The Room Request Standard

Count the loan stock against the list at the start of each shift: irons and boards, phone chargers of each type, plug adapters, pillows and blankets, cots, humidifiers, prayer mats, yoga mats. Note what is out, and in which room.

Test every electrical item before it goes back on the shelf: the iron heats and does not leak, chargers charge, adapters fit. A faulty item goes to engineering with a tag, never back to stock.

Lay out delivery trays lined with a napkin, cloth pouches for small items and clean covers for pillows and blankets, so nothing has to go up carried in the hand.

Open the request log, check the handset is charged, and read the handover: open requests, loan items to collect, and guests who ask for the same thing every night.

Speak as The Presence Standard sets out: calmly, without slang, the example lines in your own words. Let the guest finish, and write down what they ask so they never have to repeat it.

Answer within three rings with the department and your first name, using the guest’s name from the room display.

“Good evening, Mrs Tanaka. Housekeeping, Sara speaking. How may I help you?”

Repeat the request back with the detail that decides the item: the connector for a charger, the plug type, firm or feather-free for a pillow, the child’s age for a cot.

“So that’s a USB-C phone charger and one firm, feather-free pillow. Is that right?”

Put the guest on hold only if you must: ask first, wait for the yes and come back within 30 seconds. If you need longer, offer to call back at a time you state.

“May I put you on hold for a moment while I check the cots? … Thank you for waiting.”

Give a delivery time you can keep, within 10 minutes in a city hotel or 15 in a resort, and ask whether the guest will be in the room or would like the item left inside.

“It will be with you within ten minutes. Will you be in the room?”

Answer every app or text message within 3 minutes, in the guest’s language and register, in full sentences with no abbreviations, naming the item and the time.

“Good evening, Mr Al-Harbi. A prayer mat is on its way to you and will be at your door by 19:40.”

If the guest asks for something another department handles (a table, a car, a doctor), tell them who will call back, pass it on with the name, room and need, and log it.

When a guest asks the concierge or the front desk for an item, the colleague phones housekeeping at once with the room, the guest’s name, the item and any time already promised.

The clock starts when the guest asked, not at the handover. If the concierge promised a time that housekeeping cannot keep, say so at once, so the concierge can tell the guest.

Read the details back to the colleague, give the attendant’s name and the delivery time, and log the request under the concierge’s name as well as your own.

Tell the concierge within 5 minutes of delivery. The colleague who took the request closes the loop with the guest, as The Guest Request Standard sets out.

Send the request to the nearest house attendant within one minute, with the room, the guest’s name, the item and the time promised. The attendant confirms on the handset that they have it.

Take the item off the shelf and check it in your hands: clean, complete, working, and right for what was asked. A charger that doesn’t fit the phone becomes a second request.

Present it: small items on the lined tray or in a pouch, pillows and blankets in a clean cover, an iron with its board and the cord coiled. Nothing goes up loose or under an arm.

Go straight to the room by the service lift. If you will not make the time, call the coordinator before it passes, so the guest hears the new time from the hotel first.

Check the DND first. Knock three times, announce “Housekeeping”, wait 10 seconds, then knock and announce again, as The Door Standard sets out. Never open the door yourself while the guest is inside.

Greet the guest by name, say what you have brought and hand it over at the door. Step inside only if the guest invites you in to set the item up.

“Good evening, Mrs Tanaka. Here are the charger and the pillow you asked for.”

Offer to set up anything that needs it: the ironing board opened by a socket, the cot made up, the adapter plugged in, the humidifier filled. Show how it works in one sentence.

“Shall I set the board up for you by the window?”

If the guest is out and asked for the item to be left, put it where they will see it, with a card saying what it is and how to ask for more. Pillows go on the bed, chargers by the bedside socket.

Ask once whether there is anything else, thank the guest by name and leave. Never wait at the door as if for a tip.

“Is there anything else I can bring you, Mrs Tanaka? Good evening.”

Log the delivery time on the handset as you leave the room. The coordinator sees the time from request to door for every item, and the time promised beside it.

For anything electrical or set up (an iron, an adapter, a cot, a humidifier), the coordinator calls the guest within 15 minutes of delivery to ask whether it works.

“Mrs Tanaka, it’s Sara from housekeeping. Is everything working as you need it?”

Log every loan item against the room. Collect it at the next service, or at departure before the room is released, then clean and test it before it goes back on the shelf.

When a guest asks for the same thing twice, write it to their profile the same day, so it is already in the room the next night and on the next stay.

At the end of each shift, total the requests, the average and longest time to the door and the items out of stock. The housekeeping manager reviews the list each week.