Housekeeping in a hotel refers to the department responsible for ensuring the cleanliness, maintenance, and aesthetic appeal of all rooms and public areas. The housekeeping department is responsible for cleaning, organizing, and maintaining guest rooms and other public areas of a hotel. The head of housekeeping is responsible for scheduling staff, managing expenses, and ensuring all rooms and public areas meet the hotels standards. The tasks performed by the housekeeping department are critical for the smooth daily operation of any hotel, regardless of its category, size, location, or number of rooms.
The objectives of hotel housekeeping include maintaining the hotel to the best possible state in terms of cleanliness and keeping it at a highly desirable ambiance. The housekeeping efforts clearly show how the hotel will take care of its guests. The housekeeping department not only prepares and cleans guest rooms on a timely manner, but it also cleans and maintains everything in the hotel so that the property is as fresh and attractive as the day when it opened its doors for business.
The responsibilities of a hotel housekeeper include cleaning hotel rooms and common areas, restocking supplies, delivering items to guests rooms, and moving the cart of cleaning supplies and equipment from room to room in the hotel. Depending on the size of the hotel, a housekeeper may clean an assigned section of the hotel during every shift or clean certain rooms within one shift. The number of rooms a housekeeper cleans each day varies, depending on whether guests are checking out or remaining another night. To be a good hotel housekeeper, one must enjoy cleaning and have the physical stamina to clean for an entire shift.
