It is a Saturday in August. Three rooms empty at 11:00. At 14:00 two new guests arrive, and one of them has already written that they will be early. There is one cleaner, she starts at 10:00, and every morning she asks the same thing: "Where do I start?"
If the answer is "whichever room empties first", one day the 14:00 guest will be waiting in the yard with their suitcases. A cleaning schedule does not need to be complicated. It needs a fixed order that everyone knows, and a list that is made every morning from the reservations, not from memory.
Below is a template you can use on paper or on a phone. At the end we show how it is produced on its own in the Bookmatrix.com housekeeping app.
First, the four room types of the day
Every morning, every room falls into one of four groups. The cleaning order comes from them.
- Departure with an arrival the same day. One guest leaves, the next one comes today. Full clean, all linen changed, checked. These are the rooms that cannot wait.
- Departure with no arrival today. Full clean, but it can happen later in the day.
- Stay-over. The guest is staying. Usually a light tidy: rubbish, towels if asked, supplies. On longer stays, a sheet change every few days.
- Vacant room. A quick check: dust, fresh air, run the taps. Last on the list.
The order: which room is cleaned first
- Departures with an arrival today, by arrival time. If the guest for room 4 arrives at 13:00 and the guest for room 7 at 17:00, room 4 goes first, even if room 7 emptied earlier.
- Other departures. In the order they empty.
- Stay-overs. Once the guest has left the room. Do not knock at 10:00 on someone who is on holiday.
- Vacant rooms and common areas. Whatever time is left.
One more rule: a room marked clean is not ready until someone has looked at it. If you have a second person, or you check yourself, the inspection happens before check-in time, not when the guest is already inside.
The template: a turnover day
Say 8 rooms, check-out at 11:00, check-in from 14:00, one cleaner from 10:00. The times below are an example. Use your own: time two or three rooms on a normal day and you will know.
- 10:00 to 10:30, common areas and the trolley. Entrance, stairs, clean linen on the trolley for every room with a departure.
- 10:30 to 11:00, stay-overs whose guests are out. A quick tidy while you wait for the others to empty.
- 11:00 to 11:50, room 4. Departure, arrival at 13:00. Full clean.
- 11:50 to 12:40, room 2. Departure, arrival at 15:00.
- 12:40 to 13:00, inspection of rooms 4 and 2. By you or whoever does the checks.
- 13:00 to 13:50, room 7. Departure, no arrival today.
- 13:50 to 14:30, the remaining stay-overs and vacant rooms. Sheet changes where they are due.
Each line needs five things: time, room, type (departure, stay-over, vacant), next arrival time, who cleans it. On paper, one A4 sheet with these five columns is enough. What matters is that it is written every morning from the day's reservations, not from memory.
With two or more people
When you have two cleaners, do not split the rooms "half and half". Split them so that the rooms with an arrival today are shared between both people. Otherwise one person has all the pressure and the other finishes early. It also helps if each person has rooms on the same floor or in the same building, so no time is lost on the stairs.
Three mistakes that break the schedule
- A list made last night. A cancellation or a last-minute booking changes the order. The list is made in the morning.
- Phone calls asking "is room 4 ready?". If the cleaner has to answer her phone every half hour, she loses her rhythm. Room status should be visible without a call.
- No note for special requests. A cot, an extra blanket, a guest with an allergy. If it is not written next to the room, it will be forgotten.
How the schedule builds itself in Bookmatrix.com
The template above works on paper too. The problem with paper is that someone has to write it every morning. In Bookmatrix.com the list comes from the reservations calendar:
- Every room has its type. The cleaner opens the app on her phone with her personal PIN and sees the rooms assigned to her: departure, stay-over or vacant.
- Departures turn dirty on their own. When the guest checks out, the room joins the list without anyone typing it.
- Four statuses. Dirty, in progress, clean, inspected. Reception, or you, can see live which room is ready for the next arrival, without a phone call.
- Assignments and notes. You split the rooms per person and add a note where needed, for example "cot".
- A printable daily sheet. If your team prefers paper, print the day's sheet: room, arrival, departure and task type (general cleaning, linen change, simple tidy).
- Time per room. How long each room took and who cleaned it is recorded. After a few weeks the times in your template are real ones.
With an automation you can have the cleaning task created and assigned on every check-out, without anyone entering it by hand. To see how the app works from the cleaner's side, read "The cleaner has no email. She has a PIN.".
A short routine that sticks
- Every morning, before the team arrives, look at today's arrivals and their times.
- Move the rooms with early arrivals to the top.
- Write the notes for special requests.
- At 13:00, check which rooms are "clean" and which are "inspected".
- At the end of the week, compare the real times with the ones you planned.
Five minutes in the morning and one fixed rule for the order are usually enough to keep every guest out of the yard.
Want your cleaning schedule to build itself from the reservations? Try Bookmatrix.com free for 14 days, with your own rooms and no card, at bookmatrix.com/demo. Or leave your details at bookmatrix.com/form and we will call you on the next working day. You can also call us at +30 2351 151525.