Deep cleaning in hotels is one of the cleaning types in the housekeeping system that involves more thorough cleaning of furniture, accessories, windows, floors, and walls.
During deep cleaning, tasks are performed that a single housekeeper physically cannot accomplish during regular room cleaning.
Deep cleaning is carried out both in guest rooms and in public areas throughout the hotel.
Since quality deep cleaning takes significantly more time than regular room servicing, many experts recommend conducting deep cleaning during the low season and closing entire floors or sections to avoid disturbing guests during their stay.
If the decision to perform deep cleaning is made during high season, it's recommended to clean a group of adjacent rooms simultaneously, creating a natural "noise buffer" and minimizing obstacles created when using specialized equipment such as steam cleaners.
The deep cleaning schedule in hotels depends on how intensively the rooms, furniture, accessories, and other elements of hotel rooms and public areas are used. The frequency of deep cleaning can also be influenced by weather conditions and the quality of routine maintenance. Under normal operations, the period is every 6-8 weeks.
Experts note that this approach is considered more traditional and sometimes requires temporarily blocking room availability for booking.
To avoid interrupting booking availability, a different and more effective approach to deep cleaning scheduling is recommended. It's advisable to have an employee who doesn't handle other tasks except deep cleaning.
For example, with a 5-day work week and cleaning one room per day, that's 20 guest rooms per month. For a medium-sized hotel, deep cleaning of each room would occur every 3-4 months.
This approach has many advantages, including:
The procedure and sequence of deep cleaning should be documented in SOPs and comply with hotel standards created by the housekeeping manager.
Special training is recommended for team members to ensure consistent and proper deep cleaning of rooms and public areas in the hotel.
Supervisors should maintain a record of rooms where deep cleaning has been performed, including the date of the last cleaning, to ensure regularity.
Acceptance of completed work is performed by management, such as the floor supervisor or housekeeping supervisor.
Example: SOP - Deep Cleaning of Hotel RoomHousekeeping assistants may be brought in when furniture needs to be moved or several rooms need thorough dusting. A housekeeping assistant can support multiple housekeeping staff members.