Room status codes everybody should use
Use the same short codes on the board, on the phone and in the register, so nobody has to interpret a note written in a hurry.
| Code | Meaning | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| VC | Vacant clean — empty and cleaned | Inspect it; then it can be sold |
| VD | Vacant dirty — the guest has left | Clean it, first if an arrival is waiting for it |
| OC | Occupied clean — serviced today | Nothing more until tomorrow, unless the guest asks |
| OD | Occupied dirty — not yet serviced | Service it while the guest is out |
| DND | Do not disturb | Note the time; follow your policy if the sign stays up all day |
| OOO | Out of order — cannot be sold until something is repaired | Raise a maintenance job; block the room |
| OOS | Out of service — held back for a short while (deep clean, pest control, painting) | Return it to sale when the work is done |
| Inspected | Checked by a supervisor or the owner | Ready to sell |
Out of order and out of service are different on purpose: the first needs a repair, the second is a planned pause. Decide once how each is counted in your occupancy figures, write it down, and keep to it — otherwise one month’s occupancy cannot be compared with the next.
The order of the day
- Morning briefing, fifteen minutes. Walk through today’s list: arrivals with expected times, departures, stayovers, rooms blocked, special requests (an extra bed, a baby cot, an early check-in) and maintenance jobs still open.
- Rooms that arrivals are waiting for. Early check-ins and same-day turnarounds first — an arrival waiting in the lobby is the most expensive delay housekeeping can cause.
- Other departures. A full checkout clean, to the checklist below.
- Stayovers. Once guests go out, with Do-not-disturb respected. Lighter service, to its own shorter checklist.
- Public areas. Lobby, corridors, stairs, common washrooms — at set times, not “when there is a gap”.
- Afternoon. Linen count, laundry in and out, restocking the trolleys, the lost-and-found register.
- Evening handover to the desk. Rooms ready, rooms not ready and why, rooms out of order, anything found, and anything the night shift should know.
Checklist for a checkout room
Before you start
- Knock and announce twice before entering.
- Look for anything left behind before you strip anything; log it in lost and found.
- Open the curtains and windows; note any damage before cleaning, with a photo if it matters.
The bed
- Strip all linen; check the mattress protector and mattress for stains and bed bugs.
- Fresh linen from the shelf, never “good enough” linen from the last guest.
- Pillows plumped and covered; the bed made to your standard, the same in every room.
The bathroom
- Clean and disinfect the WC, basin, shower area and floor; dry it — a wet bathroom looks unclean.
- Fresh towels to the standard count; toiletries restocked.
- Check the flush, the hot water, the drain and the exhaust fan while you are there.
The room
- Dust top to bottom: fan and light fittings, headboard, surfaces, then the floor, swept and mopped last.
- Wardrobe and drawers empty, hangers complete; bin emptied and lined.
- Test what guests complain about: AC and its remote, TV, lights, fan, kettle, charging points, Wi-Fi card.
Before you leave
- Amenities placed to the standard; AC and lights off.
- Look at the room from the door, as the next guest will see it.
- Anything broken becomes a maintenance job now, not a remark at the evening handover.
- Update the status to “vacant clean — not inspected”.
A stayover gets a shorter list: make the bed, empty the bins, replace used towels, restock, tidy — and never move or open a guest’s belongings.
Linen and amenities: work to a par
Par is how many complete sets of linen you keep for each bed. With one set on the bed, one in the laundry and one on the shelf, a par of three lets every room be turned even when the laundry is a day behind. In the monsoon, when things take longer to dry, you may need more.
Worked example
A hotel with 12 double beds working to a par of 3 needs 36 sets. If each set is one bottom sheet, one top sheet or duvet cover and two pillow covers, that is 36 bottom sheets, 36 top sheets and 72 pillow covers — before anything is torn, stained beyond use or lost.
Count the linen every week against the par. Write down what was condemned and why; a steady loss you cannot explain is a question for the laundry or for the rooms. Amenities — soap, shampoo, water bottles, tea sachets — work the same way: a standard per room, a stock on the shelf, a reorder level.
What the Ministry of Tourism’s checklist expects
The Ministry of Tourism’s guidelines for star classification of hotels include a housekeeping checklist, marking each item necessary or desirable for each star category. They are written for hotels that apply for a classification, not as a law for every property — but they make a sensible floor for any hotel:
- Bedrooms, bathrooms, public areas and the kitchen serviced daily — necessary from one star to five.
- A clean change of bed and bath linen daily, and always between check-ins; one- and two-star hotels may change it on alternate days, but never skip the change between guests.
- Minimum bedding of two sheets, a pillow and case, a blanket and a mattress protector or bed cover — the mattress protector necessary from three stars, desirable below.
- One bath towel and one hand towel for each guest.
- Pest control, with the record shown to the classification committee at inspection; a well-ventilated linen room.
The Ministry’s separate standards for Incredible India bed-and-breakfast and homestay establishments ask, for both their Silver and Gold grades, that rooms be clean, airy, pest-free and free of damp, with a comfortable bed and good-quality linen and bedding.
Inspection: the step that makes the board true
A room marked clean by the person who cleaned it is a claim. A room marked inspected by somebody else is a fact the desk can sell on. In a small hotel, the owner or the senior housekeeper inspects every departure and a few stayovers each day.
Check what guests notice first: the bed, the bathroom (dry and clean), a full set of amenities, nothing left from the last guest, and that everything switches on. A fault found at inspection becomes a maintenance job; a room that cannot be fixed today goes out of order so the desk cannot sell it.
Lost and found
Everything found goes into a register the same day: the date, the room, what it is, who found it and where it is kept. Valuables go to the owner or the safe, not to a drawer at the desk. When an item is returned, record to whom, when, and how they proved it was theirs. Decide how long you keep unclaimed items, write the rule down, and follow it the same way every time.
Planning the workload from your own rooms
How many rooms one person can clean in a shift depends on your rooms — their size, the bathrooms, the beds, the stairs — so measure it rather than borrowing a number from somewhere else. Time five checkout rooms and five stayovers, and plan from your own averages.
Worked example
Suppose a checkout room takes 35 minutes in your hotel and a stayover 15. Tomorrow has 9 departures and 6 stayovers:
That is most of one person’s shift before a single corridor is swept — so tomorrow needs a second pair of hands in the morning, or a later start on the stayovers.