Hotel rooms are generally meant to look clean and sparkly, with their bleached-white sheets and shiny surfaces. If you’ve ever looked at your pristine hotel surroundings and marveled at how clean everything was, you might have wondered how the hotel cleaning staff manages to clean after every guest. How long does it take to clean a hotel room?
It takes about 30 minutes to clean a hotel room. This is because cleaning staff uses techniques to clean faster but thoroughly, such as dusting first and filling a cleaning cart with products they need for different rooms.
In this article, I’ll explore why cleaning a hotel room takes approximately 30 minutes and what tasks can be completed during this time. I’ll also look at how many rooms a housekeeper can clean in one day.
How Long Does It Take To Clean a Hotel Room?
It takes hotel staff about 30 minutes to clean a hotel room because they have to get through many cleaning sessions during their shift, so they don’t want to waste time. They use clever techniques, such as only circling a room once.
For example, when cleaning the bathroom, they’ll spray and wipe down the mirror before moving on to cleaning the sink and wiping down counters. Working in smaller spaces keeps their work organized and prevents them from having to return to the same section of the room to give it a better clean.
Similarly, when cleaning the bed, the following tasks can be done simultaneously:
- Removing the sheets
- Checking the linen for any stains that need to be spot cleaned
- Making the bed
- Fluffing up the pillows
How Do Hotels Clean in 30 minutes?
Hotels clean in 30 minutes by sticking to an effective cleaning strategy. This involves stripping the bed’s sheets, checking for any stains or damage, and removing dirty linen and waste from the room in one go so they don’t have to spend too much time on one task.
In this way, multitasking can help prevent wasting time. Once the bed has been stripped and the waste removed from the room, the following tips should be followed during every cleaning session.
- Dusting the room. The hotel room should be dusted from the highest surface all the way down. Items such as lampshades and hanging artwork should not be neglected during this task.
- Wiping down surfaces. Surfaces such as appliances and tables should be wiped with a clean cloth.
- Cleaning the bathroom. This area of the hotel room needs a lot of attention, so the toilet should be cleaned, followed by the toilet seat and handle. Towels should be replaced, and the shower should be cleaned as well. All chrome surfaces should also be cleaned so they don’t display watermarks.
- Replacing hotel-provided items. All items that were provided by the hotel need to be replaced. This includes laundry bags and personal care products.
- Finishing off with vacuuming. This should be done while checking the carpets for any stains or spills. To tackle these, a spot remover should be used.
- Spot check for stains and mold. As housekeepers move around the room, they’ll also be looking for any stains or mold spots that need to be removed. If necessary, they may steam-clean small areas of the room before turning it over to the next guest.
Hotel staff can save time while cleaning by:
- Letting products work. Spraying products onto surfaces such as the toilet bowl or shower wall while doing other tasks allows the products to work and prevents the effort of scrubbing surfaces.
- Keeping items in a cart. This is great because the housekeeper can wheel the cart with them to the bedroom or bathroom and have everything they need without wasting time trying to find it. It’s also essential to ensure that the cart is fully stocked with the required products at all times.
- Opening the windows and curtains before starting. Although this seems like it would waste one’s time, it actually saves it because it ventilates the room and removes odors, while good natural light shows details of what needs to be cleaned, as eHotelier reports.
- Moving in a circular pattern. For example, starting at the door and moving around the room before going back out ensures that everything in the room gets cleaned properly. This also prevents one from having to return to a certain section of the room to clean it again.
How Many Rooms Can a Housekeeper Clean Per Day?
A housekeeper can clean around 14 hotel rooms daily, but this number can be doubled in some hotels. These rooms all have to be cleaned within a cleaner’s eight-hour shift, which is why sometimes they still knock on your door if you’ve put up a “Do Not Disturb” sign, as Woman’s Day reports.
A housekeeper usually does the following tasks when cleaning a hotel room:
- Making the bed
- Tidying up the room
- Cleaning toilets
- Cleaning sinks (taps included)
- Cleaning bathtubs
- Cleaning and polishing mirrors
- Washing the floors
- Vacuuming
- Removing stains from surfaces
The amount of work that housekeepers have to do depends on the size of the room they’re cleaning and how many beds are in the room, as the Canadian Center For Occupational Health and Safety reports.
Although it may vary from one hotel to the next, housekeepers generally work shifts between eight and ten hours. They will clean between 10 to 15 rooms per shift and get about a 30-minute break during their shift.
Some cleaning staff will endure shifts of up to 12 hours, which can put them at greater risk of burnout and injury. This is why it’s recommended for hotel management to alternate staff members and reduce the shift hours of employees, which also ensures a higher quality of work.
Final Thoughts
Housekeepers can take around 30 minutes to clean a hotel room, and they can clean around 15 rooms per shift. This is why it’s so important for cleaning staff to be organized regarding the cleaning and detergent products they have available and ensure they work quickly but thoroughly without wasting time.
