The room attendant’s role is vital to hotels because it can have a huge bearing on presentation and overall customer satisfaction levels. In this article, you can learn all there is to know about the job, including a definition, an outline of the key duties and responsibilities, and an overview of associated technology.

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What is a Room Attendant in a Hotel?

The job of a room attendant revolves around the provision and upkeep of clean, hygienic, pleasant, orderly, and aesthetically pleasing rooms within a hotel. In most cases, a room attendant will work within the housekeeping department, but their efforts will be primarily or specifically focused on the hotel guest rooms.

One of the main responsibilities of a housekeeping room attendant will be cleaning guest rooms after they have been used, and preparing them ahead of the arrival of new guests. This means changing sheets, cleaning floors and surfaces, replacing items in the hotel room, and making the room visually appealing.

That said, room attendant responsibilities also include keeping hotel rooms while guests stay within the hotel. In general, room attendants are responsible for ensuring that guests are satisfied with the state of their room, resolving any issues guests have, and eliminating hazards and health risks.

The Importance of Hotel Housekeeping

To fully understand the role of a room attendant, it is worth exploring the overall importance of hotel housekeeping. The housekeeping department serves one of the most essential functions within any hotel because they are largely responsible for maintaining cleanliness and quality standards.

Again, the housekeeping staff’s role is to keep the hotel’s areas clean, tidy, and orderly so that guests form a positive opinion about the property. However, there is also a customer service component because housekeeping staff needs to respond to requests from guests and resolve relevant problems when they arise.

This must also be achieved while maintaining a positive, friendly, professional demeanor. It is no exaggeration to say that the housekeeping department is critical to the overall success of a hotel because guests will form their first impressions, and many of their lasting opinions based on the effectiveness of housekeeping work.

Video: Housekeeping Department In Hotels

5 Main Duties of a Housekeeping Room Attendant

The role of a hotel room attendant is varied and includes many different responsibilities. The main duties and tasks associated with the role are broken down below:

1. Hotel Room Cleaning

Perhaps the single most important duty linked to the role of a room attendant is cleaning hotel rooms. This can include the provision of housekeeping services while guests are staying in the hotel, but also includes cleaning hotels after guests have checked out and then preparing the room for the next arrival. As room attendants are often around guests’ personal possessions, it is essential that all attendants can be fully trusted.

2. Quality Control

Another key responsibility of a hotel room attendant is focused on overall quality control. This can include alerting the hotel to issues with items in the room, such as broken beds and furniture, but also identifying other areas where the quality of a hotel’s offerings may be affected. For instance, room attendants may need to report issues with hotel technology to the maintenance team, or highlight any problems with the hotel decor.

3. Cleaning of Communal Spaces

While a room attendant in a hotel will strongly focus on activities related to guest rooms, it is important to understand that most room attendants will also have responsibilities connected to other areas of the hotel. Communal spaces, such as the lobby, bar, restaurant, gym, pool area, car park, hallways, and public bathrooms, will all need to be kept clean, tidy, and safe, and room attendants will typically take on many of these tasks.

4. Laundry Services

Another key component of the role of the room attendant involves carrying out laundry-related activities. After all, sheets, pillows, towels, and other similar items in rooms need to be fully washed and disinfected for future use. Meanwhile, room attendants will need to gather these items from the laundry and put them back in the rooms. Beyond this, room attendants may also be tasked with keeping the laundry area itself clean and tidy.

5. Representing Hotel Culture

Finally, a housekeeping room attendant will likely interact face-to-face with guests. There is a solid customer service component to this, as the attendant will need to be polite, friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable about the hotel. Furthermore, a room attendant will need to help to convey the broader hotel culture by adopting the right outlook, using the right terminology, and going the extra mile to help guests and improve their stay.

Education & Training Requirements for Room Attendants

Although there are no strict requirements within the hotel industry in terms of the qualifications a room attendant must possess, or the level of previous experience they need to have, it is generally advantageous to have worked in a similar role in the past, and this can include cleaning roles in or outside of hotels.

Knowledge of the hotel industry can be beneficial, while knowledge of a foreign language may be highly desirable in hotels that attract guests from particular regions. It is worth noting that room attendants are often given access to rooms containing customers’ possessions, which can make it necessary to perform a criminal background check.

Nevertheless, the role of room attendant can generally be considered an entry-level role, and it is likely to be available to most adults who are physically capable and willing to learn the various procedures and tasks.

Employment Opportunities For Room Attendants

Demand for room attendant employees is always high because those involved with hotel management will always need workers to keep the hotel clean, tidy, and presentable. That said, the work can be seasonal and often peak in the summer or tourist season for a particular location.

Many room attendants work part-time, often from morning to early afternoon. This can make it an ideal job for those who study in the evenings, or those who work multiple jobs. However, larger hotels may have full-time positions, while some hotels have room attendants working shift patterns.

Sustainability in the Housekeeping Department

For everyone involved in the hotel industry, sustainability is becoming a more important concept. Modern hotel guests are more aware of environmental issues and want to spend their money supporting eco-friendly companies. Some of the most sustainability-conscious customers may be out of reach for hotels that do not take the right steps.

There are many ways in which the housekeeping department and room attendants can assist with sustainability and related hotel trends. For instance, ensuring laundry is done using full loads can help make this a more sustainable practice, while utilizing LED light bulbs in hotel rooms can make a hotel much more energy efficient.

Hotels serious about promoting sustainability should also review the materials they use within hotel rooms, the products used for cleaning, and the overall approach to waste disposal. Wherever possible and safe, recycling or re-use should be the priority, and harsh or harmful chemicals should be minimized.

The Use of Housekeeping Software Technology

Hotel housekeeping software is also playing a growing role in the day-to-day running of a modern hotel. The housekeeping department will generally use it to assign employee tasks and track performance.

Housekeeping software can include standalone options, as well as options that are contained within a hotel PMS (property management system). Regardless, most solutions will include options allowing managers to allocate a task to a specific room attendant and tools for monitoring the progress of housekeeping work.

In some cases, the software can be utilized on mobile devices or tablets, allowing room attendants to connect to the software as they work. This can help to create a work pattern where room attendants finish a task, confirm that it has been completed using their mobile device, and then move to the next task.

Tips and Tricks for a Hotel Room Attendant

For those working as a room attendant or in any other hotel housekeeping role, getting to grips with the best tips and tricks for cleaning hotel rooms is important. This will allow you to provide guests with a cleaner, safer, and more pleasant environment, boosting customer satisfaction.

Check out “Hotel Housekeeping Guide: Tips and Tricks to Clean Hotel Rooms” to learn some of the best strategies and tactics for keeping the guest rooms in your hotel looking their best.

Room Attendant Jobs and Hotel Software Solutions

As a room attendant, one of the main hotel software solutions that are likely to be relevant is a property management system. A hotel PMS will often include tools for allocating jobs to the housekeeping staff and tracking progress. However, the housekeeping department can also contribute to the effective use of other solutions.

Read the “5 Hotel Management Software Solutions Every Hotel Needs” article to explore some of the most important software packages for hotels, including a hotel PMS, reputation management software, and more.

Tips for Managing a Hotel Career as a Room Attendant

If you are looking to become a room attendant or seeking any other position in the hotel industry, there are several important steps to take to help manage your career. This can include building the right skills and qualifications, optimizing your CV, using the right channels to find work, and more.

Look at “Hotel Careers: 10 Valuable Tips to Manage Your Hotel Career” for more on optimizing your chances of landing a job and succeeding in your role.

Hotels for Finding Room Attendant Jobs

When searching for a job as a hotel room attendant, one of the best approaches is to have a list of major hotel chains to check in with regularly. These hotel chains will often list job vacancies on their own website or various third-party platforms, and checking regularly is a great way to find your ideal job.

Check “Hospitality Management Jobs: List of Hotel Chains to Find a Job” for a list of ten of the most successful hotel chains offering room attendant jobs so that you can optimize your job search.

A room attendant works within the housekeeping department and is primarily responsible for keeping guest rooms clean, tidy, and safe. However, the role of the housekeeping room attendant extends beyond this. Those working on the job also need to provide a level of customer service and try to become an ambassador for the hotel.

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This article is written by:

Martijn Barten

Hi, I am Martijn Barten, founder of Revfine.com. With 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, I specialize in optimizing revenue by combining revenue management with marketing strategies. I have successfully developed, implemented, and managed revenue management and marketing strategies for individual properties and multi-property portfolios.