• Most hotels follow rigid guidelines for cleaning rooms.hotel room image by Albert Lozano from Fotolia.com
  
  One of the most important elements to a hotel's success is how clean the rooms are kept. Guests are unlikely to return to a hotel that isn't clean, and even less likely to recommend it to other people. Most hotels avoid this by following certain hotel housekeeping operating procedures that ensure every room is clean and safe for guests.
  
  

Tidying

• Most day-to-day housekeeping at a hotel involves procedures for tidying the room. When a guest has not yet checked out, housekeepers are usually required to follow a shorter list of procedures. These include making the beds, replacing used towels with clean ones, vacuuming the floor, removing trash and emptying ash trays.
  
  Daily housekeeping may also include replacing certain items in the room, such as toilet paper, tissues and bath products. In rooms that have a minibar, housekeepers may restock the bar on a daily basis as well.
  
  

Cleaning Linens

• Many of a hotel's housekeeping procedures take place outside the guest rooms. This includes washing bedding and towels. Hotel housekeepers use high-temperature washers that disinfect as they wash, along with strong soaps and whitening agents.
  
  Because of the high cost of washing linens, along with the large amount of water the procedure uses, some hotels offer guests the option of not having their linens washed daily. Bedding may be left on the bed unless a guest removes it or specifically asks for it to be laundered. Some hotels also follow a policy of only replacing towels left in designated areas so that guests can choose to reuse towels.
  
  

Disinfecting

• Between guests, hotels follow a more stringent housekeeping procedure to prepare a room. This usually involves all the tasks of daily housekeeping, along with a thorough vacuuming and the replacement of sheets and pillowcases.
  
  This is also when housekeepers disinfect a room using powerful cleansers. Besides keeping the toilet, sink and shower free of germs, housekeepers also clean other surfaces such as tabletops, remote controls and doorknobs. Housekeepers will also remove anything left behind by the previous guests and restock the room with stationary, comment cards and other paperwork.