A hotel executive housekeeper runs the housekeeping department and the laundry. They match each day's staffing to the occupancy forecast, set the cleaning and inspection standard, and keep linen, amenities and chemicals stocked inside the budget, so the front desk has clean rooms to sell by check-in.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
The Executive Housekeeper runs housekeeping and laundry for the hotel. You'll staff to the occupancy forecast, set cleaning and inspection standards, control linen, chemical and amenity inventories, run the deep-cleaning program, and keep the department inside its labor and supply budget. Clean, ready rooms are the product guests pay for.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Build daily housekeeping schedules from the occupancy forecast, checkouts and stayovers.
Set room cleaning and inspection standards, and check them with regular room audits.
Keep linen, terry, amenity and chemical inventories at par, and run monthly counts.
Run a deep-cleaning rotation for every guest room, covering mattresses, carpets, drapes and vents.
Train staff on chemical safety, bloodborne pathogens and safe lifting, and keep Safety Data Sheets current.
Manage lost and found: logging, secure storage, guest contact and disposal after [your holding period].
Run the bed bug response plan and room pest inspections with your pest control company.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review occupancy, checkouts, VIPs and early arrivals, then set room assignments and staffing.
Meet with the front desk on rooms-ready timing and status discrepancies.
Inspect a sample of rooms and public areas.
Check laundry output and par levels for the next day.
Approve overtime and cover call-outs.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Housekeeping labor cost per occupied room: [your target].
Room inspection pass rate: [your target].
Guest satisfaction score for cleanliness: [your target].
Linen and amenity cost per occupied room: [your target].
Housekeeping employee turnover: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[5+] years in hotel housekeeping, including [2+] years managing a department.
Builds schedules to occupancy and holds labor to a budget.
Knows hazard communication, Safety Data Sheets and bloodborne pathogens procedures for housekeeping.
Uses [your property management system] or a housekeeping app to track room status and assignments.
Manages par levels, inventory counts and purchasing for linen and supplies.
6. Preferred Experience
Certified Executive Housekeeper (CEH) or Registered Executive Housekeeper (REH).
Experience running an on-site laundry.
Resort experience with villas, suites or big seasonal swings in staffing.
7. Physical Requirements
Walk guest floors, stairwells and laundry throughout the day, and bend, kneel and reach to inspect rooms.
Help clean rooms and lift linen or supplies up to [35] pounds when the team is short.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Day schedule, with weekends and holidays on a rotation.
Works in guest rooms, laundry and back-of-house areas where cleaning chemicals are used.
Longer days in peak season and when large groups check out at once.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new executive housekeeper gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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What's different about running housekeeping at a full-service hotel
Hospitals and office towers have housekeeping managers too. In a hotel, every room is stock the front desk is waiting to sell, and the number of people you need changes with each night's occupancy.
Tonight's occupancy sets tomorrow's crew
A resort can be close to full on Saturday night and quiet by Monday. Each afternoon, the executive housekeeper reads the forecast, checkouts, stayovers and group blocks. Then they set how many attendants, housepersons and laundry staff come in. Too few, and arrivals wait in the lobby for their rooms. Too many, and labor per occupied room jumps.
Every dirty room is one the desk can't sell
Front office, engineering and housekeeping all touch room status. The executive housekeeper meets the front office manager each day about when rooms will be ready. They press the chief engineer on rooms that can't be sold, and they fix the habits behind status errors. A room out of order when the house is full is money the hotel never gets back.
Deciding who cleans up blood
OSHA has said hotel housekeepers and laundry staff may not generally count as exposed to blood on the job. The employer still has to decide which jobs or tasks are. A hotel can name a few people to do those tasks, give them the protections of OSHA's bloodborne pathogens rule, and teach everyone else to hand the work off. The executive housekeeper sets up that plan and trains to it. Source: OSHA interpretation letter: bloodborne pathogens and hotel housekeepers and laundry attendants (1992).
California's hotel housekeeping injury rule
Hotels, motels and resorts in California must keep a written plan to prevent muscle and joint injuries among housekeepers. Housekeepers, and their union if they have one, help look at the risks: lifting, pushing and pulling, awkward postures, slips and work pace. The plan gets a fresh review every year. If you hire in California, have candidates describe a plan they kept up. Source: Cal/OSHA Title 8, section 3345: Hotel housekeeping musculoskeletal injury prevention.
Linen is a budget line you can count
A resort buys sheets, towels, pool towels and banquet linen in bulk. Some of it leaves in guests' bags. The executive housekeeper sets par levels, runs monthly counts, pulls worn pieces for rags and orders new stock. With an on-site laundry, they also answer for the washers, dryers, ironer and chemical supplier.
How much hotel executive housekeepers make
The closest BLS group for hotel executive housekeepers is First-Line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers. First-Line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $21.96 an hour ($45,680 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $49,100 median for First-Line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers in all industries. About 39,940 of the 178,760 First-Line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers in that survey work for hotels and resorts.
Usually salaried. Some hotels pay a bonus each quarter or year based on housekeeping labor cost, cleanliness scores or brand inspections. BLS files executive housekeepers under the same job code as shift housekeeping supervisors, so the pay figures below mix both jobs.
Hotels and resorts
$45,680$45,680 median Middle half $37,690–$57,810 10th–90th $34,510–$70,710
All industries
$49,100$49,100 median Middle half $40,100–$62,600 10th–90th $35,520–$76,430
$20k$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k$90k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Hotels and resorts
$34,510
$37,690
$45,680
$57,810
$70,710
All industries
$35,520
$40,100
$49,100
$62,600
$76,430
BLS groups hotels, resorts and motels as traveler accommodation. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has run a hotel housekeeping department, or covered for the person who did
Builds each day's schedule from the forecast and adjusts it when occupancy changes
Inspects a guest room or a lobby the way a picky guest would
Explains a bad labor week in hours and causes, with a fix for next week
Gives clear direction to a team that may speak several languages
Keeps honest counts of linen, amenities, chemicals and master keys
Teach these on the job
Your brand's room standards and inspection form
The housekeeping screens and reports in your property management system
Your linen and chemical vendor contracts and buying approvals
Your deep-clean rotation and room history records
Your bed bug response steps with your pest control company
Executive housekeepers work in the property management system (Oracle OPERA or similar) for room status and forecasts, a scheduling and timekeeping system for labor, and often a housekeeping app for assignments and work orders. Tell candidates whether the laundry is on site or sent out, since running washers, dryers and an ironer takes other skills than managing a linen contract.
Hotel executive housekeeper interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
The template leaves a blank after each KPI for your number. Set it from your forecast, brand standard and last year's results, and look again before peak season.
Housekeeping labor cost per occupied room
Housekeeping payroll, including supervisors, housepersons and overtime, divided by occupied rooms for the same week. Take the cost from payroll and the room count from the night audit. Read it next to occupancy so a slow week isn't judged like a full one.
Room inspection pass rate
Rooms that passed inspection without rework, divided by rooms inspected, from supervisors' inspection records. Have the executive housekeeper reinspect a sample each week, so soft inspections don't make the number look better than the rooms.
Guest satisfaction score for cleanliness
The cleanliness questions on your brand or guest survey, plus cleanliness comments in online reviews, by month. Look for complaints that keep coming back, such as hair, dust or a musty bathroom.
Linen and amenity cost per occupied room
Linen, terry and guest amenity purchases divided by occupied rooms, by month. Compare purchases with the monthly counts so losses, rag-out and over-ordering show up as separate problems.
Housekeeping employee turnover
Housekeeping and laundry exits divided by average headcount, by quarter. Split it by role and by new hires versus longer-tenured staff, and ask each person who leaves why.
Is an executive housekeeper the same as a director of housekeeping?
Usually, yes. Hotels and management firms use either title for the head of the department. A large resort may add an assistant executive housekeeper or a housekeeping manager to run daily shifts. At a smaller hotel, one person often covers both and spends more time on the floors than in the office.
How much does a hotel executive housekeeper make?
First-Line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $21.96 an hour ($45,680 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $37,690 and $57,810 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Does an executive housekeeper need a certification?
The template doesn't require one. It puts CEH or REH under preferred, so treat either as a bonus. AHLEI, the hotel industry's training institute, sells its own credential, the Certified Hospitality Housekeeping Executive (CHHE). O*NET's listing says it takes more than two years of work and a passed exam, with renewal every five years. A record of hitting labor and inspection targets says more than a certificate.
Should the executive housekeeper also run the laundry?
The template puts the laundry under this role, and that usually works. Housekeeping is the laundry's biggest customer, so one leader can match linen output to the rooms that need cleaning. If the laundry also serves a busy spa and banquets, add a laundry lead under the executive housekeeper. Then machine trouble won't pull them off the floors.
What should happen when a guest reports bed bugs?
Take the room off sale and call your pest control company before anyone treats it. Bag the linens the way the pest company tells you, check nearby rooms if they ask, and log what was found and where. The executive housekeeper owns this plan, trains attendants to spot signs early, and puts the room back on sale only when the pest company clears it.
What should an executive housekeeper job ad include?
List the number of rooms, suites and villas. Say whether the laundry is on site and the size of the team. Name the brand, or say you're independent, and name your property management system. Give the weekend rotation. If a union contract covers housekeeping, say so, since it shapes how schedules and discipline work.
