Founded over three centuries ago by Queen Anne, Ascot Racecourse has grown into an icon of British horse racing, with nearly 600,000 annual visitors. It is highlighted by the Royal Ascot every June, where the venue hosts hundreds of thousands of people over a five-day period.
What they needed
CleanEvent became the main cleaning services contractor for Ascot in 2018, and provides daily professional commercial cleaning services and event cleaning across operational areas of the racecourse, including the reception and old turnstiles building and offices dating back to 1876.
Ascot’s requirements have scaled up with their increasing visitor counts and new construction, especially during the busy Royal Meeting. CleanEvent’s extensive experience with various sporting events and venues, as well as our unique services made us a perfect choice for Ascot’s growing attendance. Not only did we offer professional commercial cleaning services, we were also ready to leverage our facilities management and catering support services to help manage Ascot’s needs.
Challenges
Ascot hosts 26 annual race fixtures throughout the year. Each event requires a meticulous and flexible cleaning approach, as each main racing fixture is unique in its forecasted attendance and the needs of its pre- and post-event cleaning services. As an outdoor venue, the weather is a significant variable, affecting the crowd and cleaning needs required at the racecourse. The live operations at the course will be dependent on a strong cleaning helpdesk and solid lines of communication and response on the ground.
Meeting the challenges of identifying and reacting to cleaning challenges in disparate crowd sizes of up to 75,000 required logistical experience that only we could provide.
Our Results
- In our first year of operation at Ascot, we cleaned up after over 608,000 racegoers.
- Our Royal Ascot Operation saw us aiding the recycling process to achieve over 700 tonnes of recycled materials.Our Royal Ascot cleaning operation saw over 3,000 eight-hour cleaning shifts deployed.
- The main reception and listed building had over 23,000 visitors pass through them throughout the course of 2019
- CleanEvent’s operation expanded into offering Ascot catering support services, including a team of up to 50 table clearers and glass collectors deployed at the Royal Meeting.