Hotel room cleaning: download the free checklist

Cleaning the rooms of your hotel may seem a simple task, but it isn’t so.
This Octorate blog article will provide a downloadable housekeeping checklist to help you organise and carry out efficient and deep hotel room cleaning.

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Table of contents

Ensuring that your guests find a scented and clean hotel room is one of the most critical tasks for a hotel manager.

Guests expect to find a clean and tidy environment when they stay at your accommodation. Furthermore, ensuring high standards of cleanliness will help you get great reviews on Booking.com and all the best sites for renting hotel rooms.

Cleaning each room in your hotel at check out and preparing it for the next guest’s arrival seems relatively simple and intuitive.
However, having a hotel housekeeping checklist to tick off each time will make your job easier and help you not to forget anything.

Cleaning products for hotel rooms

Before seeing together the list of things to be cleaned in the different areas of a hotel room or a Boutique Hotel, we would like to show you which cleaning products the hotel houskeeper must keep in the accommodation.
To avoid wasting time, you must have all the necessary products and equipment in the housekeeping trolley whenever you move between floors.

These products include detergents and various cleaning tools, clean towels, sheets and pillow covers, a welcome kit, and the essentials to stock the mini-bar.

Use alcohol-based products to sanitise rooms and eliminate germs and bacteria from all surfaces. Buy neutral detergents to clean glass, floors and various surfaces. Here is a list of products and equipment needed for hotel room cleaning:

Organising hotel housekeeping

Before starting the actual cleaning, organise yourself to complete the various rooms as quickly as possible.
Not all rooms in your accommodation are the same, and some will require a higher degree of cleaning and sanitisation. The type of cleaning that is carried out varies according to the type of room:

In the first one, housekeeping requires more time, attention, and deep sanitisation, replacing sheets, towels, bathrobes, and all courtesy kits.
In the second one, cleaning takes on average 40 per cent less time, as it is not necessary to sanitise every corner of the room.

Organising the cleaning of the various types of rooms is essential and will allow you to complete all tasks in the shortest possible time and meet any requests from your customers, such as early check-in.
For this reason, the reception must provide the housekeeping staff with a list indicating each room’s order and urgency; in this regard our hotel housekeeping tips will be helpful.

How to clean a hotel room

Cleaning a hotel room without wasting time and taking care of every detail is vital.
But how to clean a hotel room? What are the first activities to carry out? Let’s look at it together!

While housekeeping in a hotel, the first thing to check is whether the guest has left his or her hotel room, knocking before entering and announcing your entry when opening the room door.
Once in the rooms, the floor maids must open the windows to allow fresh air in.

Bathroom

Once these preliminary steps have been taken, cleaning should begin in the bathroom, the most time-consuming area during housekeeping.
The first task is to remove the laundry and empty the trash bin.
After that, the housekeeping staff can focus on sanitising all bathroom fixtures and surfaces and only afterwards clean the walls and floors.
When the cleaning is complete, restock the toilet paper and the welcome kit and leave the towels clean.

Here is the list of priorities:

  1. Empty the Trash bin
  2. Cleaning the sink and faucets
  3. Cleaning the shower/bathtub
  4. Clean the mirror
  5. Sweep the floor
  6. Mop the floor
  7. Restock bathroom kits and toilet paper rolls
  8. Change towels

Hotel Housekeeping

Bedroom

Once the room’s bathroom has been thoroughly cleaned, the housekeeping staff must pay special attention to preparing the bedroom.
In the case of a Stayover room, it will be necessary to make the bed and clean the furniture and the floor. In the case of a Checkout room, the sheets and bedspread must be removed and the room cleaned.
Once the room is clean, the bed can be made using clean, well-ironed sheets.
In addition, the housekeeping staff’s task is to check the sheets for stains or cuts.

To clean a hotel bedroom, the following steps must be carried out:

  1. Change the sheets and check for tears or stains
  2. Make the bed
  3. Check that there are no objects under the bed
  4. Dust off furniture and shelves
  5. Clean inside the wardrobe (in case of a checkout room)
  6. Vacuum the floor
  7. Mop in the absence of carpet
  8. Clean any carpets
  9. Check that the drawers are empty (in case of a checkout room)
  10. Sanitise remote control, handles and telephone

How to clean a hotel room

To sum up

Making hotel housekeeping a top priority will enable you to ensure the best experience for your guests.
Keep in mind that due to the pandemic, people’s standards of cleanliness have increased. It is, therefore, your duty to ensure that your property is sanitised, clean and nicely scented.

You’ve made it to the end! Download our free pdf housekeeping checklist so you will never forget anything when cleaning your hotel rooms.