Hotel housekeeping SOP: procedures that hold their time

1. Enter correctly. Knock, announce, wait, knock again, enter, position the cart per policy.
2. Open and assess. Curtains open, all lights on, ventilate. Note defects now, not at the end.
3. Clear. Trash and used linen out; check under the bed, in drawers and in the safe for guest property.
4. Strip. Beds stripped, fresh linen brought in once so you are not walking back to the cart.
5. Pre-treat the bathroom. Apply chemicals to toilet, shower and basin and leave them to dwell.
6. Make beds. While the bathroom chemicals work — this overlap is where the minutes are won.
7. Clean the bathroom. Top to bottom, mirror and glass, fixtures, toilet last of the fittings, floor last of all.
8. Dust high to low. Vents, frames, lamps, headboard, surfaces, skirting.
9. Glass and touchpoints. Mirrors, windows, remote, switches, handles, phone.
10. Restock. Amenities, linen, stationery, beverage, guest directory to the standard layout.
11. Vacuum out. From the far corner toward the door so nothing is re-walked.
12. Final check. Stand at the doorway, scan at guest eye level, confirm temperature and lighting settings.
13. Update status. Mark ready for inspection so the supervisor and front desk can act.

Steps 5 and 6 overlapping is the single highest-value sequencing decision in the whole procedure.

Stayovers are not short departures — they are a different procedure with different guest-property rules.

1. Respect do-not-disturb and the property’s refusal-logging rule absolutely.
2. Trash and used towels out; never move or tidy guest belongings into drawers.
3. Make the bed with existing linen unless the change rule or a request applies.
4. Bathroom: toilet, basin, mirror, floor spot-clean, fresh towels and amenities.
5. Spot-dust visible surfaces; vacuum only traffic areas.
6. Reset the room’s standard layout without disturbing personal items.
7. Log the service and any refusal so the board reflects reality.

Refusals matter to the plan: a refused stayover returns as a heavier clean later, and unlogged refusals corrupt your productivity numbers.

An SOP without a time is a wish. Time your own rooms across several attendants and several days, take a working range rather than the fastest observation, and write it into the procedure.

These are planning ranges to calibrate against, not standards to adopt. Detail and method for timing your own rooms: hotel room cleaning time.

• Review the SOP against inspection failures quarterly — a repeated miss is usually a missing step, not a careless attendant.
• Re-time the room whenever you add or remove a step. Every added pass is minutes × rooms × 365.
• Keep the written standard, the inspection checklist and the attendant checklist in the same wording so the three never drift apart.
• Feed the revised minutes straight back into the staffing plan, or the SOP change becomes silent overtime.