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Educational Institute of AH&LA
800 N. Magnolia, Suite 300
Orlando, FL 32803
407-999-8100
www.ei-ahla.org

Deep-Cleaning Details
By Elizabeth Johnson

The bright light of springtime is a welcome sight to most people, but it also reveals the dinginess hidden by winter‘s darkness. Just as homeowners engage in the ritual of spring cleaning, your property‘s housekeeping staff may find spring to be the perfect time to undertake deep cleaning throughout the property. Of course, deep cleaning is not just a "spring thing." It should be scheduled throughout the year to keep your property looking its best.

Why is deep cleaning important?
It‘s impossible for a room attendant to clean 100 percent of every assigned room every day. Deep cleaning is an opportunity to thoroughly clean at regular intervals areas of a room that are not usually part of a routine daily cleaning. Deep cleaning protects the value of the assets by maintaining a property‘s furnishings, fixtures, and equipment, and also serves guests by ensuring that they receive the clean surroundings they expect.

Typical Deep-Cleaning Activities
Tasks that immediately come to mind during a discussion of deep cleaning include turning mattresses and changing bedspreads, wiping down walls and baseboards, and washing windows and casements. It can also include:

• Shampooing carpets
• Dusting high and hard-to-reach places like vents, light diffusers, smoke detectors, sprinklers, and the tops of tall furniture
• Vacuuming under heavy furniture that requires heavy moving
• Cleaning and vacuuming upholstery
• Cleaning and vacuuming drapes and sheers
• Edging the carpet
• Cleaning closet tracks
• Cleaning door frames, switchplates, and picture frames
• Scrubbing tile and grout

As room attendants perform each of these tasks, they should inspect items for wear and tear, stains, breakage, or marks that cannot be removed. These should be reported to a supervisor and taken care of before putting the room back in service. In addition to guest rooms, other areas to include in a deep-cleaning program are: balconies and patios, stairwells, elevators, ice and vending machine areas, and laundry rooms/supply rooms.

Scheduling Deep Cleaning
Deep cleaning requires special scheduling, taking into consideration many factors, including occupancy, age of furniture and fixtures, quality of daily cleaning, and even the location of your property. For instance, if your property is in an area with a humid climate, you may need to schedule tile and grout cleaning more often. If you work for a beachfront property, sand and seawater may affect your carpet care schedule.

Some hotels perform deep-cleaning tasks, such as dry cleaning draperies, washing windows, and shampooing carpets, annually. Turning mattresses is usually done quarterly, at the change of seasons. Monthly tasks may include changing bedspreads and blankets, dusting high places, washing walls and doors, cleaning light fixtures, and scrubbing tile. Frequency schedules should be created to indicate when and how often a particular deep cleaning task should be performed in each room.

Getting It All Done
There are various ways to organize the completion of deep cleaning rooms. Many properties schedule deep cleaning during low occupancy periods. Alternating blocks of rooms can be closed off and given a thorough deep cleaning. This is also the perfect time for engineering to inspect rooms and take care of any needed repairs or preventive maintenance tasks.

If your occupancy patterns don‘t include a "slow season" for closing off room blocks for deep cleaning, other options include scheduling every room attendant with one room per day as a "deep clean" room as part of his or her routine room cleanings, or setting up a deep cleaning team that tackles a short schedule of check-out rooms each day. Be creative. One property in Minneapolis, Minn., hires a group of workers with disabilities as their deep-cleaning team. They are assigned five or six rooms per day to clean and are paid by the room.

Monthly cleaning tasks can also be assigned as "daily specials," announced during the morning‘s pre-shift meeting. Tuesday might be "wash the door frame" day so that each room attendant will wash the door frame in every assigned room. Daily specials can be assigned by task (washing baseboards, cleaning closet tracks) or by room accessory (cleaning light fixtures, cleaning luggage racks).

Record and Review
Keeping track of which deep-cleaning tasks have been performed in which rooms can be challenging. Many managers use a spreadsheet computer program to organize the work. Or a project chart posted in the housekeeping closet on each floor can help room attendants and supervisors keep track of the tasks that have been accomplished in each room. If a room or a task has been missed, special assignments can be made to bring all rooms up to the level of cleanliness that you desire for your property.

Finally, no matter which methods you use to handle deep cleaning, be sure to regularly evaluate schedules, maintenance and housekeeping reports, and guest comment cards to determine if any changes are needed to meet and exceed guest expectations for a clean room and a pleasant stay.