Hospitality is the sector where cleaning is most clearly a legal duty and least clearly one person's job. The kitchen brigade cleans as it closes. Housekeeping cleans rooms. A contractor does the front of house, the periodic work and the parts nobody else can reach. Writing down which of the three owns each area is the whole of the problem, and it is usually the reason an inspection goes badly.
Front of house, and why it is scheduled at night
Dining floors, bar tops and fronts, seating, glass, entrances, customer washrooms and the route between them. Nearly all of it happens after close or before service because it needs the room empty and the floor dry. The exception is the washroom check during service, which should have a stated frequency and a signed record, since it is both the most complained about area and the easiest to evidence.
The kitchen belongs to the kitchen, mostly
Daily close down cleaning is the brigade's, recorded on the cleaning schedule that forms part of the food safety management system. A contractor takes the periodic deep clean behind and beneath equipment, and a specialist takes the extract system under the grease standard. That three way split should be written into the food safety documentation rather than held in somebody's head.
Pubs: what a pub cleaning company covers, from lines to cellar
Beer line cleaning on a stated cycle, glasswashers descaled and dosed correctly, ice machines cleaned and sanitised, drip trays and gantry, and the cellar floor and drainage. These are food safety tasks rather than appearance tasks, and they need their own schedule with initials and dates. The front of house clean can be contracted; the cellar routine almost never is, because it has to happen on the trading rhythm.
Hotel cleaning services: housekeeping and the contractor
Bedrooms and bathrooms are housekeeping, on the room turnaround. A contractor usually takes public areas overnight, periodic carpet and hard floor work, high level and external glass, and back of house corridors and service lifts. The gap that causes trouble is the deep clean cycle for bedrooms, which needs a rota by room number rather than a promise that it happens between bookings.
Questions people ask about restaurant cleaning
Can a cleaning contractor do the kitchen close down?
In principle, but almost nobody does. Close down cleaning is part of the food safety management system and has to happen at the end of every service, so it sits with the brigade.
How often should customer washrooms be checked during service?
Set a frequency and record it. Hourly is common in busy venues. The record is what protects you when a slip or a complaint is raised.
Who cleans the beer lines?
Usually the venue on a stated cycle, sometimes the brewery or a line cleaning specialist. Whoever does it, keep the dated record with the food safety documentation.
What does a hotel contractor normally not cover?
Bedrooms and bathrooms, which are housekeeping's. Contractors typically take public areas, periodic floor work, high level and external glass and back of house.
Are hotel cleaners the same contractor as the public area team?
Often two teams under one contract, and the split is worth writing down. Rooms are priced per room, turned around against check out and check in times, and judged on a checklist per room. Public areas, the bar, the restaurant and the back of house are a timed contract with a specification per area. Mixing them into one hourly figure is how a hotel ends up with a lobby that is cleaned when there is time left over. Ask for the rooms rate, the public area hours, who covers a late departure and who is responsible for the linen, because that last one is where most hotel disputes start.