A hotel houseperson keeps housekeeping supplied and the public spaces clean. They stock linen closets before attendants start, haul soiled linen and trash off the floors, bring cribs, rollaways and extra towels to guests, and take the heavy jobs: carpets, high dusting, walls and furniture moves.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Housepersons keep room attendants supplied and the hotel's public areas clean. You'll move linen and supplies to the floors, take soiled linen and trash away, deliver extra items to guest rooms, clean corridors, lobbies and restrooms, and handle heavy jobs like rollaway beds, cribs and moving furniture.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Deliver clean linen, terry and amenities to floor closets and attendants' carts before and during the shift.
Remove soiled linen and trash from the floors and take them to laundry and the dock.
Deliver guest requests such as extra towels, pillows, cribs, rollaway beds and refrigerators.
Clean corridors, elevators, stairwells, ice and vending areas, and public restrooms on a set schedule.
Do heavy cleaning and moving: carpet extraction, high dusting, wall washing and furniture moves.
Report hazards, damage and maintenance needs in public areas right away.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Stock floor closets from the linen room at the start of the shift.
Run linen and trash on each floor on a set route through the day.
Take requests from the housekeeping office or front desk by radio, and report when they're done.
Vacuum corridors and wipe down elevators and ice machine areas.
Collect rollaways and cribs from checkout rooms.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Guest request delivery time: [your target].
Floor closets stocked by start of shift: [your target].
Public area inspection score: [your target].
Attendants waiting on linen or supplies: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Follows a cleaning route and a request list without close supervision.
Uses a radio or phone to take requests and report back.
Can learn to run carpet extractors, floor machines and linen carts safely.
Polite and quick with guests when delivering to their rooms.
6. Preferred Experience
Hotel, hospital or janitorial experience.
Floor care experience with buffers, scrubbers and extractors.
Experience driving a utility cart on a spread-out resort property.
7. Physical Requirements
Push heavy linen carts and lift bags up to [50] pounds many times a shift.
Climb stairs, use ladders for high dusting and move furniture with a partner.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Day or evening shift, including weekends and holidays.
Moves between guest floors, public areas, laundry and the loading dock.
Uses floor machines and cleaning chemicals, with protective gear provided.
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 houseperson 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.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
What's different about houseperson work in a hotel
Janitors and porters clean public areas in offices and malls. A hotel houseperson does that and also keeps room cleaning supplied. When they fall behind, attendants stand around waiting for sheets.
Attendants can't start without stocked closets
Room attendants load their carts from floor closets when the shift starts. If sheets, terry and amenities aren't there yet, every attendant on that floor loses time at once. Through the day, the houseperson also clears soiled linen and trash off the floors, so the laundry gets a steady flow and corridors stay clear.
Requests come by radio, often to occupied rooms
The front desk or housekeeping office sends requests by radio or app: a crib, a rollaway, a refrigerator, more pillows. The houseperson knocks, announces, hands it over and leaves, then closes the request so no one asks the guest twice. At a spread-out resort, that can mean driving a utility cart to a villa.
Public areas stay open all day
Lobbies, elevators, ice rooms and public restrooms never close, so cleaning happens around guests. OSHA requires employers to keep walking surfaces clean, orderly and free of spills, and work floors as dry as they can be. A houseperson mops in sections, puts out wet-floor signs and comes back to pick them up. Source: 29 CFR 1910.22: Walking-working surfaces, general requirements (Cornell LII).
Floor machines and strong chemicals
Housepersons run carpet extractors, buffers and floor scrubbers, and they mix floor and glass cleaners from concentrate. Any employer with hazardous chemicals must, under OSHA rules, keep labels and safety data sheets where exposed staff can reach them, and train those staff in safe handling. Go over the mixing charts and machine checks before anyone runs a machine alone. Source: OSHA: Hazard communication.
Heavy jobs are planned for two
Furniture moves, mattress flips during deep cleans and stacks of rollaways fall to the houseperson. Plan them for two people with a dolly, when the halls are quiet. California's hotel housekeeping injury rule lists housepersons as housekeepers. So in that state, their lifting, pushing and pulling belong in the hotel's injury plan. Source: Cal/OSHA Title 8, section 3345: Hotel housekeeping musculoskeletal injury prevention.
How much hotel housepersons make
The closest BLS group for hotel housepersons is maids and housekeeping cleaners. Maids and housekeeping cleaners who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $16.79 an hour ($34,920 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $35,510 median for maids and housekeeping cleaners in all industries. About 415,160 of the 860,670 maids and housekeeping cleaners in that survey work for hotels and resorts.
Hourly with overtime, which tends to come when the hotel runs full or a big group checks out at once.
Hotels and resorts
$34,920$34,920 median Middle half $29,430–$39,050 10th–90th $26,930–$49,510
All industries
$35,510$35,510 median Middle half $30,350–$39,590 10th–90th $27,640–$48,570
$20k$30k$40k$50k$60k
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
$26,930
$29,430
$34,920
$39,050
$49,510
All industries
$27,640
$30,350
$35,510
$39,590
$48,570
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
Works a route without being chased and calls in on the radio when each request is done
Polite at a guest's door: knocks, announces, hands over and goes
Moves carts, rollaways and furniture safely, and asks for a second person on big lifts
Spots hazards in public areas, like a spill or a loose handrail, and reports them at once
On time at the start of every shift
Teach these on the job
Running the carpet extractor, buffer and floor scrubber
Mixing and labeling your floor and glass chemicals
Par levels for each floor closet
Your guest request app and radio codes
Utility cart rules on resort paths
Housepersons use linen and trash carts, carpet extractors, buffers and floor scrubbers, ladders for high dusting, and a two-way radio or a phone app that sends guest requests and logs when each is closed. If the property has villas or several buildings, add a utility cart to the posting.
Hotel houseperson 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.
Base targets on your layout. A houseperson working one tower with a service elevator gets around faster than one driving a cart between villas.
Guest request delivery time
Minutes from request to delivery, as logged by your request app or the housekeeping office. Track cribs and rollaways apart from towels and pillows.
Floor closets stocked by start of shift
Before lineup, the supervisor checks a set list of floor closets against par and records which were short, and of what.
Public area inspection score
A scored walk-through of lobbies, corridors, elevators, ice rooms and public restrooms. Use one form, and have a supervisor score it on a fixed weekday.
Attendants waiting on linen or supplies
Attendants log each time they wait for linen, terry or amenities, with the time and floor. Review the log weekly next to laundry output.
Career path
HousepersonStocks floors, runs guest requests and cleans public areas.
Lead houseperson or public area supervisorSets routes, trains new housepersons and owns floor care.
Usually. The template asks for someone who can follow a route and a request list without close supervision. That doesn't take hotel experience. Janitorial or hospital cleaning work carries over, especially floor care. Some housepersons later move into supervisor jobs, the laundry, or engineering once they learn basic repairs.
How much does a hotel houseperson make?
Maids and housekeeping cleaners who work for hotels, resorts, and motels earned a median of $16.79 an hour ($34,920 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $29,430 and $39,050 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Should the job ad say houseman or houseperson?
Use houseperson or public area attendant. The EEOC says a job ad may not show a preference for, or discourage people from applying, based on sex. A title like houseman can read as a call for men, so a neutral title is the safer choice. The duties and the hours tell candidates far more about the job than the title does.
How is a houseperson different from a room attendant?
Room attendants clean guest rooms in an assigned section. Housepersons support them and the rest of the hotel: they stock floors, move linen and trash, deliver guest requests and clean public spaces. Housepersons do more lifting and machine work and less detailed room cleaning. They also cover far more ground in a shift.
Can a houseperson help in the laundry?
Yes. On a heavy checkout day, that can save the morning. A houseperson who can fold terry or feed the ironer for an hour keeps linen moving when the laundry falls behind. Train them on the machines and chemicals first, and keep stocked floor closets as their first duty.
