Guide · Operations · 8 minutes

The housekeeping workflow that actually gets used.

Every hotelier has stories about the housekeeping module of a PMS that never made it out of the pilot. The pattern is always the same: too many status codes, no mobile, no printer support, no way to reflect a partial clean. Guest Talk's housekeeping module is short on features by design; the ones it has are worked out in daily use across our fleet. This guide walks through the setup we recommend for a property between ten and one hundred rooms.

Status codes

Five status codes cover 95 percent of situations. Adding more creates confusion faster than it adds value.

Dirty (D). Room needs cleaning. Default state after a check-out until a housekeeper starts work.
In progress (P). A housekeeper is currently in the room. Set automatically when the housekeeper opens the room in the mobile app.
Clean (C). Room cleaned by housekeeping, awaiting inspection.
Inspected (I). Room inspected by a supervisor and ready to receive a guest.
Out of service (O). Room unavailable for sale due to maintenance, deep clean, or damage. Includes a required note field so front-office knows the expected return date.

An optional sixth code, Do Not Disturb (DND), is applied to occupied rooms where the guest has asked not to be cleaned. It is a soft flag on top of the room's occupied state, not a replacement for a room-status.

Assignments

The daily assignment board is generated the night before at 22:00 local time based on next-day arrivals, in-house guests, and stayover cleans. Each housekeeper receives their list on the mobile app with room codes, room type, expected clean type (checkout clean, stayover clean, quick refresh), and any special notes attached to the room or guest (crib requested, allergies, do-not-disturb until 11:00).

The workload is distributed by equivalent-clean units rather than by room count: a checkout clean of a suite is worth 2 units, a stayover is worth 1, a quick refresh is worth 0.5. Guest Talk defaults to 12 units per housekeeper per shift and lets the housekeeping manager adjust.

The mobile flow

The mobile app is intentionally minimalist. On login, the housekeeper sees three sections: rooms to clean (in the order the manager suggests, but drag-to-reorder is supported), rooms in progress (typically one), rooms completed today. Tapping a room opens the room card: room code, room type, clean type, notes, and a two-tap "start" button that moves the room from D to P.

Inside the "in progress" view, the housekeeper has three actions: mark clean (moves to C), mark issue (opens a text field and photo capture, creates a maintenance ticket), and pause (returns the room to D with the housekeeper's name attached, useful when the guest returns unexpectedly). Marking clean is a single tap; the housekeeper does not need to enter time or duration — the app computes both automatically.

Inspection

Supervisors work from the "awaiting inspection" queue. Each room in C status appears with the name of the housekeeper who cleaned it, the time since it was marked clean, and any notes. The supervisor either marks the room I (passes to front-office ready) or opens a re-clean with a specific note ("bathroom mirror smeared, please redo").

Passing inspection at over 95 percent on first pass is the industry benchmark; Guest Talk reports the pass rate per housekeeper weekly and highlights any trend. This is a coaching tool, not a punitive one; supervisors and managers should treat repeated fails as an opportunity to shadow the housekeeper for a shift, not as a disciplinary matter.

Maintenance integration

Any issue reported by a housekeeper via the mobile app creates a maintenance ticket assigned to the on-shift maintenance user with the photo and text description attached. The ticket lives in the operations module (see /product/operations) and follows a simple lifecycle: open, in progress, resolved, verified. The housekeeper who reported the issue is notified when it is resolved so they can reopen if the fix did not stick.

Front-office visibility

The front-office team sees room status in real time on the tape chart. Rooms in D or P status are visually distinct from rooms in C, I or O; a mouse-over shows the current status detail (housekeeper name, time in status, any pending inspection). Front-office cannot check a guest into a room that is not in I status; an override is available (with two-tap confirmation and audit trail) for emergency situations.

Reporting to the general manager

Weekly reports summarise average clean time per room type, first-pass inspection rate, number of maintenance tickets opened per property, and equivalent-clean units delivered per housekeeper. Monthly reports add cost-per-clean if the accounting module is enabled and housekeeper wages are entered.

The general manager receives one alert daily at 09:00: number of rooms still in D that are due for arrival that day. Where the number is above zero, the workflow guarantees follow-up before check-in time.

Special situations

Deep clean rotation. Every room type has a deep-clean interval (default 30 nights of occupancy). Guest Talk queues a deep-clean assignment on the next available checkout day; deep cleans are worth 3 equivalent units and require the deep-clean checklist.

Long-stay guests. Long-stay guests get a mid-stay clean on a schedule (default day 4, 7, 10 for a two-week stay). Housekeepers see the schedule in advance so the load is smoothed rather than dropping onto a single Saturday.

Group arrivals. Group arrivals compress the cleaning schedule. Guest Talk auto-detects a group arrival (more than five reservations in the same room type on the same day) and increases the assignment budget for the day by 20 percent.

Language. The mobile app is available in EN, DE, FR, IT, ES, PT, PL, RO, UK, TR, RU. Each housekeeper selects their preferred language on the login screen; the notes attached to rooms are auto-translated (with the original visible on tap).

Common questions

"Can we integrate a room-check tablet in the corridor?" Yes; the mobile app runs on any Android or iOS tablet and can be pinned to a single kiosk mode for corridor use.

"What about NFC / barcode room tags?" Supported; tapping an NFC tag or scanning a QR code opens the room card directly, saving the housekeeper the search step.

"Do you print printed lists for shifts that prefer paper?" Yes; the housekeeping board exports to A4 print-optimised PDF with one line per room, room type, notes and a signature box.

Checklist

Five status codes only.
Assignments generated automatically at 22:00 the night before.
Equivalent-clean unit target set (default 12 per shift).
Deep-clean interval enabled per room type.
Maintenance integration active.
Front-office check-in blocked for non-I rooms.
GM daily 09:00 alert enabled.
Mobile app installed on every housekeeper's device.