The Service Companies is cleaning up lodging across the country. The Florida-based company is a one-stop outsourcing shop for all cleaning personnel, from housekeeping and window washing to third-shift public area cleaning and chandelier polishing. Their services help properties reduce costs and improve productivity by outsourcing some or all cleaning functions.

“Everybody wants to simplify their lives. They look for savings where they can,” says Victor Lopez, senior vice president of business development of the nearly 25-year-old company. “The services we offer are conducive to that type of thinking.”

“One of the models we offer, no one else offers in the hotel business,” claims Lopez. “The majority of people we consider competition in the industry are really staffing companies. They will send you 10-15 warm bodies for that particular week.”

The Service Companies, instead, hires, staffs and operates a housekeeping department on a contract basis. That includes director of housekeeping, all supervisors and workers including roles such laundry attendant.

Lopez says the company’s unique value proposition is narrow focus. “All we do for a living is clean hotels — not offices, hospitals or anything else,” he says. “We pretty much have it down to a science. Our customers don’t have to worry about hiring, training, background checks, making sure employees are legal, documented workers. We do all of that.”

“They don’t have to worry about buying chemicals and equipment, uniforms, nametags or worker’s compensation and liability insurance,” says Lopez. “When you add all of that together it takes tremendous headaches away from the operator. They could, in fact, downsize their HR function because they don’t have to hire and train and process.”

Time management risk falls on The Service Companies as well. “In my 30 years in operations with Hyatt,” says Lopez, “the challenges were to ‘staff down’ housekeeping enough during slow periods. We had to be efficient with our cost controls.

“Under The Service Companies’ watch it’s not the operator’s problem to staff up or down,” he notes. “It’s our problem. We’ll give them a two-year contract with pricing etched in stone. If we don’t staff down enough, that’s our problem.”

Nearly 7,000 employees work at 450 accounts in 42 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Jamaica. Last year they cleaned just under three million hotel rooms. Business is divided evenly among hotels, vacation ownership and large casino properties. All numbers are expected to grow as the company moves into more states and Mexico.

“The opportunity for growth for somebody like us is huge,” says Lopez. “We’re probably the largest with our model in the industry and we haven’t even scratched the surface. There are so many potential hospitality clients in the U.S. alone.”