Hotel Operations 101
How a hotel is run day to day, and what good looks like in each department.
Read →Knowledge · Rooms
Rooms: front office and housekeeping.
Rooms earn most of a hotel’s profit. This page sets out what a room must deliver, model service standards, productivity figures and a thirty-point inspection.
What a room must deliver
- Sleep
- A bed that is right, linen that is fresh, and a room that is dark when the curtains are drawn.
- Silence
- Designed in. We build to a background noise level of NC 25 in the room and sound insulation of STC 55 between rooms.
- Cleanliness
- Beyond question, in the places a guest looks and the places a guest does not.
- Water
- Hot within seconds, at steady pressure and temperature.
- Control
- Light, temperature and privacy that a tired guest can work without instructions.
- Connection
- Wi-Fi that works on arrival, and a socket where the telephone is put down.
Front office
A model standard, arrival to departure.
| Moment | Standard |
|---|---|
| Telephone | Answered within three rings, with the caller’s name used. |
| Reservation | Confirmed in writing the same day, with the preferences asked for. |
| Arrival | Met at the door. Luggage taken. The guest welcomed by name. |
| Registration | Completed seated or in the room, in under five minutes. Details prepared before arrival. |
| The room | Ready on arrival. The guest escorted and the room explained in a minute. |
| Luggage | In the room within ten minutes. |
| Requests | Acknowledged at once. Delivered within fifteen minutes, or the guest told when. |
| Departure | The bill accurate and ready. Settled in under five minutes. Transport waiting. |
A model. Set your own times, then measure them.
Housekeeping
- Rooms per attendant, luxury
- 10 to 12 a shift. A suite counts as two.
- Rooms per attendant, upscale
- 13 to 15 a shift.
- Inspection
- Every departure room checked by a supervisor before release.
- Turndown
- Every occupied room, every evening, at luxury level.
- Linen
- At least three sets for every bed: one on the bed, one in the laundry, one in the store.
- Out of order
- Reported the same day with a return date. An unsold room for want of a repair is the dearest repair in the hotel.
Numbers to watch
Rooms typically keep 70 to 80 percent of their revenue as departmental profit. Pricing them well is the subject of Revenue Management 101.
- Rooms departmental profit
- as a share of rooms revenue
- Cost per occupied room
- labour, linen, amenities and laundry
- Minutes per room
- departures and stayovers separately
- Inspection pass rate
- first time
- Rooms out of order
- and days lost
- Guest scores
- for cleanliness and for sleep
Guest room inspection
Thirty points for the supervisor releasing a room. Your ticks stay on this device until you clear them.
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Entrance
Bedroom
Bed
Bathroom
Technical
Last look
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