Covid-19 | Hotel and Room Cleaning Checklist

Why checklists help with hotel cleaning under corona conditions

The corona guidelines for hygiene and safety present challenges for many hotels, guesthouses and resorts. Reopening after corona closures is a priority, despite the difficult conditions, to ensure that guests have a pleasant stay and at the same time protect their health and that of their employees.

In this Corona pandemic, housekeeping plays an even more important role than it did before corona. Hygiene measures must be implemented without compromise, to achieve hygienically perfect results. In practice, this means for the hotels that after each change of occupancy a disinfecting cleaning of the room must be carried out. In addition, many areas within the hotel must be regularly cleaned and disinfected.

Checklists for hotel and room cleaning help the responsible personnel to keep track of the fact that all cleaning and safety measures are being observed. A cleaning protocol helps the cleaning staff to implement all cleaning tasks conscientiously. At the same time, the staff responsible receive a confirmation that the cleaning work has been completed. Besides, they can also use a checklist for the room inspection to carry out regular checks.

This article deals with the following topics:

1. Professional products for hotel cleaning

2. Important checklist points for hotel cleaning

3. Important checklist points for room cleaning

4. A mobile app for checklists for housekeeping & corona

Use professional products against corona

For the chemical cleaning and laundry products in the hotel-keeper's shop, only professional, needs-based products should be used. Household products and cleaning utensils used for a "normal" household are not sufficient for room and hotel cleaning according to Corona. The risk of infection is much higher due to the large number of people staying in the hotel environment. For this reason, products must be used for cleaning that are reliable and durable, and a variety of accessories and spare parts are guaranteed.

Reliable cleaning agents and disinfectants are particularly important. The agents used should meet the criteria for use against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and be effective against viruses, bacteria and other air- and blood-borne pathogens.

Aspects to be considered when cleaning the hotel

Such as the hotel reopening has shown many hoteliers that in the Corona pandemic many areas in the hotel must be cleaned frequently and more thoroughly, and above all, disinfected. This includes all areas and surfaces that are frequently frequented or touched by guests and employees:

• All surfaces at the reception
• All surfaces in the lobby
• Washrooms outside the rooms
• The user interfaces inside and outside the lift
• All door handles in the hotel, if no automatic doors are available
• All frequently touched contact surfaces in the dining room or the hotel bar
• All surfaces in the fitness and savings area are frequently frequented by everyone
• All heavily frequented rear areas of the building used by employees:
• Break rooms
• Locker rooms
• Inputs for employees
• Toilets for employees
• Training rooms and office workplaces
• Loading ramps
• Security Scanner
• Commonly used equipment (e.g. telephones, radios, computers, cleaning equipment)

In addition, the frequency of the air filter and HVAC cleaning must also be increased to maximize fresh air exchange. For all these cleaning operations, a cleaning and disinfection protocol should be prepared in advance, including the frequency of cleaning intervals. These can be easily monitored, overviewed and possibly adjusted with checklists for hotel cleaning under Corona.

Aspects that are important for room cleaning

After each change of occupancy, the room must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Professional cleaning and disinfection agents should be used. The cleaning personnel should pay particular attention to objects with high contact frequency , such as:

• Remote controls of televisions and other devices
• Toilet seats and handles
• Door, window and furniture handles
• Tap handles
• Bedside tables
• Phones
• Control panels in the rooms
• Light switch
• Temperature controller
• Alarm clock
• Luggage racks
• Floor coverings

All bedding and linen should be changed and washed at high temperatures. After the room has been cleaned, the room door can be sealed with a disinfection sticker, which may only be removed by the next room guest. During the entire cleaning process, cleaning personnel should wear gloves and, if necessary, a protective mask, and ventilate the room well, if possible.

The cleaning of the room during occupancy should be arranged by the staff with the guest, so that the guest is not in the room during this time.

In case of a suspected case of COVID-19, the guest's room should be taken out of service and quarantined for at least 24 hours before cleaning and disinfection. The room will then be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. UV or electrostatic spray technology can be used as an aid in cleaning the room against corona. After cleaning and disinfection, the room should be kept out of use for a further 48 hours.

Mobile App for checklists: Hotel and room cleaning against corona

Checklists are an adequate means of implementing and monitoring hygiene and protection measures. In the hotel industry, paper and pencil are often used for this purpose. A procedure which is not only cumbersome but also involves some dangers. Information can be lost more easily, and communication channels are time-consuming. Urgent risks are, therefore reacted to more slowly.

With Lumiform's mobile app, hotel staff can perform any quality and safety inspection simply by using a tablet or smartphone - online or offline. The desktop software is used to create checklists for cleaning processes according to Covid-19 standards. The collected data can then be evaluated using the analysis function. This minimizes risks such as loss of quality and information, the spread of infection and breaches of regulations.

Further advantages of the digital checklist app for hoteliers and their employees:

• The flexible form construction kit makes it possible to convert any individual paper list into a digital checklist within a few minutes.
• Generate real-time data via internal processes. This makes quality and safety measurable, and processes can be continuously optimized using data.
• Keeping track of everything that's going on in the field.
• Reports are created automatically - this saves the team from having to do all the follow-up work.
• Improve the efficiency of internal processes: Through better communication within the team, with third parties and with management, and faster incident reporting, incidents are reported up to 4x faster than before.

To help hoteliers and their employees to clean their hotels and rooms during corona pandemic, we have compiled some checklist templates that can be used immediately with the Lumiform App. All templates can be easily adapted to internal hotel guidelines and regional guidelines of governmental authorities.