Industry Panel: Meeting and Exceeding the Cleaning and Hygiene Requirements of the Hospitality Sector.
You only get one chance to make a good first impression. Nowhere is this more critical than in the fast-paced, highly competitive hospitality sector. With user review platforms now wielding more power than ever before, a negative review can have a devastating and long-lasting impact on any hospitality premises. This expert panel will consider the specific challenges of these environments and discuss techniques and processes to ensure a 5-star rating from every user, every time.
Session Speakers
Peter Thistlethwaite, Technical Manager at MSL Solution Providers, has worked in the disinfection and biocide industry since 2014 in both the manufacturing sector and, since 2018, for MSL Solution Providers, an independent testing laboratory.
He currently participates in the BSI technical committee TC/216 – Chemical Disinfectants and Antiseptics and represents the BSI at CEN working groups 1 and 3, helping to write methods for the medical area and food, feed and domestic use. He also contributes to the BSI writing groups for Airborne and Ultraviolet Disinfection Systems.
Founded in 2001, MSL Solution Providers is a microbiological laboratory, specialising in efficacy testing of disinfectant products used in a wide range of environments, including cleanroom disinfectant validation.
Lisa Williams was the Regional Chair for the UKHA Yorkshire & NE region until 1st April 2025 and currently holds the position of Director of Housekeeping at The Grand, York.
With over 20 years of five-star hospitality experience, Lisa Williams brings an exceptional level of dedication, expertise to the UKHA. Her impressive career includes senior positions at some of London’s most renowned luxury hotels, including The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, 41 Hotel & Rubens at the Palace Hotel, W Hotel on Leicester Square and opening the Jumeirah Residences in Park Lane, amongst others.
Throughout her career, Lisa has garnered numerous awards that celebrate her personal commitment to excellence and the strength of the teams she leads. Recent accolades include the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024, Hotel Housekeeping Honours Awards, Housekeeper of the Year at The Hotel Cateys in 2023 and the AA Housekeeper of the Year.
Her leadership has also earned awards for her teams, such as Team of the Year and Best Opening Team, showcasing her knack for creating motivated, cohesive, and guest-centred teams. We know she will bring these team building skills to our association.
Lisa’s experience extends beyond the hotel industry; during the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked with the NHS’s Kings College Trust, gaining valuable insight into hospital-grade cleaning standards, which she later applied to enhance health and safety practices in hospitality.
Looking to the future, Lisa is passionate about integrating sustainability, diversity, and innovation into housekeeping and ever forward-thinking, she champions new technologies to enhance guest feedback and support team recognition, ensuring that Housekeeping remains at the forefront of hospitality excellence.
Nancy Saddington is the Co-Founder and CEO of OrganicMondays.com. She began her career in a London-based professional services firm, working across Europe, and identified a universal problem: no matter the industry or country, workplace bathrooms consistently lacked essential products for women.
This inspired Nancy to co-found Mondays in 2019 with a mission to improve the working world for women. Since then, Mondays has supported hundreds of thousands of women outside the home in their moment of need and been instrumental in making menstrual health policy a prerequisite to create an inclusive workplace.
Championing sustainability, wellbeing, and compliance, Mondays provides organisations across all industry sectors with professional, plastic-free, and data-informed period care solutions. Under her leadership, Mondays helps businesses enhance productivity, retention, guest experience, and brand reputation, while setting a new standard for truly inclusive hygiene.
Janet Thompson is the Yorkshire and NW Chair at the UKHA and Executive Housekeeper at the Queens Hotel, Leeds.
She took over the UKHA role from Lisa Williams on of 1 April 2025. She is a highly motivated and experienced Executive Head Housekeeper from Yorkshire, with nearly 40 years’ experience in both 4 and 5 star hotels widely spread from North to the South of England.
Whilst working for WGC Janet was involved in the training and development of supervisors and head housekeepers along with managing 10 hotels with 2000 bedrooms combined. Janet enjoyed 2 glorious years in Jersey, responsible for a 285-bedroom hotel along with 29 self-contained apartments.
Her passion for housekeeping has been kept alive over the years by her constant interaction with other Executive Head Housekeepers and she looks forward to every monthly association meeting to share ideas and obtain information from a group that she has built strong relationships with over the years.
Victoria Fytche-Crossman is the Global Health and Education Lead at TOTM, a B-Corp, period positive brand making better products for people and the planet.
As a Women's Health Practitioner, she is passionate about educating people on what they use and why and has spent the last 10 years partnering with global organisations to help leaders build inclusive, productive and positive workplaces.
