The Maid Utility

The MAID utility, designed for Innkeeper, is an easy to use, but powerful, program with functions and data that exceeds that of any other comparable front desk system. It is even more powerful than housekeeping systems that are a part of, or built into, a PBX. The MAID utility actually works with speed dials on phone systems via Innkeeper call accounting, and will work even if your phone system does not support PBX/PMS interfaces.

NOTE: Your phone system must be able to enable a dial tone and SMDR drop to allow this utility to operate with phone speed dial codes.

With these speed dial codes programmed, maids dial special numbers on the room's telephone to indicate that they have started and finished cleaning a room. The MAID utility then keeps track of what rooms have been cleaned, which are being cleaned, and how long the maid spends in the room.

Because of this, the MAID utility exceeds the capabilities of any comparable front desk system, and provides management with considerably more information related to the housekeeping activities. Of importance, MAID actually tracks individual maids, tracks each room, and provides reports related to the efficiency of the maids, etc.

Alternately, the hotel may just use one code to indicate that the room has been cleaned. Cleaned rooms are reported to Innkeeper's housekeeping system, but the time the maid spends in each room cannot be tracked.

CAPA also supports PBX/PMS interfaces that have housekeeping functions. Such interfaces will inform Innkeeper when a room is cleaned, but will not keep track of the maids the way the MAID program does.

Below are some of the screens displayed by the MAID utility.

This is the openning screen of the maid program. It contains the main menu.



This is menu item 1: The rooms cleaned.



This is menu item 3: Maid Work Summary (Maid Status)



This is menu item 4: Anomalies. No anomalies were found, but we can also use this item to check the status of the room. The "@" symbol indicates that Innkeeper has been informed that the room has been cleaned.



This is menu item 4: Edit Maid Logs. Corrections can be done here, or you can use it to view current activity.



Menu item 6: Extended Search. You enter search requirements of Maid or Room, the start date, and the number of days to search. In this case, we asked for room (extension) 8101 for the date 10/03



Here is Extended Search again, this time asking for what a maid did. Notice that time the maid worked is shown.

The "finished-NS" is for rooms that were cleaned without a start code. The maid is supposed to enter both a start and end code, but the utility may work using only the end code. The utility can't keep track of the time a maid spend in the room if only one code is used.