MARRIOTT BUZZ NO. 15 - 2019

27 Man and Machine Located at the ground level of the hotel, the laundry department does their work in a large workspace hall that is fitted with a variety of best-in-class heavy-duty industrial scale machinery, out of which they extract the maximum efficiency and production during their busy workdays. The laundry department has five washing machines specifically designated for linens (bed sheets and covers) and three for clothes, with six drying machines, of which five are solely for linens and one for clothing. Additionally, there are six regular irons for everything except linens, whilst two massive flat irons are used for both ironing and the automated folding of linens for the entire hotel. There are also two large dry cleaning machines, which process guests’ delicate clothing. The laundry team has a very good working relationship with their machine manufacturers, whom they have an exchange policy with for whenever the need arises for replacing an old or faulty machine with a brand new one, which keeps them up to date. The company that produced the large pressing machines actually did a custom enlargement for one of the machines because of the vast capacity it was handling daily, which the team states was the first ever of its kind. The team’s intensive daily efforts are aided by an effective communication framework, which is supported by an automated system, on which hosts must process any requests from guests within ten minutes. Each day the team reviews material safety data and sits through a ten-minute briefing covering different topics such as: chemicals, delivery and sustainability. Sustainability Efforts Sustainability is a major area of focus for not just the laundry team, but the Cairo Marriott’s entire team of hosts, who strive to be as eco-friendly as possible to protect our planet and lower our carbon footprint. For water conservation efforts, each machine has specifications that control the level of water in accordance with load weights, because some loads do not require full cycles, depending on soil level and quantity. This does not only help conservation of water, but also energy and chemicals, and the machine programming allows for fixing such levels which are a major help in sustainability efforts. Another big part of the team’s conservation efforts is the option for guests to re-use linens and towels without a daily wash. Guests are given cards in their rooms to notify housekeeping to not send them for washing, in order to mitigate as much unnecessary washing as possible. Spotless Reputation The Cairo Marriott laundry team’s reputation precedes it, even with external guests, as they often conduct work for non in-house guest customers from outside of the hotel, including high profile clients like embassies, actors and ministers. Nisreen, who is the team’s only female member with a career at the Marriott spanning over 20 years, mentions that “I have heard it from external guests who often tell me we need to get this washed and cleaned at the Cairo Marriott, it will not be properly done unless it is done with us.” “At Marriott, we are the biggest hospitality provider in the world, that is why we choose and use the very best machines, quality of employees, linens and everything else to retain guests for life and estabish lasting guest loyalty,” Ahmed confidently states.