- Free Version: Available for teams of up to 10
- Pricing: Premium plan $24/month (with free 30-day trial period)
- Platforms supported: Available on mobile app (iOS and Android) or a web-based software
SafetyCulture (iAuditor)
Why use SafetyCulture?
SafetyCulture is a housekeeping app that helps housekeeping managers and employees fulfill and manage all their cleaning tasks. Using SafetyCulture’s mobile checklists, housekeeping managers can conduct inspections from anywhere around their facilities and upload their reports to the cloud, allowing authorized personnel to access them and reducing the need for pen and paper. The cleaning checklists on the SafetyCulture app can also be used for other aspects of housekeeping such as employee management and work logs, making it a very versatile tool for frontliners in the housekeeping industry.
Features:
- Free customizable templates for use in the Public Library
- Scheduled cleaning tasks and inspections
- Make announcements or reminders using Heads Up
- Shareable templates and completed cleaning checks via weblink, Word, or PDF
- Analytical reports available after each inspection
- Offline inspections (can sync again once online)
- Scannable QR codes for faster inspections
Why use Flexkeeping?
Flexkeeping is a housekeeping app and cleaning app that focuses on communication in a housekeeping team or facility. Using the app, you can easily see who is in charge of cleaning which rooms and facilities at a given time, as well as assign each staff member or team to a certain subtask of cleaning, such as managing linens, polishing furniture, and repairing facilities.
Features:
- Task delegation and automation
- Automatic translations for messages in different languages
- Allows you to view everyone’s task at a glance
- Free Version: Contact flexkeeping for more information.
- Pricing: Contact flexkeeping for more information.
- Platforms supported: Web client and mobile app for iOS and Android available.
Why use Spotless?
Spotless is an iOS-only housekeeping app focused on helping people manage their cleaning tasks. It can be used by individuals and housekeeping managers alike to keep track of what places need to be cleaned as well as set reminders for them.
Features:
- Ability to create lists for each room in your building
- Reminders for scheduled cleaning times
- To-do lists
- Free Version: Contact Spotless for more information.
- Pricing: Contact Spotless for more information.
- Platforms supported: Available on IOS
Why use Tody?
Tody, as a housekeeper app, aims to help families manage their cleaning tasks by turning them into visual proofs. This app helps sort your cleaning tasks per room or zone, and with each completed task, you can view your progress through a colored bar much like a game’s progress bar. Tody is best used by those who want to see their progress visually.
Features:
- Game-like visuals
- In-app notes
- Graphic history of cleaning tasks done
- Free Version: Free for Android.
- Pricing: $9.99 for iOS. Free for Android with optional in-app purchases.
- Platforms supported: Available on IOS and Android.
Why use ALICE?
ALICE is a hospitality operations software platform with dedicated features for each aspect of managing a hospitality business. As a housekeeping app, it helps promote easier communication between staff with real-time mobile and auto room assignments and updates. The app also allows for personal chats between guests and staff for the guests’ needs and the organization’s announcements. ALICE is best used by managers who want to improve both staff and guest communication.
Features:
- Web client and mobile app for iOS and Android available
- Automated hotel text messages for guests
- Accessible to everyone in the organization
- Dedicated services for workers at the front desk, as well as those working on maintenance, engineering, and delivery
- Free Version: Contact Alice for more information.
- Pricing: Dependent on the organization’s needs.
- Platforms supported: Web and mobile app for iOS and Android.
Why use Sweepy?
Sweepy is one of the house cleaning apps that help you track your chores and treat cleaning as a game. You can set how dirty or clean a task and a timer for how long you should work on it, helping you manage your time wisely. This can also help train kids on how to help with housekeeping.
Features:
- Ranking board based on how much cleaning you’ve done
- Ability to set the frequency of task
- Daily schedule for each member of a family
- Multi-device sync
- Free Version: Available.
- Pricing: Paid version starts at $2.99 a month.
- Platforms supported: Available on IOS and Android.
Why use Beekeeper?
Beekeeper is a management software for customer-facing or frontline employees used across many industries. As a housekeeping app, it is used to manage employees at the front desk, room service, kitchen, and cleaning. Through the app, managers and employees can communicate issues through chats, training videos, and digital bulletin boards.
Features:
- Collaboration on a peer-to-peer and cross-departmental level
- Automated onboarding
- Integrations with different work software and social media platforms
- Free Version: Contact Beekeeper for more information.
- Pricing: Prices will depend on the organization's needs.
- Platforms supported: Web and mobile app available for IOS and Android. Desktop version for Mac, Windows, and Linux also available.
Why use FieldCamp?
FieldCamp is a service scheduling and management software that aims to have workers use less paper to use and manage their time better. With FieldCamp, hotels and other hospitality establishments can track their cleaners as well as dispatch them to different locations as needed by sending them the location and the details of the guests they need to attend to.
Features:
- Data encryption
- Revenue reports
- Accepts online payments
- Voice to text feature
- Free Version: Contact FieldCamp for more information.
- Pricing: Prices start at $29 a month for one user.
- Platforms supported: Web client and mobile app for iOS and Android available.
Why use MEWS?
Mews is a PMS that hopes to automate the documentation process of all housekeeping tasks. The software allows staff to manage reservations, rooms, and cleaning schedules in the cloud and reflect any changes to them in real-time. With this cleaning schedule app, managers can assign cleaning times based on the guest list and supervise the current workload of their staff. Mews also offers guests a way to request room service or housekeeping from their own app.
Features:
- Real-time syncing and status updates
- Workload list of all employees visible at a glance
- Internal chat
- Free Version: Contact MEWS for more information.
- Pricing: Starts at $8.09 monthly, but can increase depending on organization's needs.
- Platforms supported: Web client and mobile app for iOS and Android available.
What is a Housekeeping App?
A housekeeping app, also known as a cleaning app or a housekeeping software, is an application used in the hospitality industry to check the different aspects of hotel operations. Housekeeping apps are primarily used for the round-the-clock inspections of hotel premises and spot checks of the guest rooms once they’re vacated. With an app for cleaning and housekeeping, hotel staff can easily make sure that the facilities are spotless and up to standard, and also check the office and work areas to eliminate hazards and promote overall health and safety for both employees and guests.
Housekeeping App Versus Paper Checklists for Hotel Housekeeping
A housekeeping app covers several aspects of hotel management. It involves an assessment of the various areas within an establishment’s premises and perimeters, such as the reception areas, designated smoking areas, and public restrooms. It also includes checking if the guest rooms are clean, sanitized, and presentable.
During housekeeping, offices and other workplaces are also checked for organization, hygiene, and overall safety for all employees. It’s an effective measure that ensures the prevention of hazards and helps boost productivity and morale.
Housekeeping App Advantages
Housekeeping is a tedious undertaking because it’s one of the factors that determine your brand’s reputation. Your primary responsibility as a hotel manager is to ensure that housekeeping is done right—but how?
Apps come with the promise of making our lives, and our jobs, easier. Nowadays, there’s an app for just about everything, including hotel housekeeping.
Paper checklists have been the go-to solution for most kinds of detail-intensive work. Atul Gawande even wrote a book explaining its positive impact across different use cases including aviation, open-heart surgery, and construction.
So what exactly do these solutions have to offer? More importantly, how do you know which one is right for you?
Mobile
A housekeeping app allows you to complete inspections on the go, often with just one hand. It can serve as a digital checklist for housekeepers to help ensure that they don’t miss any critical or minor tasks. Hotel or hospitality managers can also use a mobile app when performing room inspections to make sure that housekeeping quality is always up to standard.
Versatile
A housekeeping app can be customized to match your business needs. Features may vary per app, but they are generally designed to cater to the various needs and preferences of each customer.
Paperless
Using paper forms and checklists for anything is, to be honest, just not fun. Often, you would have to fill out a fresh form if you make an error. Storage and organization also become a problem because papers pile up. Housekeeping apps can store information in the cloud so finding your templates, files, and reports are easier. A simple search query on the app can give you access in seconds.
Data-driven
There’s nothing more painful than recording data on a sheet of paper, and then having to compile the data from each individual paper by manually entering the data in Excel, and then having to write up multiple formulas to get the numbers you need. Apps compile data efficiently. The good ones even display statistical data so hotel managers can identify problem areas and take corrective and preventive actions promptly.
Paper Housekeeping Checklist Advantages
Easy-to-use
Using a housekeeping app may require some degree of tech-savvy and a little bit of patience to get the hang of it. A good paper checklist is simple, comprehensible, and requires little to no training.
Affordable
To get an app’s best features, you usually have to sign up for a Premium plan. Though there are plenty of affordable, quality apps, they will never be as cheap as plain paper. Paper checklists are especially useful for small businesses that can’t quite afford monthly app plan payments.
Can be used offline
To get an app’s best features, you usually have to sign up for a Premium plan. Though there are plenty of affordable, quality apps, they will never be as cheap as plain paper. Paper checklists are especially useful for small businesses that can’t quite afford monthly app plan payments.
Doesn’t require a device
No smartphones, tablets, or any other devices are needed. If you’re cost-cutting but still want to implement a checklist for quality purposes, the traditional paper route is your best option.
Your Hotel Housekeeping Workflow
When dealing with housekeeping, one of the dilemmas you may face is deciding on what tool to use or which process to follow—and there are a lot of options out there. The first thing that you should ask yourself, however, is what tool best makes sense considering your current workflow.
In the quest for a seamless and efficient hotel housekeeping process, the tools you use are of vital importance. Today’s businesses are turning more to digital and mobile solutions, so you may have to rethink your approach if you’re looking to move your processes from paper to the cloud. Are you ready to make the jump to digital or should you retain your housekeeping paper trail?
Things to Consider
From the outside in, the management of a housekeeping process may seem similar across organizations. There are subtle differences, however, that can help determine if a digital solution can help you maximize time and optimize your processes if you’re better off sticking to what’s familiar, i.e., clipboards and paper checklists.
Organization size
The number of people using your checklist or housekeeping app is a major deciding factor on whether you should maintain the status quo or consider a new approach. Smaller organizations may find that paper checklists are sufficient for their needs, especially if they’ve already come up with a filing system that makes it easier for everyone involved to store and retrieve previous housekeeping records.
However, larger organizations may find that, after a few years of regular housekeeping, paper checklists become tons of paperwork that can be costly to store and maintain. With a digital checklist, it is also easier to collaborate. In such cases, a housekeeping app may be the way to go.
Budget constraints
Some small- to medium-sized enterprises, or larger businesses that are planning on an expansion, may stick to what they know because they’re trying to save funds for other purposes. Often, you need to pay for an app to get its full potential. There may be a few free housekeeping apps you can find online, but many of them are on the “freemium” business model, which means you’ll have to fork up if you need all the features.
When considering the cost of an app, take into account the costs you incur using a paper checklist, i.e., the money you spend on printer maintenance, paper, ink, etc., to see if you might actually be saving money when you pay for a housekeeping app when using PDFs instead.
Connectivity requirements
Internet accessibility is a vital question when considering the use of a housekeeping app. Most apps available require an internet connection to at least save and sync your housekeeping records or documents in the cloud. If the internet connection is a concern, it might be better to stick to paper housekeeping checklists.
There are housekeeping apps that allow for offline inspections, though, so they may be worth checking out. Take note that, at the very least, you will need to set up an intranet connection to fully take advantage of the “paperless system” offered by an app.
Tools needed
If for some reason mobile devices aren’t readily available within your organization, it can be costly to shift to a housekeeping app that would require a complete overhaul of your housekeeping process. There are apps, however, that have low minimum system requirements and can be used on older mobile phones or devices. Check all available options before deciding on a housekeeping app or staying with a paper housekeeping checklist so you don’t miss out on a solution that may improve your current system and streamline your workflow.
Ultimately, the decision to use a housekeeping app or stick to a paper housekeeping checklist depends on your current workflow. Re-evaluate your housekeeping workflow and see if going digital can help improve or enhance it. There are a lot of options available today so do your research and test apps out to see which one fits your current needs and determine if you really need to make a change in your housekeeping process.
