IHG Hotels has a training video for housekeepers that explains how to move through a room quickly for ‘daily housekeeping’. Just because a hotel says they offer housekeeping during your stay – either automatically, or only “on request” – doesn’t mean you’re getting the service you think.
Daily housekeeping is no longer cleaning, it’s now branded as the “Daily Room Refresh” at IHG One Rewards properties (like Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, and related brands). Instead it’s “designed to minimize the amount of time housekeeping spends” per room. Here are the (5) elements:
Here’s the video:
Note that they are clear: “[t]he daily room refresh doesn’t typically include wiping down all surfaces” but housekeepers are permitted to address stains and debris.
In contrast a “full stayover clean” only happens on day 5 of a stay, which involves changing linens and “thoroughly cleaning the bathroom and sleeping areas.” Your bathroom isn’t really getting cleaned as part of a “Daily Room Refresh.” That’s probably good, because the housekeeper in the video is doing all the cleaning with the same gloves.
But what’s most striking to me about the 5-step daily refresh process is the freshener spray at the end of the service. Spraying a smell that signals clean – which usually comes from cleaning supplies being used – seems like great marketing when cleaning supplies are actually used. Spraying the smell to communicate cleaning supplies were used when they weren’t just seems dishonest.
