The housekeeping department within a hotel plays a vital role in ensuring guests feel comfortable, safe, and satisfied over the course of their stay. In this article, you can explore the various housekeeping responsibilities, learn about the tasks that housekeeping staff work on, and understand the true value of the department.

Table of Contents:

What is Hotel Housekeeping?

The housekeeping department within hotels and similar forms of guest accommodation ensures guests can enjoy an environment that is clean, tidy, hygienic, safe, comfortable, and pleasant.

This is important because this experience of a pleasant and satisfying environment will go a long way toward helping customers to form a positive opinion about your hotel, and their stay as a whole. By contrast, when expectations are not met in this area, no level of customer service is likely to make up for it.

Housekeeping responsibilities are varied but are focused on ensuring the entire hotel is clean, safe, and welcoming. These responsibilities extend beyond hotel rooms, to the common areas within the hotel. Although most hotels do have a dedicated housekeeping team, it is also worth noting that responsibilities are often shared with other departments.

Video: Housekeeping Department In Hotels

The Significance of Hotel Housekeeping

It is difficult to overstate the significance of housekeeping and the value that carrying out hotel housekeeping responsibilities properly can deliver. Most hotel guests who leave feedback or online reviews about your hotel will likely mention how clean the hotel was, how clean their room was, and the level of safety they felt.

Of course, your hotel housekeeping responsibilities will also have an immediate impact on the guest experience. For example, if supplies are not restocked within hotel rooms, guests will be unhappy and in need of assistance, and if rooms are not turned over in time, you are risking causing frustration due to check-in delays.

The Trolley as a Tool for Handling Housekeeping Responsibilities

Housekeeping employees use various tools and hotel technology solutions as part of their jobs. Still, one of the most important tools is their housekeeping trolley, which individual staff members can use to assist with various housekeeping responsibilities.

Making intelligent use of a housekeeping trolley can save significant time on fetching equipment, and makes it much easier to carry out daily housekeeping tasks. At the beginning of a shift, housekeeping employees can ensure their trolley is stocked with many items they will need for the tasks.

For instance, cleaning agents, cloths, toilet paper rolls, towels, sheets, guest refreshments, and other items can be organized logically to the trolley. At the same time, items removed from hotel rooms can also be added. The necessary balance here is to use the trolley effectively, without overloading it or making it unsafe to push.

8 Most Vital Hotel Housekeeping Responsibilities

You can find out about eight of the essential housekeeping responsibilities in the sections below:

1. Executive Housekeeper Management Duties

Executive housekeepers occupy a management position within a hotel and are tasked with overseeing the department and ensuring all hotel housekeeping responsibilities are on track. They are in charge of organizing the work that needs to be carried out, and coordinating efforts from housekeeping staff and other departments.

Executive housekeepers are also responsible for managing housekeeping supplies, monitoring and continually improving housekeeping performance, hiring new staff, delivering training and coaching, hosting meetings, managing employee morale, standardizing housekeeping procedures, and managing all forms of communication.

2. Management and Coordination

In many businesses, front office responsibilities have a significant crossover with housekeeping responsibilities. For example, a major part of effective housekeeping involves tracking the current status of hotel rooms, so that housekeeping employees can find the ideal time to clean a hotel room or turn it over for a new guest.

Beyond this, housekeeping management tasks include identifying precisely which tasks need to be carried out and allocating these tasks to specific staff members. Furthermore, the housekeeping department and front office must communicate effectively if guests make specific requests or complain about their rooms.

3. Hotel Room Cleaning and Preparation

Hotel housekeeping employees spend much of their time cleaning hotel rooms and preparing empty rooms for the arrival of new guests. Much of this work will typically occur in the early afternoon after guests check out of their rooms. Still, some housekeeping responsibilities may also occur at other points in the day.

In general, rooms need to be cleaned, regardless of whether guests are empty or occupied. This means vacuum cleaning the floors, wiping surfaces, and changing sheets and towels. In rooms prepared for new guests, in-room items will also need to be replenished, including shampoo, soap, and toilet paper.

4. Quality Control and Maintenance

Although most hotels will have a dedicated maintenance team, there can be a significant crossover with housekeeping responsibilities, and the housekeeping staff is often tasked with identifying problems and reporting them to the maintenance team. Moreover, housekeeping employees will take on quality control duties too.

This can involve inspecting hotel rooms and ensuring all technology and equipment are fully functional. It also requires housekeeping employees to be on the lookout for any potential problems throughout the remainder of the hotel, and these employees are often the first to notice issues that need to be dealt with by the maintenance team.

5. Cleaning of the Hotel’s Public Spaces

When it comes to cleaning and similar hotel housekeeping responsibilities, many people immediately think about the duties that surround hotel rooms. However, a major part of any good housekeeping department’s day-to-day operations is focused on the public spaces within the hotel, rather than the guest rooms.

Public spaces need to be kept clean and tidy, and the COVID-19 pandemic added a whole extra layer of hygiene requirements, which are likely to remain relevant for the foreseeable future in any part of the world where infection levels are high. Toilets must also be cleaned and maintained, and any public area hazards must be removed.

6. Laundry and Upkeep of the Laundry Room

Laundry is one of the most important housekeeping responsibilities because guests require clean bed sheets, pillows, pillowcases, duvets, and duvet covers. At the same time, some hotels will have other items in the room that must be washed, disinfected, ironed, and otherwise made ready for a new guest.

Using washing machines, dryers, and irons are common tasks for housekeepers in the hotel industry, but these employees also need to maintain the laundry room or area. This means ensuring laundry equipment is fully functional, organizing clean laundry, and ensuring all equipment and surfaces are clean and disinfected.

7. Representing Hotel Culture to Guests

While housekeeping responsibilities are often focused on actions that take place away from guests, a substantial customer service component is also associated with the role. After all, housekeeping employees will come into contact with guests as they carry out their work, which is especially true when cleaning guest rooms.

Housekeeping employees, therefore, need to serve as ambassadors for the hotel and need to take the appropriate steps to represent the hotel’s culture. This includes being attentive and polite, answering any questions that guests have, fully understanding hotel operations, and generally upholding the service standards associated with the hotel.

8. Upkeeping and Tending Flowers Around the Hotel

Finally, many hotels will utilize flowers and plants to improve their property’s aesthetics. Some studies have also suggested that including natural elements within an interior design can help improve the mood of those within the building, which means plants and flowers can positively impact the guest experience.

Of course, plant life within a hotel needs to be tended. Flower arrangements must be chosen carefully, and new flowers must be brought in regularly. Flowers and plants will also need to be watered regularly. Hotel management might also opt to acquire the services of horticulture professionals, who then work with housekeeping.

What Are Requirements for a Hotel Housekeeper?

To work effectively within the housekeeping department, and live up to the various housekeeping responsibilities, professionals must be reliable, hardworking, and have strong attention to detail. Teamwork is a key part of the job, but housekeepers should also be able to take the initiative and work independently.

The best candidates will likely have previous cleaning, laundry, or maintenance experience, while customer service skills can be extremely advantageous. Those seeking senior roles within the housekeeping department will usually require significant experience working in hotels and understanding relevant housekeeping and hotel trends.

Technology to Assist With Housekeeping Responsibilities

In addition to understanding the nature of the role and the various housekeeping responsibilities, professionals working in this area need to familiarise themselves with relevant housekeeping technology. This can include software like a hotel PMS system and technology like air purifiers and energy-efficient vacuum cleaners.

If you would like to learn more about the numerous technology solutions available for use within a hotel housekeeping department, read “Housekeeping Technology; The Latest Tech used in Hotel Housekeeping”.

Room Attendant Guide: An Overview of Key Housekeeping Responsibilities

Many of the most common housekeeping responsibilities are tasks associated with a room attendant’s role. Essentially, a room attendant is responsible for cleaning hotel rooms, maintaining quality standards, and carrying out relevant laundry tasks, while there can also be a customer service component.

You can explore the role of room attendant in greater depth, complete with a definition of the role, an overview of the main duties, a breakdown of career opportunities in this area, and a closer look at the education and training requirements, by reading the “Room Attendant Guide; Meaning, Job Description, Duties & Technology” post.

Tips for Carrying Out Hotel Housekeeping Responsibilities

Keeping your property clean is one of the essential housekeeping responsibilities of all, and there are many ways to achieve this, from careful planning and intelligent use of digital checklists, to automating certain tasks and ensuring you use the best possible cleaning products.

You can find out about some of the practical steps that housekeeping staff should take to keep their hotel clean by reading the “Hotel Housekeeping Guide: 11 Tips & Tricks to Clean Your Hotel” article.

Housekeeping staff plays a vital role in ensuring guests have a pleasant stay in a hotel, but all housekeeping responsibilities must be fully understood. In particular, rooms and public spaces need to be kept clean, quality standards must be upheld, sheets and towels must be washed, and maintenance work must be carried out.

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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.