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Zotaki Platform · HousekeepingHousekeeping Management
Live room status shared by the front desk, the housekeeping desk and every attendant on the floor. Rooms go dirty automatically at checkout, your supervisor controls the board, and staff mark a room clean from their phone as they walk out of it.
Why this matters
A clean room nobody knows about is an empty room
The room was finished at 12:40. The front desk found out at 14:15, when the supervisor came down with a paper sheet. For an hour and a half a sellable room sat there while a guest waited in the lobby and reception said what they always say — "sorry sir, the room is not ready yet."
That gap is the whole problem. Not cleaning speed — your staff are usually fine. It is the distance between a room becoming clean and the person selling it finding out.
- Guests waiting in the lobby for rooms already cleaned
- Early check-in refused when a room was actually free
- A guest sent to a room that was not ready after all
- Nobody sure whether 208 is still under repair
Three ways a status changes
Automatic, from the desk, or from a phone
Different properties work differently, and the same property works differently at 3pm and at midnight. All three routes write to the same live status.
1 · Automatic at checkout
The moment a checkout is settled, the room flips to vacant dirty by itself and joins the housekeeping queue. No one has to remember, and no room quietly stays "clean" from yesterday because the change was never made.
2 · From the housekeeping desk
Your supervisor runs the board from a desktop — assign rooms to attendants, move a room to cleaning, inspected, out of order or blocked, and re-prioritise the queue when the desk calls asking for 204 first.
3 · From the attendant's phone
The person who actually cleaned the room releases it, at the door, in one tap. This is the change that removes the ninety-minute lag — the status moves when the work finishes, not when the paperwork reaches reception.
The front desk can also mark a room clean before a new check-in where you allow it — useful in small properties with no separate housekeeping desk. If you would rather nothing went on sale without a check, require supervisor inspection instead.
The status list
Twelve states, because a real floor has twelve states
"Clean" and "dirty" is not enough to run a shift. Rename any of these to match the words your team already uses.
Vacant clean · Ready
Cleaned and sellable. This is the only state the front desk can hand a key for.
Inspected
Passed by a supervisor. Optional — turn it on if you want a check before a room goes on sale.
Vacant dirty
Guest has left, room not yet cleaned. Set automatically at checkout.
Cleaning in progress
An attendant has started. Their name shows on the rack so nobody doubles up.
Occupied clean / dirty
Guest in house, serviced or awaiting service. Drives the stayover list.
Due out · Stayover
Leaving today or staying on — the two lists your team plans the morning around.
Do not disturb
Recorded rather than guessed, so the room reappears later instead of being skipped silently.
Out of order
Genuinely unsellable. Pulled from front desk and OTA inventory with a reason and return date.
Out of service · Blocked
Minor fault, or held back for a group. Still yours to release when you choose.
The staff app
One list. One button. That is the whole app.
Built for the floor, not the office
An attendant sees only their own rooms, in priority order, with today's arrivals flagged. They tap once when they finish. Everything else — the reporting, the assignment, the audit trail — happens behind that one tap.
Any ordinary Android phone
One tap to release a room
Raise a fault with a photo
Log linen and amenities
Arrivals flagged as priority
Five minutes to teach
The housekeeping desk
Your supervisor runs the shift, not a register
Assign the floor in the morning, watch it clear through the day, and step in when the front desk needs a specific room next. Departures and stayovers can be weighted differently, so the load is balanced by actual work rather than by room count.
- Assign by floor, wing or room by room
- Re-prioritise when reception calls
- Inspect and pass, or send back with a reason
- See who is ahead and who is behind, live
Run your own numbers
What is the delay actually costing you?
Not the cleaning time — the reporting lag. The stretch where a room is physically ready but the front desk has not been told yet.
Sellable room time recovered, per month
264 room-hours
time your rooms were ready but nobody could sell them.
- Lag per room — today
- 45 minutes
- Lag per room — with the staff app
- 5 minutes
- Recovered on a busy day
- 12 room-hours
- Recovered over a year
- 3,168 room-hours
This does not convert one-to-one into revenue — you only gain when somebody actually wants the room. The reliable win is the early check-ins you can now say yes to, and the guests who stop waiting in your lobby.
The rest of the department
Everything else housekeeping is responsible for
Cleaning checklists
Standardise what "clean" means so quality does not depend on who is on shift. Attendants tick through it in the app.
Maintenance work orders
A leaking tap raised with a photo from the room becomes a tracked job, not something mentioned in a corridor and forgotten.
Linen & amenity usage
Consumption recorded per room, so stores reorders before you run out on a Saturday.
Minibar posting
Consumption posted to the folio from the room, before the guest reaches the desk to check out.
Lost and found
Logged with room, date and finder, so when a guest calls three weeks later you can actually answer.
Deep clean scheduling
Mattress turning, curtain washing, carpet shampoo — on a cycle, so it happens rather than being remembered during an audit.
Manager reports
Rooms per attendant, average minutes per room, inspection pass rate, and how long rooms sat dirty.
Across properties
One housekeeping standard and one set of statuses across every property in the group.
Who can change what
Decide whether reception may release a room, or whether only an inspected room goes on sale.
See it in action
Watch the housekeeping dashboard
How housekeeping staff see their rooms and update status — in Hindi or English.
Worth saying plainly
Three things to be realistic about
Someone has to press the button
If your attendants finish the floor and mark five rooms clean at once at 4pm, you are back where you started. The habit of tapping at the door is what makes this work, and it takes about a fortnight to settle.
It does not make cleaning faster
A room still takes as long as it takes. What changes is that the minute it is finished it is sellable — and that your supervisor can see who is behind while there is still time to help.
Inspection is a trade-off
Requiring a supervisor pass raises quality and adds delay. Small properties usually let attendants release directly; larger ones inspect. You can change your mind later.
Frequently asked questions
Does a room become dirty automatically after checkout?
Yes. The moment a checkout is settled at the front desk, the room flips to vacant dirty on its own and joins the housekeeping queue. Nobody has to remember to change it.
What room statuses does Zotaki support?
Vacant clean, vacant dirty, occupied clean, occupied dirty, cleaning in progress, inspected, out of order, out of service, do not disturb, due out, stayover and blocked — and you can rename any of them to match the words your team already uses.
Can the front desk mark a room clean?
Yes, if you allow it. Many small properties let reception release a room before a new check-in. Alternatively you can require supervisor inspection, so nothing goes on sale until it has been passed.
Is there a mobile app for housekeeping staff?
Yes. Attendants see only their assigned rooms and mark a room clean in one tap as they leave it, so the status changes at the door rather than at the end of the shift.
Do attendants need to be tech-savvy?
No. A list of room numbers and a single button, on an ordinary Android phone, in the local language. About five minutes to teach.
Can a room be taken out of inventory for repair?
Yes. Out of order removes it from what the front desk and your OTAs can sell, with a reason and expected return date. Putting it back is one action.
Can staff raise a maintenance issue while cleaning?
Yes — a leaking tap or broken remote can be logged from the app with a photo, and it becomes a tracked work order instead of a verbal mention.
How are rooms allocated to attendants?
By floor, wing or manually from the housekeeping desk. Departures and stayovers can be weighted differently so the load is balanced by work, not by room count.
Does housekeeping see the front desk's arrivals?
Yes. Rooms with an arrival due today are flagged as priority, so your team cleans what is needed next rather than working floor by floor.
Can we track linen and minibar consumption?
Yes. Linen and amenity usage is recorded per room for stores, and minibar consumption posts straight to the guest folio before checkout.
Put housekeeping and the front desk on one screen
Thirty minutes. We set up your floors and room numbers, check a guest out, and you watch the room go dirty, get assigned, get cleaned from a phone and come back on sale — without anyone walking downstairs.