Hotels Association urges better pay and career prospects for housekeepers

The Ghana Hotels Association (GHA) has urged hotel owners to improve salaries, working conditions and career development opportunities for housekeepers, describing them as the backbone of the hospitality industry.

The call was made at the media launch of International Housekeeping Week 2025 held on September 15, 2025, at the Lancaster Hotel in Accra.

The event, being marked in Ghana for the second time, was organised by the Greater Accra branch of the Association under the theme “Housekeeping: Everything We Touch is Awesome.”

The President of the Ghana Hotels Association, Dr Edward Ackah-Nyamike Jr, said housekeepers were central to hotel operations, but their role was often overlooked.

“Hotel workers make the hotels tick. Without the workers, what can we do? It is time we look at the inner operations of our hotels and bring up issues of recognition so that our people are motivated to perform,” he said.

Dr Ackah-Nyamike noted that while some hotels already paid staff fairly and invested in training, others were lagging. “We want to bring all of them to a level that we can all be happy about,” he said.

He explained that training was costly but necessary to improve standards across the industry.

He added that the Association was seeking support from the Tourism Development Fund to make regular training more affordable.

He also stressed that housekeeping should not be dismissed as unskilled labour, pointing out that it required precision and professionalism to meet global expectations. Addressing the housekeepers, he encouraged them to remain resilient and assured them that their welfare would improve with time.

Delivering the industry message, the Front Office and Administration Manager of Coconut Grove Hotel, Mrs Afua Taylor Ashie, described housekeepers as the “silent strength” of hotels whose work shaped customer confidence and guest experiences.

“When you see sparkling floors, polished reception areas, clean washrooms and well-made rooms, that is the work of housekeepers who came in quietly at dawn. They are the backbone of hotels, yet they are often forgotten,” she said.

Mrs Ashie observed that many housekeepers entered the sector with the mindset of finding jobs rather than pursuing careers. She urged hotel owners to change this by introducing structured training programmes and clear career pathways.

“Behind every positive guest review and every reputation for excellence stands a housekeeper who gave their best. This is a wake-up call to all of us, owners, managers and stakeholders, to invest in training and empowerment,” she said.

She added that refresher courses were needed to prevent poor practices from being repeated for years.

She said training should also prepare staff to adapt to global innovations such as Artificial Intelligence, which is reshaping hospitality elsewhere.

At a panel discussion on “Housekeeping Conversations,” speakers said the role of housekeepers should be repositioned as a career rather than a temporary job. They noted that many housekeepers joined hotels without long-term plans and argued that deliberate training and refresher courses could help change this.

They explained that training should not only cover cleaning methods but also customer service and emotional intelligence, as housekeepers often interact directly with guests. They added that a housekeeper’s ability to manage different personalities and situations could greatly influence customer satisfaction.

Reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, the panellists said stricter hygiene protocols had shown the importance of preparing staff to use the right cleaning agents and methods to protect both guests and workers.

They concluded that service quality and guest loyalty were directly tied to housekeeping, noting that many guests returned to hotels because of the cleanliness and comfort housekeepers provided.

International Housekeeping Week was first marked in Ghana in 2024 after the Greater Accra branch of the GHA introduced it as an annual event.

The week is aimed at celebrating the contribution of housekeepers, improving their welfare and skills, and sustaining dialogue between hoteliers, regulators and staff.