Do you need tips on how to make your hotel top notch so as to retain your customers? If YES, here are 30 hotel housekeeping and cleaning tips and tricks.
Part of what a guest uses in assessing the quality of a hotel is how the room is arranged. This goes a long way to show that those saddled with the responsibility of hotel housekeeping must be competent and up to the task. The truth is that if you want to welcome repeat customers to your hotel, then all your hotel rooms must be top notch in all ramifications.
Although people will remember your hotel based on their experience with the front desk officer, but a larger percentage of what will stick to their memory will be how cozy and well – kept the room they slept in is. If the room is not well kept, then you should forget about repeat patronage, but if the hotel room gave them the comfort and ambiance that portrays excellence, then you should be ready to welcome them again.
If you are conversant with the current trend in the hospitality industry, then you will agree that creating the perfect experience for your guest or customer is essential for the growth of your hotel business.
In this era of social media and the internet when hoteliers are seeking for 5-star reviews, if you get low ratings on a consistent basis due to how shabbily arranged your hotel rooms are, then you are sure going to struggle in attracting customers.
If you are interested in ensuring that your hotel rooms are always clean, then you should consider adopting the following hotel housekeeping tips and tricks.
Best Hotel Housekeeping and Cleaning Tips and Tricks
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The Beds Most Be Properly and Stylishly Arranged
Beds are key components in any hotel room and one of the things people use in rating your hotel is the style of arrangement. If you want to leave a positive impression in the hearts of your guests when they book your hotel, then you must ensure that the beds in your hotel rooms are properly and stylishly arranged.
The bed sheets and pillows must be well – arranged. Your hotel housekeepers should adopt unique style that will always catch the fancy of each and every guest that lodge in your hotel rooms.
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The Beds in Your Hotel Room Must Be Comfortable
People lodge in hotels to relax and the bed is part of what will make their stay enjoyable. So part of the hotel housekeeping tips and tricks that you need to adopt is to ensure that your hotel beds are highly comfortable for your guests.
You can go as far as installing water beds in some rooms, orthopedic mattresses, and soft and succulent mattresses in other rooms. Just ensure that your customers are informed when making their bookings.
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Open The Windows and Allow Fresh Air In
When you open the windows of each room when they are vacant, it will enable cross ventilation, and that perhaps is one sure way of clearing any foul odor from the hotel room. This is a tip that will bring freshness into your hotel rooms and hotel housekeepers should be guided to always adopt this tip.
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Make Use of Vacuum Cleaning Machine
Another important hotel housekeeping tip that you would need to adopt is to ensure that vacuum cleaning machine is used whenever you are cleaning the hotel room. When vacuum cleaning machine is used when cleaning, it sucks all the dust and dirt in every nooks and crannies of the room.
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Make Use Nose Friendly Disinfectant When Cleaning the Toilet and Bathroom
Some hotel housekeepers in a bid to get rid of foul odor or stains in the toilet or bathtub, they go all the way to use pretty strong disinfectants whose smell might take a long time to clear out. This can be accepted if the room would not be occupied in a long while.
But if there is a guest ready to occupy the room as soon as possible, then making use of strong and offensive odorized disinfected is a no – no.
As a matter of fact, it is dangerous for asthmatic patients and even people with lung related ailment. So part of the hotel housekeeping tricks and tips that you need to adopt is to ensure that you only make use of nose – friendly but effective disinfectant when cleaning the toilet and bathroom of your hotel rooms.
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Ensure the Window Blinds/Curtains Are Cleaned and Well Arranged
Another effective hotel housekeeping tip and trick that you would need to adopt in your hotel is to ensure that the window blinds and curtains of all your hotel rooms are cleaned and well – arranged. The adjuster must be functional and easy to control.
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The Foot Mats Must Be Well Arranged
An average hotel room should have at least 3 foot mats; one at the entrance, one beside the bed and one at the entrance of the bathroom. So part of the instruction you need to give to your hotel housekeepers is that they should ensure that the foot mats in the hotel rooms are well – arranged and clean.
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Towels Should Be Changed Regularly
The truth is that if you want to be ahead of your competitors in the hotel industry, then you must pay attention to minute details and part of the tips and tricks you need to adopt when it comes to hotel housekeeping is to ensure that all the towels in your hotel rooms/bathrooms should be changed on a regular basis whether they are used or not.
As a matter of fact, if you have a guest in a room, the towels should be changed between two to three times daily. When the towel is freshly arranged it will appeal to your guest.
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The Appropriate Air Freshener Should Be Used Per Time
There is no point sticking to one type of air freshener if you run a hotel business. If you want to get things right when it comes to choosing the right air freshener to be used in your hotel rooms, then you should make use of questionnaires that will help you get such data.
The truth is that part of what people remember when they lodge in a hotel room is how the hotel room smells. If the room smells nice, you are likely going to welcome them back and if otherwise, then they may not likely come back.
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The Air Conditioner Vents Should Be Cleaned Always
If the vent in your air conditioner is dusty, it will bring out dusty smell and it might make whoever lodges in the room to get a flu and this might not earn you a referral. In fact, it would discourage potential customers from lodging in your hotel.
So part of the hotel housekeeping tips and tricks that you need to adopt is to ensure that the air conditioner vents in all your hotel rooms are cleaned on a regular basis.
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Make Use of Mattress Protector
Another important hotel housekeeping tip that you would need to adopt if you want excellence for your hotel business is to ensure that you make use of mattress protector for all your mattresses.
One good thing about a mattress protector is that it will help you protect your mattresses from not only liquids and stains, but also dust mites and allergens; it will prolong the life span of your mattresses and ultimately help you save cost of replacing mattresses at short intervals.
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Make Use Pillow Protector
Similar to mattress protector is pillow protector. If you want to prolong your pillows, then you should ensure that all your pillows are protected with pillow protector. Making use of pillow protector will help you prolong the lifespan of all your pillows and it will help you save cost of replacing the pillows at short intervals.
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Your Furniture Must Be Properly Arranged
The cupboard, chairs and tables in your hotel rooms must be properly arranged at all times. This is one hotel housekeeping tip that should not be ignored by your hotel housekeepers. As a matter of fact, you should instruct your hotel housekeeper to change the settings at every opportunity they have.
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Make Use of Furniture Polish
Another important hotel housekeeping trick that you would need to adopt is to ensure that the furniture in your hotel rooms are not just cleaned and wiped with a dry towel. If you want your furniture to be sparkling, then you should make use of furniture polish.
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Toiletries Should Be Arranged in Style
After cleaning the toilet and bathroom, then you should instruct your hotel housekeepers to ensure that the toiletries are properly arranged in style.
Let it be arranged in such a way that it will attract the attention of whoever lodges in the room. Let it be part of the talking point when they leave your hotel room. The tooth brushes, tooth paste, toilet rolls, soaps and creams should be well – positioned.
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Insect Repellent Should Be Used
Another important hotel housekeeping tip that must not be neglected is the use of insect repellents in the hotel rooms especially in the cupboards and wardrobes. It will be quite embarrassing when a guest in your hotel comes across a cockroach or any insect in your hotel room.
It will send a wrong signal and you might take a long time to recover from the bad PR it will bring along. Besides, you can’t rule out some guests coming in with roaches or other creeping insects in their luggage.
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Wash The Bed Sheets, Duvets and Pillow Cases Regularly
You don’t need to wash the bed sheets, duvets and pillow cases only when they are dirty. If you want to appear to be hygiene conscious, then you should once in a while bring out the bed sheets, duvets and pillow cases in the store room for washing. It will go a long way to keep them fresh and ready to be used at the shortest notice.
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Empty The Waste Bin Regularly
Usually it is the practice for hotel guests to call for evacuation of the dustbin in their hotel rooms. If you want to be ahead of your competitors in the industry, then one of the hotel housekeeping tips you must abide by is to ensure that your hotel housekeepers empty the waste bin in all the rooms on a regular basis. Three to four times daily won’t be a bad idea for the start.
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Ensure That All Fabrics (Curtains, Towels, Bed Sheets, Cover Clothes and Pillow Cases) Are Ironed Before Use
Another important hotel housekeeping tip and trick that you should adopt if you want to continue to welcome repeat customers is to ensure that all fabrics i.e. the curtains, towels, bed sheets, cover clothes and pillow cases et al are properly ironed before they are used. Aside from the fact that it will help in killing germs and bacteria, it will make the fabrics to be presentable and neat.
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Clean and Polish The Tiles Regularly
You don’t have to wait for the tiles and floor of the hotel rooms to be stained or dirty before swinging into action. Cleaning and polishing the floor and tiles of the hotel room should be part of your daily activity. It will go a long way to show how neat and welcoming your hotel room is and that for sure will be a plus for you especially when it comes to rating your hotel.
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Pay Attention When Cleaning Mirrors in the Hotel Room/Bathrooms
Details matter when it comes to becoming a top player in the hospitality industry. If you want to be among the top hotels in your city, then you should pay attention when it comes to cleaning all the mirrors in your hotel rooms/bathrooms. It is a hotel housekeeping trick and tip that should not be neglected.
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Create Housekeeping Standard Operating Processes (SOP)/Template
In other to achieve excellence when it comes to hotel housekeeping, you should adopt standard operating processes (SOP) for all your hotel housekeepers; they should be able to follow a template that works. The truth is that most top flight hotels are known to adopt this tip and it is producing results for them.
So, if you want to be amongst the top hotels in your city, then you should ensure that you create housekeeping standard operating processes (SOP)/template for your hotel housekeepers. Just ensure that you adopt industry international best practices.
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Ensure Proper Lighting of the Rooms
Another important hotel housekeeping tip and trick that you need to enforce in your hotel is to ensure that whenever the hotel housekeepers enter any room, they should ensure that all the bulbs are working and the lighting in the hotel is on point.
It is important that they report any defects as soon as possible and dead bulbs should be replaced before assigning any guest to the room. It will not be nice for a guest to be the one calling the front desk to inform that the bulbs in their room are all dead.
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TV Guide and Remotes Should Be Visible
Part of what needs to be done when a room is being prepared for a guest is to ensure that the TV guide and remotes (both for AC, TV and satellite decoder et al) are visible and well arranged. Don’t be surprised, some guests find it difficult to locate remotes and TV guides and in some cases they may have to call the front desk to assist them in locating them.
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The Intercom or Telephone in the Rooms Must Be Functional
Despite the fact that there is hardly any standard hotel that you won’t find intercom or telephone in the rooms, it is not out of place for these intercoms or telephones not to be functional. So part of the hotel housekeeping tips that you need to adopt is to ensure that your hotel housekeepers test the intercom or telephone in a room to make sure that they are working before assigning a guest to the room.
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Shower Curtains Should Be Changed Regularly
The fact that shower curtains do get wet whenever a guest takes his or her bath means that they might remain wet for a while. If you want to leave a positive impression in the heart of your customers/guests, then you can go the extra mile to change the shower curtains as often as you can.
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Laundry Baskets Should Be Attended to Regularly
Although it is optional when it comes to assigning laundries in the hotels, but if you have the option of helping your guests attend to their laundry, then you must ensure that the laundry baskets are attended to regularly. The clothes in the laundry basked should be washed, dry cleaned, ironed, well – folded and arranged.
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Phone Directories Should Be in All Rooms
Another important hotel housekeeping tip and trick that must not be ignored if you want to make life easier for your guests is to ensure that there are correct phone directories in all rooms in your hotels. It will be negative PR for your hotel if guests find it difficult to call for assistance via your intercom when the need arises.
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Don’t Allow Your Satellite TV run Out of Subscription
It will not be nice for a guest to lodge in your hotel room only to find out that the satellite TV in the room they are lodging has ran out of subscription. The truth that it will leave a bad impression in their minds when they think about your hotel.
So you must ensure that whenever the hotel housekeeper enters any room to get it set for a guest, part of what they need to do is to ensure that the satellite TV is functional and the subscription is still on.
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Water Heater Must Be Functional and Effective
Never make the mistake of assuming that the water heaters in all your hotel rooms are all functional. It might surprise you to know that some water heaters in your hotel room stopped functioning after the last guest left the room. So part of the hotel housekeeping tip and trick that you need to adopt is to ensure that your hotel housekeeper confirm that the water heater in the room is functional before assigning a guest to the room.
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White Color Should Be the Preferred Color for All Fabrics
Although it might not be cast in stone, but it is advisable to ensure that your towels, and bedsheets are white. The truth is that if they are white and sparkling, then it will send a signal to your guest that your hotel is neat and takes hygiene seriously. If you want to be among the top flight hotel in your city, then try and adopt this hotel housekeeping trick and tips.
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The Choice of Toiletries Must Be a Generally Acceptable Brand
Another important hotel housekeeping tip that you need to adopt if you want to be competitive amongst hotels in your city is to ensure that you make use of toiletries that are generally accepted by the average hotel user. It is important to make use of well – known brands when placing toothpastes, soaps, creams and toilet rolls in your hotel rooms.
What is the point of placing toiletries in your hotel rooms and your guests don’t make use of them. One of the things that you have to understand about housekeeping is that it is very important that you adhere strictly to the tips that you learn.
You will find out that those who have adhered to all these tips have been able to do a thorough job in effectively keeping their hotels clean and acceptable.