What does a housekeeping director do?
A housekeeping director is a management professional who is responsible for supervising a staff of housekeepers to maintain cleanliness in various areas of facilities such as hotels, apartment buildings, or nursing facilities. This director must train the housekeeping staff to follow proper procedures and job safety. The director is required to perform administrative tasks such as generating work schedules for housekeepers, ordering cleaning supplies, and managing the housekeeping budget. To ensure that staff members are performing their duties professionally, this director must monitor the work of housekeepers and inspects the rooms that have already been cleaned.
Housekeeping director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real housekeeping director resumes:
- Manage keeping current MSDS books in facilities.
- Perform quality control inspections, manage floor care, and ensure all JCAHO, OSHA, and Bio-Hazard standards are met.
- Implement more effective and efficient operating procedures to achieve target standards of cleanliness including on time room readiness.
- Maintain MSDS sheet for all cleaning chemicals safety.
- Schedule meeting with PMS provider to go install PMS upgrades.
- Implement VIP guest program recognizing not only VIPs but denoting returning guests.
- Designate hotel liaison with Hilton's ONQ PMS support center in Memphis, Tennessee.
- Delegate daily duties of the housekeeping supervisors, housekeepers, housemen, and laundry personnel.
- Assist guest problems or concerns and react quickly and VIP inspection for all VIP guests.
- Follow all OSHA standards and train all staff annually, including management on all regulations and procedures.
- Interview and hire housekeepers and housemen.
- Produce and maintain records to forecast department personnel requirements, prepare budgets and payroll reports.
- Establish better cost/inventory procedures resulting in housekeeping staying under budget in both operations and payroll.
- Supervise housekeeping/laundry/custodial personnel to maintain cleanliness of the entire building including all apartments and common areas.
- Implement more effective and efficient operating procedures to achieve target standards of cleanliness including on time room readiness.
Housekeeping director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 15% of Housekeeping Directors are proficient in Cleanliness, Guest Rooms, and Customer Service. They’re also known for soft skills such as Business skills, Customer-service skills, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Housekeeping Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Cleanliness, 15%
Managed all operations of the Housekeeping Department to ensure overall effectiveness, productivity, and High cleanliness standards are upheld.
- Guest Rooms, 11%
Monitored guest room inventory and ordered fresh inventory as needed.
- Customer Service, 9%
Empower housekeeping staff to deliver customer service by encouraging and rewarding responsive guest assistance.
- Guest Service, 6%
Delivered exceptional guest services and insured departmental performances by completing assigned tasks to the highest standards.
- Payroll, 6%
Produced and maintained records to forecast department personnel requirements, prepared budgets and payroll reports.
- OSHA, 4%
Completed the OSHA Globally Harmonized System
"cleanliness," "guest rooms," and "customer service" are among the most common skills that housekeeping directors use at work. You can find even more housekeeping director responsibilities below, including:
Business skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a housekeeping director to have is business skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "lodging managers need to operate a facility that is profitable." Housekeeping directors often use business skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "schedule, payroll, budgeting and ordering for all of rooms line of business. "
Customer-service skills. Another essential skill to perform housekeeping director duties is customer-service skills. Housekeeping directors responsibilities require that "lodging managers must have excellent customer-service skills." Housekeeping directors also use customer-service skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "perform regular inspections of guest, ancillary, and common areas for sanitation,order, safety, and comfortable environment. "
Interpersonal skills. housekeeping directors are also known for interpersonal skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to housekeeping director responsibilities, because "lodging managers interact regularly with many different people." A housekeeping director resume example shows how interpersonal skills is used in the workplace: "maintain time management, communication skills, interpersonal skills, customer service, and cpr certified. "
Leadership skills. housekeeping director responsibilities often require "leadership skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "lodging managers must establish a productive work environment, which may involve motivating personnel, resolving conflicts, and handling guests’ complaints." This resume example shows what housekeeping directors do with leadership skills on a typical day: "provided leadership for housekeeping and laundry operations for 424-room, 4-diamond hotel. "
Listening skills. Another crucial skill for a housekeeping director to carry out their responsibilities is "listening skills." A big part of what housekeeping directors relies on this skill, since "lodging managers must have excellent listening skills for attending to the needs of guests and maintaining a good working relationship with staff." How this skill relates to housekeeping director duties can be seen in an example from a housekeeping director resume snippet: "identified, communicated and resolved guest complaints with a sense of professionalism and diplomacy. "
Organizational skills. Lastly, "organizational skills" is an important element of what a housekeeping director does. Housekeeping director responsibilities require this skill because "lodging managers need to keep track of many different schedules, budgets, and people at once." This resume example highlights how housekeeping director duties rely on this skill: "created and implemented departmental organizational structure, staffing, budgetary controls, and quality standards to assure greater productivity. "
The three companies that hire the most housekeeping directors are:
- Aimbridge Hospitality15 housekeeping directors jobs
- Marriott International9 housekeeping directors jobs
- Hilton6 housekeeping directors jobs
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Compare different housekeeping directors
Housekeeping director vs. Stock room manager
A janitorial supervisor acts as an overseer to the janitorial staff. Their job is to monitor and assist day-to-day work, schedule shifts, and work hours with other crew members. They may also make a weekly report, conduct evaluations, and review performance records. They sometimes give recommendations to human resources for promotions and dismissals. As a supervisor, they must have leadership skills and know how to communicate well with staff.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a housekeeping director are more likely to require skills like "cleanliness," "guest service," "osha," and "quality standards." On the other hand, a job as a stock room manager requires skills like "wine," "product knowledge," "room operations," and "sales floor." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Stock room managers tend to reach similar levels of education than housekeeping directors. In fact, stock room managers are 0.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Housekeeping director vs. Janitorial services supervisor
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that housekeeping director responsibilities requires skills like "guest rooms," "customer service," "guest service," and "payroll." But a janitorial services supervisor might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "janitorial services," "light bulbs," "bathroom fixtures," and "commercial cleaning."
Janitorial services supervisors may earn a lower salary than housekeeping directors, but janitorial services supervisors earn the most pay in the manufacturing industry with an average salary of $29,192. On the other hand, housekeeping directors receive higher pay in the hospitality industry, where they earn an average salary of $55,072.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Janitorial services supervisors tend to reach similar levels of education than housekeeping directors. In fact, they're 3.8% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Housekeeping director vs. Janitorial supervisor
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, housekeeping directors are more likely to have skills like "guest rooms," "customer service," "guest service," and "osha." But a janitorial supervisor is more likely to have skills like "minor maintenance," "safety procedures," "ventilation," and "commercial cleaning."
Janitorial supervisors make a very good living in the finance industry with an average annual salary of $32,178. On the other hand, housekeeping directors are paid the highest salary in the hospitality industry, with average annual pay of $55,072.Most janitorial supervisors achieve a similar degree level compared to housekeeping directors. For example, they're 2.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Housekeeping director vs. Janitor supervisor
Types of housekeeping director
Updated January 8, 2025
