Hotel Management Guidance on PTAC Cleaning

It is important to understand the following:

1. How fast the crews complete the job determines our ability to keep prices low.
   • The crew must enter 10-20 rooms at a time, as quickly as possible.
   • The crew cannot wait on hotel employees to make rooms available.
   • It is not possible to move through the building by skipping areas and then returning to those areas later, it is too time consuming.
   • Cleaning must be completed one floor at a time, starting at one end and moving to the other end.
2. The purpose of PTAC cleaning is Efficiency to reduce electrical expense and electric overloads.
   • Some hotel personnel tend to think PTAC cleaning will make the units look new. This cannot be achieved because of age, rust, wear, and tear.
   • Efficiency is achieved by cleaning the coils and pan.
   • Normally, house keeping has the task of keeping covers and lint screens clean. When they fail to do so, our job is much more difficult because of the expectation to make the entire unit look new.
   • In our normal process, we vacuum the covers and lint screens, but do not wash the covers and lint screens.
   • Lint screens and covers can be washed by the crew at an additional cost.
3. The crew knows their job.
   • At times, an owner or manager will jump in with crew members and attempt to direct or train them. This wastes the crew member’s time. Our technicians clean many hundreds or thousands of PTACs and typically know more about how to clean for efficiency.
   • The crews have leaders who you may approach with questions or concerns about quality and technical questions.
   • Crew members are trained to redirect hotel staff to their crew leader or Quality Control leader.
   • Please do not interfere with crew technicians while they work.
   • Every building is different. A crew may begin slowly as they learn the building and installation, then work faster.
4. Our crews can knock on room doors.
   • Each crew has a crew leader and/or Quality Control manager on site. They are trained specifically on how to knock on doors, open doors, manage security, and handle guests by either skipping the room or directing the guests back to hotel management.
   • All hotels are welcome to use their own staff to do the door knocking, so long as this does not slow down the crew.
5. Moving guest property to gain access.
   • Some guests like to pile their stuff in front of the PTAC or in the middle of the floor.
   • If we must move their suitcases and belongings, we will not put them back where they were.
   • Moving things twice, doubles the risk of damage.
   • We provide guest notifications which the hotel can deliver to guests or post on walls.
   • We cannot be responsible for guest property.
6. Damaged or not working PTACs.
   • Moving a PTAC out of the wall and back in again, can rattle older PTACs enough to cause them to finally stop working.
   • Our process of cleaning has not resulted in damaged PTACs in over 10 years, so we know that isn’t the reason a PTAC will quit working.
   • Even so, a few times, crew members have damaged PTACs by accident. In these cases it is evident that a broken fan or part was caused by the crew and they know to report it to the crew leader who will then take action to repair, service, or replace the unit.
   • Most units are under factory warranty, or should be, since the warranty is usually 5 years.
   • When a unit is out of warranty, we clean the units at the risk of the property owner.
   • We cannot be responsible for the loss of older units that fail after being moved.
7. Warranty of service.
   • We guarantee our PTAC cleaning service.
   • If you have cause to believe the work was ineffective, we will reclean the units in question for up to 30 days after the date of service.
   • If a unit fails to operate after being left in working condition, we do not provide a warranty to cover parts and repair. EcspexAire only provides warranty for the re-installation of the unit.
   • PTAC units may fail at any time, which is normal for the equipment.
8. Guest complaints
   • Our crew leaders do not handle guest complaints. They are directed to hotel management.
   • If a guest objects to crew entry, we skip the room. Often, we will retry the room before leaving the floor.
   • Once the crew leaves a floor, the skipped rooms will not be attempted again, and cleaning will have to wait until the next cleaning date or directed to the hotel’s maintenance personnel.
9. Time of service.
   • Normally, the crew will begin at 9:00 and work until 5:00. Monday through Friday.
   • We can work on Sunday, generally starting at noon, but a price increase may need to be considered.
   • For larger hotels, multiple crews may be utilized, at no extra cost to the hotel.
   • In some cases, work can be done during the evenings or at night if the hotel is closed for maintenance, rehab, or repairs.