Ready?
Head Housekeeper — your shift
Departures before stayovers, arrivals before everything — and a room is not ready until somebody has looked at it. Look at who is in front of you, then tap the box they belong in.
Full screen — no distractions
What does a head housekeeper do?
You have a hundred rooms, eleven hours and nine people, and you decide in what order the building gets cleaned.
Also called: executive housekeeper, accommodation manager, housekeeping manager.
A day looks like
- 1You build the boards before anyone arrives: who cleans which rooms, in which order, and which ones cannot wait.
- 2The plan survives until the first early arrival rings down at ten past nine.
- 3You check rooms yourself — not all of them, the ones that tell you something.
- 4You have a conversation with somebody about a standard that has slipped, and you have it privately.
Hardest part
The maths never works. You are always short of time or people, so every day you decide which corner gets cut, and you are the one accountable for the corner you chose.
Best part
A full house turned around on time with nothing chased and no complaints, which looks from outside like nothing happened at all.
How you actually become a head housekeeper
- At schoolCleaning rooms. Nobody runs a housekeeping floor without having done the rooms.
- TrainingOn the job, plus supervisory training; chemical safety and manual handling are formal.
- How longTwo to five years from room attendant, faster in a small property.
- Your first jobRoom attendant, then floor supervisor checking other people's rooms.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a head housekeeper just a cleaner in charge?
- It is a logistics job. They plan labour against occupancy, control the linen and chemical budgets, meet health and safety law, and are usually responsible for the largest team in the hotel.
- Why is the order of rooms such a big deal?
- Because a hotel sells the same room twice in one day. If a departure is not cleaned before the arrival appears, the hotel physically cannot deliver what it sold, and that is the single most common serious complaint in the industry.
- Can you really be promoted from cleaning rooms?
- It is the usual route. Room attendant to floor supervisor to head housekeeper is a well-worn path, and in large hotels the executive housekeeper is a senior manager running dozens of staff.
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