PUBLIC AREA CLEANINGIn a hotel guest first impression often revolves around what he or she sees and experience in the properties public areas. Public areas consist of entrance, lobby, corridor, elevator, rest rooms and Health facilities. Condition of public areas makes a strong statement about the rest of the property. Back of the house areas are those areas of the hotel which have little or no guest contact these include service corridors, staircases, administration office, service elevators, employee lockers, rest room areas, these are the areas which are used by the employee and should be spotless by cleaning.LOBBYLobby require continuous cleaning because they are heavy traffic areas where guest checks in, socializes, relaxes etc.Lobby cleaning schedule should be prepared with regards to volume of traffic and should be least inconvenient to guest and staff.Cleaning should be scheduled for night for early mornings when there are fewer people around.It involves:1. Cleaning glasses on window areas.2. The shift activities included emptying and cleaning ashtrays, sand urns and waste baskets.3. Cleaning entrance throughout the day.4. Arranging the furniture moved by guest.5. Dusting furniture, texture, lobby, and telephones.6. Removing finger spot from walls.7. Sweeping tiles or hard wood floor areas.8. Cleaning public areas room and replenish supplies.NIGHT CLEANINGBack of lobby cleaning is done when traffic as low that is during the night. Deep cleaning procedures are also reserve for night or graveyard shift because of the time required.NIGHT ACTIVITIES INCLUDE1. Polishing wooden furniture.2. Vacuuming all carpet area upholstery and furniture curtains.3. Dusting ceiling varnish and high or hard to reach areas.4. Polish guest elevators and clean elevators floors and walls. Polish metal handles rails and door knobs.5. Carpets should be suction cleaned daily and any stains should be attended to immediately due to practical reasons, a backup type of vacuum cleaner is best for suction cleaning staircases.6. Hard floored staircases should be suction cleaned and then damp-mopped they, can be scrubbed weekly with a deck scrubber, using a natural detergent if a floor sealer had been applied, however scrubbing should be avoided use of excess water should be avoided on wooden stairs7. While cleaning the floor, the vertical risers of each step should be cleaned as wall as treads.8. Damp-dust the wall skirting weekly.9. Damp-dust the banisters and handrails daily. If they are ornately carved a vacuum cleaner with a service cleaning attachments should be used.

SERVICE STAIRCASE AND CORRIDORSService corridors and staircases provide vital links for hotels operations. Carts and racks can reach their destinations quickly without disturbing guests. These corridors also link the back of the houses offices where all administrative work of the entire property is done.Cleaning and maintaining service corridors usually is scheduled at the start of 3.00 pm to 11.0 pm shift. Interior staircases should be swept daily and mopped as needed, walls ceilings should also be cleaned regularly.

CORRIDORS (GUEST)The section of the hotel that most guests, see before stepping into the guest room are corridors.The attendant should clean baseboards paying special attention to corners; guest room doors should also be cleaned to remove any finger-prints and marks. Light fixtures should be dusted and out bulbs replaced If necessary, walls should be spot cleaned if there are any finger prints or marks, condition of emergency exit light should be checked and also the front and back of the exit door should be cleaned and the door should be checked if it opens and closes properly.

CLOAK ROOMSPublic rest room or cloak rooms must be cleaned and sanitized throughout the day how often this work needs to be done depends on the traffic flow in the hotel. Public areas attendants should be assigned to check the cloak rooms at least once an hour.During the day the attendant should replenish the cloak room supplies, including toilet papers tissue and towels, ashtrays should be emptied at regular intervals during the day-regular checks of cloak room should be scheduled during the shift that ends as 11 pm. or mid night.particular.Attention should be paid to cloak rooms near function ares if events are going on and also those cloak rooms that 0are near the lounges and restaurants that are open in the evening.

RESTAURANTSHousekeeping and the f &b departments work together to keep restaurants clean and neat on the day shift, stewards should be advised to report spills immediately to housekeeping.Bulk cleaning is done after the outlets closed, in luxury hotels, where there are 24hrs coffee-shope cleaning is scheduled during the slowest period i.e. from 2.00 am to 5.00 am and done with as little disruption as possible.Late night/ early morning activities include-1. Moving all chairs away from tables before vacuuming benecath it.2. Picking up of large pieces of debris around each table before vacuuming.3. Wiping window edges, host or hostess station phones.4. Dusting and polishing furniture.5. Cleaning upholstery.6. Spot cleaning walls and attending to light fixtures.7. Light on the tables and any elements in the restaurant should be dusted.

BARSCleaning bar area includes many of these some procedures, bar stools should be dusted daily, fabric bar stools and chairs should be vacuum nightly and spot treated as necessary. Bar tables requires nightly cleaned dance floors with hard surfaces should be washed and wiped dry each night. Carpeted dance floors should be vacuumed nightly and spot treated as required.

BANQUET HALLSIn most banquet clean up is a joint effort between the banqueting or f & b department and the house keeping department.Generally the job of the banquet steward is to remove all dishes and the linen from the tables and storing them is done by banquet house attendant who are employees of f & b department.Housekeeping is generally responsible for cleaning the shell of the room i.e. the walls, windows, floor, ceiling, if it is carpeted area then through vacuum cleaners, stain removal and shampooing should be done as and when required.All meetings rooms should be cleaned immediately after the function as stains that are allowed to set in carpet or other furnishings can become nearly impossible to remove next day.

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICEThe housekeeping staff is responsible to maintain the overall cleanliness and appearance of the offices are generally cleaned when they are not in service the attendant will dust, empty waste basket, spot clean walls and sweep or vacuum on nightly basis, other task such as washing windows are scheduled on a weekly or monthly basis, deep cleaning may be scheduled once in a year.While cleaning the office housekeeping attendants should avoid moving or rearranging any items on desk or work service particularly business papers or folders hence employees are expected to keep their desk meat before they leave for the day.LIFTS/ELEVATORSElevators are used almost continuously and the best time to clean them is late at night or very early in the morning to avoid high traffic period.When cleaning the elevator car interior, the elevator should be taken to the top most floors for cleanings, hand rails, elevators controls and surrounding all area should be cleaned to remove finger prints. Glass and mirrors should be checked for stains. Bath, inside and outside of elevator doors should wipe down including door tracks where dirt and dust collectsElevator floor carpets should be vacuumed thoroughly and shampooed frequently because of the constant use. It is good to have several sets of elevators floor carpets so that they piece carpets so that they could be replaced when the dirty piece carpet is being cleaned. And the necessary signboard indicating that cleaning is being carried out must be displaced prominently. In addition the company that installed the elevator must regularly service the elevator, checking for only technical faults.STAIRCASESLike any other public area, staircases should be cleaned when there clean staircase is to divide them into this 9is required not only to prevent dirty foot prints on a wet steps. Here to the various cleaning tasks may be carried out a different periods i.e. daily weekly or less often while cleaning staircases, care should be taken that dirt and debris do not fall down words through the gaps in banisters and railings. Any kind of sweeping should be directed towards the walls.

The specific tasks are the followingBanquet halls- in most hotels banquets cleanup is a joint effort between the banqueting or f& b department and the housekeeping department.Generally the job of the banquet steward is to remove all dishes &linen from tables. Stacking or folding the chairs tables and storing them is, done by banquet house attendant who are employee of f& b department.

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICESThe housekeeping staff responsible to, maintain the overall cleanliness and appearance of the offices. Offices are generally cleaned when they are not in service.The attendants will dust empty waste basket, spot clean walls and sweep or vacuum on nightly basis. Other task such as, washing windows are scheduled on a weekly or monthly basis. Deep cleaning tasks may be scheduled once in a year.While cleaning th3e offices housekeeping attendant should avoid moving or re-arranging any items on desks or work surfaces particularly business papers and folders.