In short: Housekeeping owns the guest rooms in a hotel. The public areas of the hotel are a separate job that operates 24/7. Everything from the entrances, the lobby, corridors, elevators, public bathrooms, meeting rooms and fitness room. Standards set what each area should look like at any given hour of the day, who is responsible for checking and when overnight floor and carpet maintenance takes place. RCO Cleaning provides hotel public area cleaning services throughout Metro Detroit, day or night. Call us at (248) 849-0000.
Why do hotel public areas need their own cleaning plan?
Hotels are always open. The lobby is busiest at check-in and check-out, corridors have traffic every hour of the day with luggage carts, and meeting rooms cycle frequently between events. Housekeeping is focused on rooms, so public areas are either given their own plan or they get "whatever's left." That's why many hotels partner with commercial cleaning specialists to clean lobbies, corridors and public areas, provide overnight floor care and deep cleaning while housekeeping takes care of the rooms.
Common areas are also where first impressions happen. A streaky front door, a drab lobby floor or a hallway with a stain by the elevator speaks volumes about the rooms above, justly or not.
Hotel public area cleaning, hour by hour
| Area | Through the day | Overnight |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance and lobby | Glass doors and counters wiped down, mats dried, spills cleaned up, chairs aligned | Floors scrubbed and burnished or vacuumed, glass detailed, furniture cleaned |
| Elevators | Buttons and handrails wiped on every round | Cab walls, doors and door tracks cleaned, floors done |
| Corridors | Spills and stray trays reported or cleared | Vacuumed edge to edge, spots treated, ice and vending areas wiped |
| Public restrooms | Checked and restocked on a set round | Full clean and disinfection, floors scrubbed |
| Meeting rooms | Turned over between events | Carpet vacuumed and spotted, tables and chairs cleaned |
| Fitness room | Wipes stocked, towels cleared | Equipment, mirrors and floors cleaned |
| Back of house | Kept clear | Staff corridors, break rooms and restrooms cleaned |
A hotel's high-touch surfaces are what the CDC lists for any public building: doorknobs, stair railings, elevator buttons and touch pads, counters, and restroom surfaces. The recommendation is to regularly clean high-touch surfaces, clean other surfaces if they are visibly dirty and disinfect areas where someone who is obviously ill has been. Disinfectants are applied as directed on the labels, and the EPA reminds people to read the contact time on the labels. Contact time is how long the surface must remain wet.
Hotel floor and carpet care
A hotel corridor is a long length of carpet with one strip worn down in it, leading from elevator to every door from being run over by luggage wheels and carts. The Carpet and Rug Institute says regular vacuuming is the most important step in maintaining clean carpet and says that adhering to a routine vacuuming schedule will remove 90 to 95 percent of dry soil. They recommend treating spots as they occur, deep cleaning carpets semi-annually, and deep cleaning entryway areas at least quarterly.
Lobby stone, tile and vinyl must be scrubbed and polished regularly, and OSHA's walking-working surfaces standard requires that floors be maintained clean, as dry as feasible and free of dangers like spills, snow and ice. During Michigan Januarys, that translates into entrance mats large enough for the traffic flow and someone keeping them dry.
Overnight floor care
Scrubbing, burnishing and carpet extraction during late night hours when the lobby is least busy.
Marked work zones
Wet floor signs and roping, so the person who comes in late will walk around the work area.
Deep cleans by season
Carpet extraction, upholstery and high dusting planned around occupancy and events.
One point of contact
A manager walking around public areas of the hotel with the hotel's own team, fixing what they find.
Night work proceeds smoothly with the front desk's involvement. Decide ahead of time which parts of the lobby can be secured and for how long, which hallways are quiet enough for extraction, and how the guest registering at 2 a.m. will find the elevators. Five minutes at shift change can prevent a wet-floor detour at the most critical time.
What do hotel guests notice first?
Guests don't typically thank you for a clean lobby, but they will see a miss right away. And chances are they'll see the same misses as everyone else. The vast majority take a minute or less to correct. That's why they should be on somebody's round, not left to somebody's good intentions.
Misses guests spot
- Fingerprints on the entrance doors at check-in time
- Wet floor sign still present hours after floor has dried
- An overflowing trash can by the elevators
- Dust on lobby furniture, frames and the tops of display cases
- Public bathroom running out of paper towels during an event
- Corridor carpet vacuumed down the middle and never along the edges
Meeting and banquet rooms have their own schedules. They require a reset between events, with tables and chairs cleaned, carpet vacuumed and spotted and trash removed, sometimes on an hour's notice. Work the turnovers into your schedule based on your events calendar so the room is ready when the next group walks in, not while they are being seated. Apply the same philosophy to the fitness room. It gets utilized early and late so doing a quick cleaning at the start and end of the day will keep it from looking worn out by nighttime patrons.
How to check a hotel cleaning standard
Write it down
One page per zone: how it should look at 7 a.m., at noon and at midnight.
Assign rounds
Who patrols the lobby, restrooms and elevators, how often, and additional patrols at check-in and check-out times.
Inspect
Manager walks public areas on a set schedule and logs what passed and what didn't.
Fix it the same shift
When you find a miss at 6 a.m., it's corrected before the breakfast rush, not next week.
Review together
Walking regularly with your general manager or head of housekeeping ensures that both departments are held to the same standard.
Hotel cleaning questions
Can a cleaning company work alongside our housekeeping team?
Yes. One scenario might be housekeeping on guest rooms and a commercial cleaning crew on public spaces, overnight floor care and deep cleaning. Detail the responsibilities in the written scope.
When should lobby floors be scrubbed?
Night shift when traffic is minimal, with wet areas blocked off. Often needed every night in heavy traffic lobbies, and burnishing per set schedule.
How often should corridor carpet be deep cleaned?
The Carpet and Rug Institute recommends you perform deep cleaning twice per year, and cleaning of entryways at least quarterly. High traffic areas may require more frequent cleanings, with spot removal performed as soon as spots are found.
Should public restrooms have a cleaning log?
It's useful. A log initialed at each round indicates to managers when the room was last inspected, and allows the crew to easily see at a glance if someone missed a round.
Who can clean our hotel's lobby and corridors overnight?
An overnight commercial cleaning crew working next to your housekeeping staff, with the split written out in the scope. RCO Cleaning services hotel public areas throughout Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties 24/7, starting with a free walkthrough: (248) 849-0000.
How RCO Cleaning supports hotel housekeeping in Metro Detroit
RCO services hotels throughout Metro Detroit, cleaning lobbies, corridors and all common areas on the schedule they keep, 24 hours a day: we don't sleep at RCO. We begin with a complimentary walkthrough, provide a quote within 24 hours and perform the first deep clean at no cost so your public areas are shining from day one. Our work is checked by our managers and we insist on being involved as owners.
Sources
Next guide
Shopping mall cleaning happens twice. Once overnight when no one can see it. And all day long while everyone is there. Here is how RCO Cleaning plans for both shifts.
