Housekeepers are responsible for cleaning guest rooms and public areas at resorts. This sort of work isn't glamorous, but necessary, since cleanliness is a big factor in terms of guest satisfaction.

Here, find out more about the duties of resort housekeepers and what it would be like working as one.

Housekeeper Job Outlook

You will find that housekeeping responsibilities don't vary much from place to place. For example, the cleaning duties of a housekeeper at a beach resort are similar to those of a metropolitan hotel. If you have experience in housekeeping you can likely find a job in a number of different locations. Additionally, hotels, resorts, lodges, and bed and breakfasts must provide clean rooms to guests day in and day out, so there are open jobs in the field at almost anytime of year across many different geographical locations. Those with experience in housekeeping can usually find work easily.

Duties and Job Information

This sort of work can be fairly strenuous, and not many people eagerly anticipate making beds, vacuuming, or cleaning bathrooms for a living. Nonetheless, housekeepers are relatively unsupervised during their workday and generally have little contact with guests, so these jobs are ideal for those who want to earn money with a minimum amount of hassle. In addition to cleaning rooms, some housekeeping staff will assist in laundering linens and in cleaning public spaces.

As with kitchen help, these jobs require few communication skills, so they attract many foreign students and others with a limited knowledge of English. There are however, many different types of people who are employed as housekeeping staff and some hotels require a stronger command of the English language before they will hire.

There are a variety of housekeeping positions as well. Most will be general housekeeping staff who are employed to clean rooms, change linens, and provide other cleaning services to rooms. However, for some large hotels a building services or janitorial manager is hired to oversee the cleaning staff, arrange schedules and supervise the quality control. This position varies in responsibility and scope and is sometimes considered a housekeeping managerial role, or is a position overseen by the hotel manager.

Job Perks

Housekeeping staff that work for resort or hotel chains usually enjoy discounted room rates. Additionally, overtime pay can be substantial in this position and many housekeepers enjoy union membership after 90 days among other benefits. One large perk to working in a position like this is of course the location.

If you work at a beautiful ski lodge or beach resort you get to enjoy working in a gorgeous building at some of the most incredible places in the world. Tough to beat!

Salary

At some resorts, pay for housekeepers is partially or completely based on the number of rooms cleaned each day, so highly motivated employees can increase their earnings accordingly. Uniforms are almost always necessary, and, for better or worse, it is much more common for women to fill these jobs. A lot of businesses employ a second shift bonus where pay increases for a certain number of hours or extra rooms cleaned. The average pay for a housekeeper in 2008 was $11.50 an hour, however at top resorts salaries were closer to $15 an hour.

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