Cleaning rooms and common spaces in hotels is crucial work. Housekeeping is important for the aesthetic appeal of a hotel and ensures the safety, comfort, and hygiene of its spaces. Despite the importance of housekeeping, the number of housekeepers does not match the demand for this kind of work. There is more demand than there are workers.
Together with Dr. Chih-Chen Trista Lin, I will be conducting a study through which we would like to understand how hotel housekeepers experience their work and the workplace. We are interested to know how their work affects their wellbeing and what things could be improved to make this a more attractive field of work for themselves and for others.
The research project is an exploratory qualitative study, on hotel housekeeping and cleaners within the UCo ( Unusual Collaborations) Project “Clean future: Wellbeing in ‘dirty work’”. We start this study in Amsterdam. People who work as housekeepers of hotels in Amsterdam and its Metropolitan Region are invited to participate in a 40-minute interview. Participation in this research project is voluntary. For their participation, each interviewee will receive a 20-euro gift card (‘VVV cadeaukaart’).
With our research we wish to contribute to better working conditions in the tourism and hospitality sector. If you would like to participate in this study, you can register on the following website:
[English] https://tinyurl.com/cleanfuture
[Nederlands] https://tinyurl.com/schonetoekomst
Alternatively, you can contact us via email (maartje.roelofsen@wur.nl) if you have any questions.