Full house turn around

I have two different caddies.  One for cleaning supplies and one for amenities.   DW and I hit each room together.  She strips the bed while I gather towels,  half-used shampoo bottles, bars of soap and what's left of the Toilet Tissue.   Laundry goes into plastic baskets.  

While I do a blitzkrieg cleaning of the bathroom,  DW  puts the new sheets on the bed and spot irons where needed.   I stop to help her do the tucking and folding of the bed covers then I vacuum  and clean the mini-fridge and wipe down all the base boards, ceiling fans, window sills etc.   DW, in the meantime has a load of laundry going and I move on to the next room.

I'm glad we only have two rooms.

most challenging to me i think was that, in addition to the guest rooms and the kitchen and the breakfast room, so many other areas need attention.  it's endless! 

the common areas where guests can sit have to be emptied of trash, dusted, vacumed, freshened ... spilled coffee and sugar and coffee rings etc on counter tops and tables, random objects in hallways, smudges on mirrors, windows and doors ... the entrance needing to be swept clean... front porch, decks ... plus checking guests out and in throughout ... just the sheer volume of places and things needing attention can be overwhelming.  all aspirings need to know just how hard this can be and how valuable some help is! 

it's like getting the whole house ready for special company to come visit who notice everything but never help. 

i would sometimes go out the front door and come in as though i were checking in ... then i'd notice things. 

one time i spent from dawn to dusk cooking, serving, cleaning, flipping, doing guest reception, i was taking a break ... i was standing looking out at the harbor with a cup of coffee in my hand and two people were walking by.  i heard someone say 'that looks awful'.   what could look awful?    there was a paper cup with trash inside it shoved into one of my window boxes!!

We have three floors, first is stripping all the linen-maybe starting a load of sheets.

First I get everything ready for each room, towels, sheets etc in a basket with cleaning supplies in a pail. We start at the top 3rd floor-usually 2 rooms I take the third my husband takes the second (4 rooms) and we go from there, its a stratagy-I don't leave one room to do another I do one room at a time and if you fluff the rooms daily its easier to do since you've already wiped both camode and sink and emptied trash so its not so bad. Hubbie on the other hand has ADD sometimes going from one room to the next...but its just automatic-laudry first-empty trash-spray bathroom-make bed-dust if necessary-clean bath-vacume.

Thats how I do it every time and it gets pretty automatic after a while

What Morticia calls "prepping" we call "stripping."  Stripping the room includes pulling linens and towels (we throw them down the laundry chute), pulling trash and putting in a new liner, checking drawers, resetting the TV, pulling dirty dishes, etc.

When there is more than one of us working on the rooms (like if my sister comes over to help), we use a checklist which helps to avoid duplicating work.  (It also helps my sister, since she doesn't flip rooms often, to know what to be doing and looking out for).

When I'm on my own I literally force myself to avoid the laundry at all costs... it will suck me in and set me back.  For that matter, I have to avoid Facebook, too... 

I have cleaning supplies in or near every room, as well as spare TP, wastebasket liners, bedside candy, rubber duckies, glasses, sheets, and towels.  I know some innkeepers prefer not to store anything in the rooms, but I find having the sheets and towels there is great when I'm in a hurry.  Then, when I'm not in as big of a rush (and the laundry is done), I try to restock everything so it's ready to go next time.  I have two vacuums... and maybe someday I'll buy a third so that I have one per floor.

=)
Kk.

I try when I know it is a full house in and then out to set up sheets and towels for each room in the laundry room as it has long work surfaces and they have a card with a number on on top ie room one is a twin so two duvet covers, 2 single sheets, 2 sets of towels, 4 pillow cases. So as soon as that room goes I can pick up the pile dash to the room put them in and strip off the old stuff and bring down. but it depends on how many I have for breakfast if I can be spared as today we did 20 breakfasts in 45 minutes. (woo hoo) We carry a houskeeping cady with all the tea, coffee, and another basket with the cleaning stuff in. I am trying to get two trays one for the clean mugs and one for clean glasses so I can switch them out and run the dirties through the dishwasher.

Wow some great suggestions here! I would like to add that if you can store supplies somewhere on each floor to reduce the running up and down, that will save you a lot of time. I am more of a sole proprietor than I would like to be. When the PTB are here, they don't do much but bark orders and criticize my methods (then shut it and pitch in already). If I had my druthers, I would hang a sign on the door that the Innkeeper will return for 3 oclock check in and let the phone to go VM.

Unfortunately, I don't really get to do those things since I am supposed to be everywhere at once.

I have a caddy of supplies and a vacuum on each floor and that helps tremendously. . . . now If I could just get a second dryer....

btw...I am all for cloning. I could use 2 or 3 of me.

something that really helped me was to have a caddy with all the supplies in it that might need replenishing in a room ... soaps, shampoos, lotions, shower caps, makeup remover pads, bathroom tissue, facial tissues, plastic cups ... whatever amenities you ordinarily leave in the rooms ...  bring all that with you into every room at once.  saved me innumerable (not sure of spelling -- but countless)  steps going back and forth to a room with facial tissues or cups because i'd notice they were out and not have some with me.  i kept hoping to find a rolling cart like they have in hotels on craigslist to put all the stuff on. 

i would strip the rooms first, pushing all the laundry into pillow cases first -- all sheets and bed linens in one, bathroom things in the other.  and i'd drop the pillowcases into the tub ... or shower stall ... out of the way ... similar to morticia ... and then return to gather all the laundry. 

i often had to work alone or with a chambermaid flipping eight rooms because we were a 'pit stop' for one overnight for lots of folks.

Something that helps for an all house flip for us are just little things like, one person can bring the linens to each room and then put the pillowcases on every pillow and spare pillow cases and reload into armoires and closets. Not sure if this is the sort of thing you are after?

Obv TWO HANDS on a bed can make the bed in no time vs one person circling the bed round and round pulling and tugging on everything to make it tight and even.  That cuts that time by 3/4 in my book, per bed.

Anything you can do in sequence...helps.  ie in the end one person vacuums all the rooms and hallways.  One person swiffers all the bathrooms and wood floors.  Instead of one person doing one room to completion.

Full house turnaround goes like this...as soon as a guest vacates the room, I am stripping the room and putting the clean linen in the room for the housekeeper. I close the door so no one sees me! I leave the dirty linen on the floor in the room to be picked up later (after breakfast is done).

Once the housekeeper arrives, she starts on the rooms that have been 'prepped'. I continue to go thru 'prepping' all the rooms for her while Gomez handles the kitchen cleanup. Once the kitchen is done, Gomez and I start cleaning along with the housekeeper. We really have to do the kitchen first because it is wide open and no one wants to see dirty dishes all morning.

We find that the 'advance patrol' makes the cleaning part go so much faster. If I could remember to haul the glasses around, too, it would be even better.