Inside the Hotel Cleaning Sprint After Guests Check Out

As guests leave a room and head to checkout, hotel staff in a Tel Aviv boutique hotel start a tightly timed operation to turn it over within hours. Libi Shoshani, manager of the Atlas hotel Artist on Ben Yehuda Street, described the process as “like a military operation,” because from about 11:00 a.m. checkout until 3:00 p.m. check-in, everything moves on a deadline.

The first step is checking what was left behind. Staff search the room and safe for forgotten items, including passports, medication, glasses, pillows brought from home, and valuable jewelry. Shoshani said staff once drove to the airport after guests who had left their passports in the safe, and in another case found a diamond earring wedged in a safe wall and sent it to California by FedEx.

After that, housekeeping cleans the room and maintenance inspects it for problems such as flickering lights, broken air conditioning, doors that do not close properly, and faulty taps or sinks. On average, preparing a room takes about 40 minutes, though the time varies by room size and layout. Cleaning after checkout is more thorough than the daily refresh done while a guest is still staying, when staff mainly replace towels, empty trash, clean surfaces and restock toiletries.

Shoshani said windows, especially those facing the street, are among the hardest areas to clean, and walls also take a lot of wear from children, guests leaning on them, or luggage wheels. To her, the key signs of cleanliness are working lights, proper bedding, clean bathrooms, intact handles, and tidy furnishings. She said guests should at least lift towels from the floor and throw away trash, but do not need to leave the room perfectly arranged. In her hotel, towels hanging on hooks are treated as a signal to replace them. She added that tips are not expected in Israel, but are appreciated, whether it is 10 shekels or 50 dollars. Guests still sometimes take towels, including beach towels, and staff also see odd habits like covering TV sets or wall art with towels. For Shoshani, cleanliness makes up 50 to 60 percent of the hotel experience, with service and food and beverage making up the rest.