Professional Housekeeping & Accommodation Services

What housekeeping actually is, who you are doing it for, and the standard you will be held to.

Covered

• The hotel as a system: front office, housekeeping, maintenance, F&B
• Room status language: dirty, clean, inspected, out of service
• Grooming, uniform and personal hygiene
• Timekeeping, clocking in, and why the clock matters
• Confidentiality: what you see in a room stays in the room

Practical: Shadow a housekeeper for one full shift. Record the room status of every room they touch, before and after. Write half a page on the first thing you noticed entering each room.

What each product does, what it must never touch, and how to protect yourself.

Covered

• Detergents, disinfectants, degreasers, descalers, glass cleaner
• pH: why acid removes limescale and alkali removes grease
• Dilution ratios and the true cost of "a bit more will clean better"
• Surfaces: laminate, wood veneer, granite, chrome, mirror, fabric
• PPE: gloves, ventilation, and what to do with splashes
• Colour-coded cloths and cross-contamination

Practical: Dilute three concentrates to spec and have the ratio checked. Clean one bathroom using correct colour coding while an assessor watches for cross-contamination.

The bed is the centrepiece. Making one properly, fast, without wrecking your back.

Covered

• Stripping: what to check for before linen goes in the bag
• Sheet, protector, duvet and pillow standards
• Hospital corners and the tight finish
• Cushion and throw presentation
• Stains: what launders out and what does not
• Manual handling: mattress turning, bending, and your back at forty

Practical: Timed assessment: strip and remake a king bed to standard. Target 8 minutes; you pass at 10 with full standard, and fail at any time with the standard missed.

The room guests inspect hardest, and the one that fails inspections most often.

Covered

• Top-down, clean-to-dirty sequence
• Toilet protocol and the red cloth rule
• Limescale in hard water; mould in grout and silicone
• Mirrors and chrome without streaks
• Amenity presentation, towel folding, toilet-roll finish
• Drains, smells and the water trap

Practical: Clean a bathroom against the inspection checklist. An assessor will run a white cloth behind the toilet base, along the shower track and over the extractor grille.

Putting the pieces together into one efficient circuit of the room.

Covered

• Trolley set-up: everything you need, nothing you do not
• Entering a room: knock, announce, wait, announce again
• The circuit: one direction round the room
• Departure clean versus stayover service
• Dusting high to low; the places supervisors check
• Time allowances and what to do when you are behind

Practical: Service three rooms in sequence under observation, working to the 30-minute standard allowance. Assessor times each and inspects all three.

You hold keys to every room in the building. What that means and what it demands.

Covered

• Key custody: never lend, never leave, never take home
• Doors: why a propped door is a sackable matter
• Verifying a guest who says they are locked out (you do not)
• Lost property: log, label, store, return
• Suspicious findings: weapons, drugs, evidence of trafficking
• Guest privacy and the do-not-disturb rule

Practical: Role-play: a plausible stranger asks you to open a room. Assessed on refusal and on what you do next. Second role-play: finding a wallet with cash in a departed room.

The linen cycle, and why linen is one of the biggest silent losses in a hotel.

Covered

• Sorting: colour, fabric, soil, infection risk
• Wash temperatures and what each one is for
• Detergent, softener, and why hotels avoid softener on towels
• Drying and ironing; the cost of over-drying
• Par levels and linen loss
• Stain treatment: blood, oil, wine, makeup, biro
• Guest laundry and dry cleaning: intake, tagging, liability

Practical: Run three loads sorted correctly, including one high-risk. Complete a linen count and reconcile against the par sheet. Treat four stained items and report the results.

Everything outside the guest rooms, and the periodic work that keeps rooms sellable.

Covered

• Lobby, corridors, lifts, public toilets, back of house
• Wet floor signage and working around guests
• Deep clean schedule: mattresses, curtains, upholstery, vents
• Descaling kettles and cleaning AC filters
• Bed bugs, cockroaches, rodents, ants — signs and response
• Waste segregation and the bin store

Practical: Complete one public-area clean during service hours, assessed on guest interaction and signage. Complete one full deep-clean checklist on a guest room.

Checking your own work the way a supervisor will, and the meaning of a signature.

Covered

• The room inspection checklist, item by item
• Self-inspection before you sign out
• The doorway test
• Recording faults and raising maintenance jobs
• What "inspected" means and who may set it
• Receiving feedback without taking it personally

Practical: Self-inspect five rooms, recording your own findings, then have a supervisor inspect the same rooms independently. Compare the two lists.

Using the hotel software the way the job actually runs on it.

Covered

• The task board: priority, allowance and status
• Clocking into a room and what the timer means
• The sign-out checklist and why every box is required
• Reporting a room you cannot complete
• Writing a handover: specific, factual, useful
• Lost property, maintenance and stock requests in the app

Practical: Work a full shift on the live task board: accept assignments, clock in and out of each room, raise at least one maintenance job, and submit a written handover.

The human side: dealing with people well when things have gone wrong.

Covered

• Greeting, eye contact and the language of service
• Complaints: listen, acknowledge, act, follow up
• What you may promise and what you must escalate
• Guests who are drunk, aggressive, or in distress
• Cultural and religious sensitivity
• Tips: policy, fairness and never soliciting

Practical: Three assessed role-plays: a guest complaining about a missed room, a guest asking for a discount, and an intoxicated guest blocking a corridor.

The step up to running a floor, and the assessment that certifies you.

Covered

• Allocating rooms: balancing departures, stayovers and priorities
• Inspecting fairly and consistently
• Training somebody new without doing it for them
• Stock control: par levels and requisitions
• Your record: attendance, quality, reliability
• Interviews, references and the hire-ready register

Practical: Supervise a floor for one shift: allocate the board, inspect every room, and sign the floor off. Then sit the final practical yourself.