The Bedroom Standard

Stock the caddy with five colour-coded microfibre cloths for the bedroom (dry dust, damp dust, glass, metal, spot cleaning), a glass spray, a neutral cleaner and a spot remover tested on the hotel’s fabrics.

Check the vacuum before the round: bag or bin less than half full, filter clean, crevice and upholstery tools clipped on, cable undamaged. A weak vacuum leaves sand along the carpet edges.

Read the rotation card for your section: which rooms are due today for high dusting, vents, curtain folds, window tracks or upholstery shampoo. Add the minutes to your plan for those rooms.

Mark on your list which rooms are departures and which are stay-overs. A stay-over gets the daily clean in this standard; a departure gets every step, inside drawers and under furniture included.

Check yourself against The Presence Standard before the first room: uniform, name badge, clean hands, and the VIP rooms on your section in mind.

Enter as The Door Standard sets out. If the guest is in and asks you to clean now, ask what they would like done first and whether anything should be left as it is.

“Good morning, Mr Novak. Is there anything you’d like me to start with, or to leave as it is?”

Switch on every light so dust and marks show, and open the window or balcony door for air unless it is raining, windy, very hot outside or the guest is in the room.

Stand inside the door for five seconds and note where the guest’s things are, as The Belongings Standard sets out. That is the layout you leave behind.

Clear first: empty every bin and ashtray into the trolley bag, take out used cups and glasses, and move room service trays out as The Tray Collection Standard sets out. Bin only what is clearly rubbish.

Keep to the room order: strip the bed, clean the bathroom and make the bed as The Bed Standard and The Bathroom Standard set out, then the bedroom in this standard. Lint from the linen settles before you dust.

Dust in one circuit: start at the corner farthest from the door, move clockwise and finish at the door. Work high, then middle, then low. Dust falls, so the floor always comes last.

High surfaces with a dry cloth or an extension duster: tops of picture frames, curtain rails, wardrobe tops, door frames, lampshades and ceiling light fittings.

Smoke detectors, sprinkler heads, air vents and ceiling corners: dust them on the room’s rotation date only, with a dry duster. Never spray or wet a detector or sprinkler; report one that is painted or covered.

Middle surfaces with the damp cloth folded in four, turned to a clean side for each surface: desk, chests, bedside tables, headboard, TV unit, chair arms, sills, phone, remote, switches and door handles.

Lift and wipe under every hotel object (lamp base, phone, tray, clock, directory) and put it back on its exact spot, facing the same way. Dust around the guest’s things without moving them.

Low surfaces: skirting boards, bed base, chair and table legs, lower shelves and the luggage rack. Wipe them in full at every departure and wherever they show dust at a daily service.

Buff polished wood and metal with the dry cloth after the damp one, and look at lacquer and metal from the side with the light behind them: fingerprints and smears show only at that angle.

Walk the walls, doors and skirting at arm’s length, looking for scuffs, prints around switches and handles, and splashes by the bin and the luggage rack. Lift marks with the spot cleaner and a white cloth.

Mirrors and glass with the glass cloth only: spray the cloth, never the glass, wipe top to bottom in an S, then check at an angle with the light behind you. The TV screen gets the dry cloth only.

Windows and balcony doors: inside glass, frames and handles in full at every departure; prints and splashes at every daily service. Vacuum the tracks on the rotation date. Outside glass is on the window contractor’s schedule.

Vacuum every sofa and armchair with the upholstery tool: seat, back, arms and under each cushion. Treat a fresh stain at once with the tested spot remover; log an old one for shampooing.

Plump the cushions and set them as the room photo shows, zips down and turned away from view. Vacuum fabric headboards and the curtain hems at every departure, the curtain folds on the rotation date.

In the wardrobe and drawers at a departure, wipe every shelf, rail and drawer inside, so they are clean as well as empty. In an occupied room, leave the guest’s wardrobe closed.

Wash every bin inside and out at a departure, and any bin with residue at a daily service. Dry it fully, then fit a new liner folded over the rim so it cannot be seen from the bed.

Where the hotel has ashtrays, on a balcony or in a smoking room: empty them into the metal bin, never into a plastic liner, then wash, dry and put back one at each place.

On the balcony or terrace, sweep the floor into the corners and the drain, wipe the table, chairs and loungers, and empty the balcony bin. In sandy or dusty weather, wipe the furniture at every service.

Put out cushions and open the parasol only if the weather allows and the hotel’s rule says so. In rain or wind, bring cushions inside, close the parasol and secure light furniture. Lock the balcony door.

Look at the balcony for safety as you leave it: railing firm, no cracked glass, no loose tiles, plants watered. Report any fault to engineering before you leave the room.

Vacuum from the far corner back to the door in straight, overlapping lines, so the carpet pile lies one way. Move light furniture (chairs, luggage rack, bins) and put it back on its marks.

Run the crevice tool along every skirting board, into the corners, behind the doors and along the curtain line, where sand and hair collect and a bare foot finds them.

Vacuum under the bed and sofas at every departure, and look under them with a torch at every service. Anything you find there goes to the office as The Lost Property Standard sets out.

Hard floors (wood, marble, tiles): dust-mop, then damp-mop with the neutral cleaner and a well-wrung mop, working back to the door. Look along the floor from low down: no footprints, no streaks.

Treat fresh stains on carpet and rugs at once by blotting, never rubbing. Straighten rug fringes and lift the corners to vacuum beneath. Log any stain that stays for the carpet team.

Close the windows and balcony door, set curtains and lights as The Final Look Standard sets out, and leave the thermostat where the guest set it in an occupied room.

Do the two-minute check in The Final Look Standard, then run a white cloth along three places you did not look at closely: the top of a frame, the top of a door, the back of a chair.

Write on your sheet or handheld: the room, time in and time out, rotation tasks done, stains logged, faults reported and items found, before you move to the next room.

The supervisor inspects at least one room in five: the white-cloth test on five ledges chosen on the spot, and a torch check under the bed. A room that fails goes back to its attendant the same shift.