Hotel Grounds and Public Area Cleaning

Public Areas in Hotels

Public areas are zones that guests and other visitors to the hotel can use throughout the day. These include:

• Elevators: These are often equipped with mirrors, carpets, brass or metal railings, and other fixtures that need to be kept clean.
• Traffic areas: Corridors, staircases
• Lobbies and foyers: This is the entrance to the establishment, making it a high-traffic area that easily gets dirty and must be regularly cleaned to create a good first impression.
• Reception: In a hotel, this is where guests check in. In a restaurant, this may be where billing, queuing, and other activities take place.
• Restaurant: The room where guests dine must be kept clean, and any food spills should be immediately cleaned to avoid health hazards. Additionally, the room must be well-ventilated so food and/or smoke odors don't linger.
• Bar: In bars, guests enjoy drinks—drinks are often spilled, so it's important to maintain cleanliness and fresh smell. Although carpets add a luxurious feel to bars, they're difficult to keep clean and fresh, so hard floors are often installed in these areas.
• Lounge areas: Guests relax, socialize, and meet in lounge areas. These must always be kept clean and tidy, without trash and spilled drinks.
• Public restrooms: Ladies' and men's restrooms must be regularly maintained to keep them clean and well-stocked with essentials like soap, towels, and toilet paper.
• Conference rooms and meeting rooms: These are usually equipped with chairs and tables for guests in a large space.
• Common lounges, vestibule, and reception area: These are usually cleaned daily and early in the morning before guests start using them. These are important areas in a hotel, as dirty areas leave a bad and lasting impression.

Public Area Cleaning Frequency

As in other areas, work in public spaces is divided into daily, weekly, monthly, and periodic tasks.

Daily tasks: include dusting, emptying ashtrays and trash cans, arranging flowers, vacuuming carpets, mopping hard floors, removing marks from glass, and cleaning restroom areas—which should be checked regularly throughout the day.

Weekly and monthly tasks: including washing or deep cleaning floors, cleaning walls, fixtures, washing and polishing woodwork, including wooden furniture.

Periodic tasks: Focus on items or areas that are not cleaned on a regular basis. These are heavier maintenance tasks such as wall washing, floor cleaning, carpet shampooing, resealing or repolishing floors, and cleaning exterior windows. Many of these tasks are performed by maintenance staff or external contractors.

Public Area Cleaning Specifics

Developing and maintaining cleaning procedures for public areas is no less important than for rooms but is much less standardized. Cleaning needs for public areas differ significantly between properties due to architectural differences, lobby space distribution, types of activities, and guest flow.

Dining Area Cleaning

In most cases, cleaning rooms where food and beverages are served is a partnership between cleaners and food service staff, with managers of each section agreeing on their cleaning responsibilities.

For example, in a lounge bar, F&B staff are responsible for caring for tables, cushions, sofas, and the bar area, while housekeeping staff vacuum, polish brass fixtures, clean windows, and care for plants.

Mainly, F&B area cleaning is done during off-peak hours or at night when demand is lowest.

It's important for the Executive Housekeeper to track special events at the hotel, such as conferences and events, as these create increased cleaning demand.

Lobby and Other Public Area Cleaning

In these areas, duties include vacuuming, floor polishing, arranging cushions, wiping tables, polishing mirrors, plant care, emptying trash cans and ashtrays, and polishing brass fixtures.

Front Entrance Cleaning

This area is the "first and last impression" for most visitors, so it's crucial that it's always clean and presentable. The appearance of the driveway and entrance is also important, so wiping hand marks from doors, sweeping leaves, and picking up trash are some of the tasks that need to be done.

Elevator Cleaning

Cleaners clean elevators preferably early in the morning to avoid the rush. They stop the elevator on the ground floor, hold the doors open, and then clean it starting from the top and working down.

Pool Cleaning

Pool cleaning is especially important in summer. It can be done by the hotel if it has its own specialists, or by contract with an agency. Pool cleaning includes collecting leaves, water purification, and cleaning areas around the pool, including showers and changing rooms.

Hotel Garden Maintenance

Nowadays, hotels maintain their own team of gardeners. This team handles watering and pruning trees and shrubs, fertilizing plants, raking autumn leaves, and arborsculpture (the art of shaping trees into amazing forms).

Parking Area Cleaning

The parking area is one of the first zones hotel guests encounter, so its condition directly affects the first impression. The area must be well-maintained, clean, and safe. Daily tasks include sweeping, trash and leaf removal, and removing dust and cobwebs from hard-to-reach places, such as under parking canopies.

In bad weather, dirt, puddles, and sand can accumulate in the parking area, so these areas require special attention and more frequent cleaning. Regular inspection of surfaces helps identify damage or defects in time to prevent incidents.