Before you can understand the benefits of preventative maintenance, you must first comprehend what this maintenance approach is. Preventative maintenance is the process of inspecting your facilities, such as the air conditioning system, plumbing or lighting, on a regular basis to prevent unexpected breakages occurring. An effective preventative maintenance service will take into account all aspects of your facility and create a suitable annual schedule. This schedule will sure that every part of your facility is inspected, any issues are flagged and then resolved before further problems occur.
As a general rule of thumb, most facilities in the hospitality industry follow the 80:20 rule. This means that your maintenance approach should be 80% preventative maintenance plan and 20% for unexpected jobs (reactive maintenance). Though this is purely a guideline it is a good reference to help understand the advantages of preventative maintenance.
So, what are the benefits of preventative maintenance within the hospitality industry?
Happy Guests
This is quite honestly the number one benefit of a preventative maintenance approach. Happy guests means returning guests and great reviews, which is the lifeblood of this industry. If your facility is not regularly checked, then there is a greater chance of something going wrong and spoiling a guests visit.
For example, if your hotel’s AC units are not inspected regularly then they will start to fail. This will start to affect the units ability to regulate the temperature in a guest’s room, leading to an unpleasant night’s sleep, and quite possibly complaints. Similarly, if your plumbing suddenly breaks due to unobserved issues, your guests could be left cold or with no water, again raising more complaints.
Compliance
Preventative maintenance ensures that all of your facility is compliant with hospitality legislation, which requires that your entire premises are safe, and all systems are working correctly and securely.
Cost
Any unexpected breakdowns are costly, as not only do they require immediate repairs, and quite possibly replacements, but the downtime that needs to happen whilst the issue is being fixed means that business has to come to halt, thus affecting your company’s profits. Likewise, a facility which is not regularly maintained, runs the risk of using far more energy than is needed as the systems need to work harder in order to function. This means that your energy usage is much higher than it needs to be. A well-maintained system will use less energy, reducing your bills dramatically.
For comprehensive facility management, MSL property care services offer everything you could possibly need, including a bespoke preventative maintenance service designed to help minimise problems and keep your customers returning.