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Clean room
Follow in-house requirements and policies in relation to room cleaning
Housekeeping has an extensive list of requirements and policies relating to what tasks a room attendant should perform and how they should be performed.
The different sections in this manual will explain in detail the correct steps required in cleaning different aspects of a room, however a „correct order‟ for cleaning must be determined
Cleaning in the correct order
All guest rooms that are allocated to you must be cleaned in the correct order.
The „correct order‟ may be determined as a result of one or more of the following:
As directed by the Executive Housekeeper
As requested by guests
So that vacated rooms can be put back on the (Front Office) board for sale/occupancy as soon as possible.
Factors impacting on the ‘correct order’
In some cases, room attendants from different floors may be required to go to a nominated floor and combine their efforts to clean rooms on that floor where, for example, a group has just vacated the rooms on that floor and another group is expected in to fill them.
This will delay the cleaning of their allocated rooms on their floors.
In other cases, guests may be late checking out so the „going rooms‟ may not be able to be cleaned when anticipated.
There will be guests who affect your intended order of cleaning rooms by displaying a „Do Not Disturb‟ sign on their door.
This highlights that there is never any strict „correct order‟ because of the fluid and unpredictable nature of the business and the guests who use the accommodation: there may be a preferred order but this rarely translates into what actually happens
Minimizing disruption to guests
When cleaning rooms you must always strive to keep the disruption caused to guests to an absolute minimum.
Cleaning duties can disrupt guests:
As a result of noise caused during the cleaning activities and when moving about ion the corridors
By providing a physical obstruction to them when they are moving about the corridors etc
Through unwanted interruption to their activities in the room when you knock to offer „Housekeeping‟.
Ways to minimize disruption to guests
When you understand the causes of a problem you are better placed to solve the problem, so practical ways in which to minimize interruptions to guests are:
Always respect „Do Not Disturb‟ signs
Keep noise when moving around the floor to a minimum
Converse quietly with other staff and guests
Avoid knocking equipment into things
Keep trolleys and equipment away from guest traffic areas
Always allow guests right of way in a corridor or lift.
Remember too that guests do not always keep regular hours. Room guests may have flown in on a late flight and be sleeping in or they may have had a late night.
Other room guests may be using their room for business purposes and not want to be disturbed.
Preparing guest room prior to cleaning
When you have entered the guest room following the steps described in later sections which will provide a guide as to what should take place in order to clean a room.
Remember, where the house procedures are different to the following guidelines, always adhere to your enterprise procedures.
Cleaning a Check-out room
If the guest is still there after check-out time and in the process of leaving, use your discretion about whether to leave and come back later, or whether to excuse yourself and begin cleaning.
In situations where Reception is expecting a quick turn-around of rooms due to full occupancy it may be acceptable to begin cleaning a check-out room while the guest is still there if they have passed the advertised check-out time and no late check-out has been arranged.
In a check-out room the following procedures are applicable:
Turn on all lights and check the bulbs – replace where necessary Open all blinds and curtains
Open windows or doors to let in fresh air – if applicable, and if weather permits
Turn off fridge for defrosting purposes and leave door open – if applicable
Collect and remove dirty towels, dishes, bottles and rubbish - any broken glass should be wrapped safely in newspaper or similar
Remove any room service trays and cover them with a napkin as exposed stale food is not a pleasant sight. These trays are usually placed in the corridor outside the room for collection by the porter or room service staff.
Video # 1: Cleaning a Check Out Room
Preparing a room for cleaning
As soon as you have completed the above tasks the cleaning proper can begin. This procedure should be the same for every room.
Following a standard procedure and routine helps to avoid any areas being missed, and is more time effective.
The exact detail of how to complete each of these steps will be detailed through the manual.
Although the exact procedure may vary from establishment to establishment, there are eleven general steps to cleaning any guest room.
Where your premises vary from these, adhere to house policy:
1. Enter and prepare room
2. Strip and make bed
3. Clear and clean bathroom
4. Replenish all bathroom supplies
5. Dust and polish
6. Replenish guest supplies
7. Clean bins
8. Clean fridge
9. Vacuum
10. Deodorize
11. Do a final inspection
Cleaning an occupied room
Key points to remember when cleaning an occupied room:
Never throw out any items like magazines and newspapers belonging to the guest, no matter how old they are
Always replace items where they were found
If business papers are out on the desk or table and obviously being used, avoid cleaning or tidying that area, apart from emptying the waste paper bin
Respect the guest‟s privacy and don‟t be nosy
Take special care with all guest‟s items
Hang guest‟s clothing up appropriately
All cloths used in cleaning should be housekeeping issued – room towels and linen should never be used for cleaning but check your house practices relating to the use of bath towels for drying bathroom areas.
For detailed information how to perform different tasks by a room attendant when cleaning a room please refer to the appropriate section in this manual.
Replenish guest supplies
Guest supplies are an important part of many guest‟s stay with a property, and an on-going source of concern for venue owners and managers.
The best advice in relation to them is „find out what the rules are … and stick to them‟.
What are ‘guest supplies’?
Depending on the establishment, there can be a number of items that will qualify as guest supplies.
The simplest definition is „any small item that can be used, and in some cases taken, by a guest is a guest supply‟.
Examples include:
Compendium items
Pens
Paper
Stationery
Envelopes
Fax or e-mail forms
Promotional material
Room service menus – in traditional menu format and doorknob hangers
Sewing and shoe polishing kits
Guest dry-cleaning bag
Guest laundry list
Tea, coffee, milk and biscuits
Iron
Fly spray
Additional blankets and pillows
Remote control units
Hair dryer
Electric jug
Basic cups, mugs, saucers, glasses, tea-spoons, bottle opener.
As mentioned in a previous section, where the room has a kitchen/kitchenette, the concept of room supplies expands enormously to include:
A set number and range of cutlery and crockery
Pots, pans and general cooking utensils
Cleaning materials – detergent, scourers, cloths etc
Serving plates and bowls.
Room supply basics
An integral part of preparing a guest room involves checking, replenishing or replacing room supplies.
Set numbers for these giveaway items are set by management and these must be adhered to. This is to control costs.
Despite this set quantity of give-aways per room, most properties give room attendants discretionary power to issue extras of certain items including tea, coffee, shower caps and shampoo to guests on request. Check what applies where you work and adhere to it.
If the control of give-aways is a critical issue for management, it is necessary to locate these items on your trolley in such as way that discourages unauthorized acquisition by guests. This can mean locating them on the trolley so they are not easily seen and less of a temptation.
Room supplies are for guest rooms, not for private use by staff. Using these items at work or taking them home for your personal use is theft.
Tea, coffee and sugar items as well as shampoos and conditioners must always be checked because these are items that guests seem to take with them even if they don‟t use them in-room.
Pens and pads are a close second.
A double-check should be made when replenishing these items to ensure that other items have not gone missing – such as cups, saucers, bottle openers, glasses and batteries from the remote controls.
Report and remedy room defects and damaged items
Regardless of how well a room is maintained, general wear and tear will happen, equipment will break down and other problems will occur.
It is natural and while it may be annoying, guests will have a level of understanding. That said any problems with a room should be identified and rectified before a room is allocated to a guest.
Every property wants their current guests to return to them as repeat guests and to tell their friends about how great their stay with us was so that their friends become guests who are referred to us.
It is difficult to cultivate repeat and referral guests if their room has defects of any kind. We must always remain very much aware that in nearly all cases „guests have options‟. If we don‟t deliver the service, facilities, and standard that they want and expect, they can very easily stay somewhere else next time.
It can be a sobering research activity to check the local phone book and count the number of businesses that offer accommodation, all of which are your competitors trying to take your guests and therefore your job.
Checking for defects
Another task when servicing a guest room is to check the room for any defects in equipment, appliances, furniture or fittings.
This inspection should also check for equipment damage.
What are defects, what is damage?
Defects or damage can result from normal wear-and-tear, accidental damage or deliberate and malicious action by guests.
Where you suspect damage has been intentionally caused by guests and even guests that have already checked-out, you should reports your beliefs to your supervisor and ask them to view the damage for themselves to make a decision about what action or claims may need to be made.
In some cases, guests may be charged for the damage and clean up costs and placed on a „Do Not Room List‟ that automatically flags a guest for refusal when their name is entered into the reservation system as a result of a query or a booking.
Defects or damage include:
Broken fridge door seals
Chipped or broken glasses
Flickering fluorescent lights
Blown light globes
Remote controls with flat, or no, batteries
Broken fixtures or fittings
Refrigerators that make „too much‟ noise – which can prevent the guest from sleeping
Noisy air conditioning
Dripping taps
Ripped curtains and drapes that do not properly close – allowing others to see in and unwanted light to come into the room
Ripped, tired-looking or stained furnishings
Fuzzy television reception
Electric jugs and hair dryers that don‟t work
Room cards that do not easily integrate with the power controls in-room
Irons where the temperature control settings are not working.
If a guest finds a defect in their room they may let you know about it but they may not.
If they don‟t, we have just disappointed one guest and unless we identify the problem that has caused this we risk disappointing every other guest who uses that room!
Obviously this does little to generate repeat and referral guests.
What to do?
When a defect or damage to fixtures or fittings is identified, two courses of action present themselves.
The course of action chosen will depend on the seriousness of the damage and whether or not someone could be harmed because of the problem.
All action taken should be in accordance with enterprise procedures.
The two possible courses of action are:
1. The item must be taken out of service immediately and replaced if possible – for example, it may be possible in the immediate short-term to replace a hair dryer that is not working (or is missing) in an occupied room with one from the floor housekeeping store or from another room that shows as vacant on your room list.
2. The item is reported on a maintenance report and submitted to the appropriate person for action to be taken – where the item presents a physical danger to guests it must be removed from the room, tagged as „Out Of Service‟ according to house procedures and stored appropriately so that it will not be returned to service before being serviced.
The motto to remember is: „If in doubt, have it checked out.
Record damaged items
Damaged items need to be recorded for many operational reasons.
Every property will have its own procedures for recording damaged items and room attendants are expected to comply with these where they identify such items in any guest room, and regardless of who damaged the items and how they were damaged.
Properties need to be aware of damaged items for the following reasons:
Monitoring costs
Determining supplies that need to be ordered
Evaluating the usefulness of products - and determining whether or not to continue using a certain item or whether a better alternative needs to be sourced
Identifying high damage products – to develop policies and procedures to reduce and prevent damage
Removing them from service for OHS and duty of care reasons.
Identifying damaged items
You can become aware that an item is damaged through personal observation when you service a room – the basics are to:
Look for damaged items – a visual inspection such as drips
Listen for equipment that sounds as if it is damaged or not working as intended
Be alert to smells that indicate problems – such as „electrical smells‟
Heed advice from guests who report such problems.
Your personal experience in the workplace will build up over time to provide you with an idea of what to look for and what items are commonly associated with damage.
Reporting the damage
Damaged or defective items must be reported so that appropriate remedial action can be taken.
Options in reporting damage include:
Speaking face-to-face with the supervisor, Floor Housekeeper or relevant other person
Using the in-room phone to contact and notify directly either the maintenance department or the housekeeper. Some properties have a ban on the use of guest room phones so check to see what applies in your workplace
Using other internal communication methods (pager, mobile phone) to contact and notify directly either the maintenance department or the housekeeper
Using the in-room phone to contact reception and leave a message
Completion of a Maintenance Report identifying the damaged item, the room number, your name, and the nature of the damage.
Identifying pests
All properties should have some form of standard and establishment-wide pest control program in place.
This program usually combines the services of an external, professional pest control company with regular internal efforts at pest control.
Regular checks of rooms done by the external pest control service (with their vehicle parked around the back of the building – most people see the presence of a pest control vehicle as evidence of a pest problem as opposed to regarding it as prevention) should be at the center of this program.
Where the established pest control program has not worked effectively and you identify pests in a guest room, immediate action needs to be taken.
Besides being undesirable from an aesthetic point of view, pests in a guest room can pose a serious health risk as well as present the potential for damage to walls and wires from gnawing.
Types of pests
Pests include:
Flies
Cockroaches
Silverfish
Fleas
Spiders
Mice, rats and ants.
Signs of the presence of pests include:
Seeing them
Hearing them
Seeing evidence of their presence such as droppings, spots on walls and surfaces, eggs, webs and cocoons.
Report suspicious items or situations
Accommodation establishments are the setting for many illegal activities and all room attendants must be alert for signs this is happening or may take place.
The role of a room attendant is this regard is only to „report‟ – it is not to intervene, take action or put themselves in harm‟s way.
Members of the public can target floors and rooms with a view to breaking and entering. If the thief has watched their target leave the property to go on a three-hour tour they know the target‟s room will be ‟safe‟ for that period and it is a relatively easy target.
Other guests will use their room for illegal activities that they do not want to undertake at home.
Is the activity illegal or immoral?
Individual establishments can have different approaches this.
Most properties are not prepared to allow illegal activity and also frown on immoral activity.
Some turn a blind eye to immoral activities deeming that what guests do in the privacy of their own room is their business.
You need to speak to your supervisor to determine what applies where you work and accept the position taken by the establishment: if you ever have any concerns about differentiating between „illegal‟ and „immoral‟ seek guidance on the distinctions from your supervisor and be guided by them and their experience.
Taking action
If you notice an item that looks unusual or suspicious, or see an occurrence that is suspicious, appropriate action should be taken immediately.
The appropriate action may be spelled out in the standard Emergency Procedures for your venue.
The action may be to:
Advise the floor supervisor, the Floor Housekeeper or the Executive Housekeeper
Contact venue security.
Always adhere to workplace policies and procedures when dealing with such matters, as they are potentially dangerous and serious.
An unusual item or situation may include:
A package left unattended in corridor or stairwells
An item that is heavily bloodstained
A package left in a check-out room
A weapon found in a room – whether the room is a stay room or a departed room
Drugs – or packages thought to contain drugs
Explosives
Evidence of drug taking in a room – including the presence of drug paraphernalia.
Suspicious occurrences or people may include:
Person behaving nervously or anxiously in a corridor, stairwell, near a store room, in the guest laundry etc
Person in an area they shouldn‟t be in – such as areas members of the public in areas restricted for „Staff Only‟ access
Person using excessive force against another person
Loud voices and swearing
Sounds that indicate damage is being done
Person seeming to loiter on a floor, along corridors, in public areas
Person asking you to let them into a room.
If you see or hear anything that is suspicious, unusual or appears illegal you should:
Not say anything to the persons involved
Try not to alert them to the fact you have noticed something suspicious or unusual.
Try to remember as much detail as possible – write down notes when safe to do so
Alert the relevant person as soon as possible in such a way that others (those involved and other guests) cannot hear what is being said.
It is rare for you to have the authority to call police so you should refrain from doing this in all but the most extreme cases of actual or imminent danger.
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