Guides / Hotels
How many housekeepers does tonight actually need?
Minutes per room, checkouts versus stayovers, and the one allowance most managers forget.
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Run tonight's numbersHousekeeping is the largest labour line in most hotels, and it is usually staffed by habit: the same crew every day regardless of who is checking out. The maths is simple once you separate the two kinds of room.
Checkouts and stayovers are different jobs
A checkout room gets stripped, fully cleaned and reset: 30 to 45 minutes in full service, 25 to 32 in select service. A stayover gets a refresh: usually about half that. A night with 60% checkouts needs far more people than a night with 20%, even at the same occupancy.
The formula
- Cleaning minutes = checkouts × checkout minutes + stayovers × stayover minutes.
- Usable minutes per housekeeper = shift length × 60, minus time not spent cleaning.
- Housekeepers needed = cleaning minutes ÷ usable minutes, rounded up.
The allowance everyone forgets
Nobody cleans for eight straight hours. Breaks, the morning briefing, stocking the cart, walking the floors, waiting for a guest to leave. That is 12% to 18% of the shift. Leave it out and every schedule is short by one person.
- Rooms to clean
- 94 (42 checkouts, 52 stayovers)
- Cleaning minutes
- 2,280
- Usable minutes each (8h, 15% allowance)
- 408
- Housekeepers needed
- 6
Verdict With 5 on shift each room gets 22 minutes instead of 24. Short one.
Cost per occupied room
Add housekeeper wages, supervisor wages and linen and amenities, then divide by rooms sold. That is your cost per occupied room, the number to track week over week. It should fall as occupancy rises; if it does not, the schedule is not following the house.
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