Guest Room Turnover Cleaning Checklist

Step-by-step room turnover for a room attendant working a departure or stayover clean, from cart setup through inspector signoff and PMS status update. Designed for independent and small-chain hotels running on a PMS like Mews, Cloudbeds, or Opera.

5 sections 21 steps Collects data
1

Pre-Entry and Cart Setup

  1. Pull the room status from the PMS
  2. Knock and announce before entering
    • Knock three times, announce "Housekeeping," and pause five seconds before keying in. If a DND tag is on the latch, do not enter — return the room to the supervisor's stayover queue and note the time on the floor sheet.

  3. Stock the cart to housekeeping par
    • Confirm the cart carries terry par for the rooms on your sheet (bath sheets, hand towels, washcloths, bath mats), king and queen sheet sets, pillow protectors, and a full amenity tray (shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, soap, coffee pods, sugar, creamer). Short-stocked carts cost 10–15 minutes per round trip to the linen room.

  4. Photograph the starting room condition
    Collects image
2

Strip and Reset the Bedroom

  1. Strip linens to the soiled-linen bag
    • Pull sheets, pillowcases, duvet cover, and any blankets directly into the soiled-linen bag — never onto the floor or back into the cart. Check sheets for guest property (phones, jewelry, chargers) before bagging; log any items to lost and found before leaving the room.

  2. Inspect the mattress and box spring
    • Lift the mattress corners and check seams, the box spring lip, and the headboard joints for bedbug evidence (live insects, cast skins, fecal spotting). Any finding goes straight to the supervisor — do not continue the clean and do not move linens out to the laundry chute.

  3. Make the bed to brand spec
    • Triple-sheet method: fitted sheet, flat sheet right-side-down, duvet insert, second flat sheet right-side-up, top duvet cover. Crisp 18-inch corner folds, pillow shams in front of sleeping pillows, decorative throw centered if used.

  4. Dust case goods and hard surfaces
    • Microfiber from high to low: top of armoire, picture frames, headboard top, nightstands, desk, dresser drawers (front faces), luggage rack, baseboards. Lift the lamp bases and the in-room collateral — guests notice dust rings.

3

Bathroom Sanitization

  1. Sanitize the toilet, tub, and shower
    • Apply an EPA List N disinfectant to the toilet bowl, seat, lid, base, tub surround, shower walls, and shower floor. Honor the dwell time on the label (typically 3–10 minutes) before wiping — wiping early defeats the kill claim.

  2. Polish mirrors, chrome, and glass
    • Glass cleaner on the vanity mirror, faucet handles, shower handle, towel bars, and any glass shower door. Streaks show worst under the vanity bar light — angle a flashlight across the mirror to catch what overhead light hides.

  3. Restock terry to par count
    • Standard double-occupancy par: two bath sheets, two hand towels, two washcloths, one bath mat, one floor mat. Fold and stage to brand standard — rolled on the vanity, stacked on the towel bar, or hung on the rack as the property dictates.

  4. Replenish guest amenities
    • Replace partials with fresh — guests notice half-empty shampoo bottles. Stage by brand standard: shampoo and conditioner in the shower, body wash on the tub ledge, soap and lotion at the vanity, facial tissue full, toilet paper with a folded point.

4

High-Touch Surfaces and Final Touches

  1. Disinfect high-touch surfaces
    • EPA List N disinfectant on the TV remote, light switches, thermostat, door handles (entry, bathroom, closet), phone handset and keypad, lamp switches, alarm clock, safe keypad, and minibar handle. The remote is the single dirtiest surface in the room — give it a separate wipe.

  2. Vacuum carpet edges and under furniture
    • Edges and corners with the wand attachment, then the open floor. Pull the chair from the desk and run under the bed skirt — guests drop earrings, charger cables, and pen caps that the next guest finds.

  3. Empty trash and recycling
    • Bedroom can, bathroom can, and the recycling bin if the property runs separation. Replace liners — a folded liner edge inside the rim is the brand-standard finish at most properties.

  4. Test lamps, remote, HVAC, and outlets
    • Cycle every lamp, the bathroom vanity light, the TV with the remote, the HVAC fan and cooling, and the bedside USB outlets. A burned-out bulb at 11 PM check-in becomes a midnight engineering callout if it isn't caught here.

5

Defect Logging and Inspection

  1. Log any defects found in the room
    Collects list Collects paragraph Collects image
  2. Submit a work order to engineering
    • Open a work order in HotSOS, Quore, or ALICE with the room number, defect category, photos, and severity. Mark the room OOO if the defect blocks occupancy (no hot water, broken lock, HVAC down) so the front desk does not assign it to an arriving guest.

  3. Inspector walks the finished room
    • Inspector or supervisor checks against the property's room-ready standard: bed, bathroom, dust on hard-to-see ledges, amenity placement, smell test (no chemical residue, no prior-guest scent), and a final HVAC setpoint at the brand-standard temperature.

    Collects list
  4. Re-clean the failure points
    • The attendant addresses each item the inspector flagged and requests a second walk before status flip. Repeated fails on the same attendant in a week trigger a supervisor coaching session per the housekeeping development plan.

  5. Flip room status to Vacant Clean in the PMS
    • Update the housekeeping module so the front desk sees the room as ready to assign. Holding rooms in Vacant Dirty after the clean is finished is the most common reason late-arriving guests get told their room is not ready when it actually is.

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Sections 5
Steps 21
Category Hotel & Hospitality
Price Free to start
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