Hotel housekeeper
Hotel housekeepers make sure that hotel accommodation is clean and tidy and ready for guests.
Also known as: Hotel room attendant, housekeeping room attendant, head housekeeper
- Starter salary£19,000 a year
- Experienced£28,000 a year
- Typical hours37 to 40 a week
What you'll do
As a hotel housekeeper, you would:
- clean guests' rooms, make beds and replace linen and towels
- restock food and drink items, and bathroom supplies
- take laundry away for cleaning
- deal with general customer requests or pass on messages to your supervisor
- clean corridors and communal areas
- report damage or maintenance issues
If you work as a supervisor or manager, you could:
- prepare shift rotas and allocate daily cleaning duties to staff
- inspect rooms to make sure that standards have been met
- recruit and train staff
- work closely with other department heads and the hotel general manager
Working environment
You could work in a hotel, in holiday accomodation or on a cruise ship.
Your working environment may be physically demanding.
Skills and knowledge you'll need
You'll need:
- customer service skills
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- to be flexible and open to change
- the ability to use your initiative
- persistence and determination
- excellent verbal communication skills
- administration skills
- the ability to motivate and manage staff
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently
How to become a hotel housekeeper
You can get into this job through:
- a college course
- an apprenticeship
- working towards this role
- applying directly
College
You could take a college course to get some of the skills needed in this job. Courses include:
- introduction to the hospitality industry
- hospitality and catering principles - housekeeping
- hospitality supervision and leadership principles
Entry requirements
Entry requirements for these courses vary.
Apprenticeship
You can apply to do a Hospitality Accommodation Team Member Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship with a hotel group.
You might also apply to do a Hospitality Supervisor Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship if you're already working in the industry.
You can complete a Hospitality Manager Level 4 Higher Apprenticeship, if you want to become a housekeeping manager.
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship
- 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship
- 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) and A levels, or equivalent, for a higher or degree apprenticeship
Work
You may be able to start as a hotel cleaner, porter or kitchen staff and become a room attendant or housekeeper through company training and promotion.
Direct application
You can apply directly if you have experience of working in other roles in the hospitality industry, such as customer service.
Employers will be interested in your personal qualities and will expect you to be hardworking, honest and a reliable timekeeper.
Career path and progression
With experience and training, you could progress to roles like head housekeeper or accommodation services manager.
You could also move into other areas of hotel work, such as front-of-house management, staff training, or events and operations management.
Career tips
You can find work with large hotel groups or chains, and independent hotels, guesthouses and holiday parks.
Guides for this industry
Related roles
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