etc.

2. Perform Inspections

Inspect all furniture regularly to identify any signs of damage that can affect its integrity. This includes broken springs, loose screws, torn upholstery, etc. If you identify the telltale sign of wear or damage, promptly hire a hotel-qualified furniture professional to prevent further finish deterioration and maintain your guest's expectations.  At Jensen & Sons, LLC, we offer a comprehensive range of furniture repair and refinishing services that can help you keep your furniture in excellent condition.

3. Train Your Housekeeping Staff

Make sure to train your housekeeping staff too. This includes training them on how to care for different types of furniture and their material. Educate them on gentle handling, appropriate cleaning techniques, and mistakes to avoid. Proper cleaning protocols will ensure they maintain consistency in their approach.

4. Use Protective Measures

You can increase the longevity of your hotel’s furniture by employing protective measures. For example, provide mats or coasters to your guests so keep them under beverage glasses and hot dishes to prevent damage if your casegoods do not have high-pressure laminated top surfaces. Use placemats for dining tables, protective pads under heavy objects to avoid denting, etc. These small practices will prolong the lifespan of furniture, decreasing repair or replacement costs.

Don’ts

1. Use Harsh Cleaning Agents

Harsh and abrasive cleaning agents can damage furniture surfaces, cause stains or fade colors. Prolonged use can also cause health issues for your staff.  Make sure your staff is using only mild, non-abrasive cleaners on wood furniture. Bathroom cleaners that contain bleach or abrasives can break down your casegoods, taking years away from their expected life expectancy.  Always test a new cleaning product on a small area before using it on all surfaces.

2. Traveler Website Feedback

Guests’ feedback plays an important role in hotel management marketing efforts, make sure you don’t ignore that. Listen to their concerns and act on their suggestions to boost satisfaction and occupancy rates. Make sure that maintaining guest expectations is always a top priority at your hotel.

3. Skip on Maintenance

Hotel furniture maintenance is essential to preserve its integrity. Instead of waiting for the damage to compound into a major capital expense in your annual budget, implement a regular maintenance routine that includes calling a professional furniture repair company to perform an annual touch-up and waxing service to keep your furniture looking fresh.  Studies show that if your case goods look well maintained and well cared for, your guests will in turn do the same.  

4. Ignore Professional Help

When it comes to hotel furniture repair and maintenance, it’s best to leave it to the professionals. Trying to fix furniture items without professional help can cause further irreparable damage.  Most of our service professionals' time and the hotel's repair budget is spent scrubbing off poorly applied hardware store-grade touch-up markers applied by untrained service personnel.  Using only professional grade pigments and finishes and applied by trained professionals is the only long-term permanent solution that is worth investing in and will help pass your hotel brands quality control inspections.  The hardware store touch-up markers that maintenance technicians often use fade and change color within a year, making your problems only worse down the road.   Investing a little more in professional furniture annual touch-up services now will enable you to push back casegood replacement another whole renovation cycle translating to saving tens of thousands, if not millions of dollars later.  Our expert team knows the nuances of furniture repair and refinishing and will effectively extend the life of your hotel’s guestroom furniture.

Jensen & Sons, LLC has helped leading hotel chains like Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, and Choice with their hotel furniture restoration and repair needs. With over 25 years of successful track record, we are the go-to hotel furniture repair company. If you need any help with your hotel furniture, feel free to reach out to our hotel casegoods refinishing experts. You can also view our finished projects here.