HOTEL · HOUSEKEEPING
Equip housekeeping with 10–20 radios: 12–18 hour battery, earpieces, floor talk groups and vibration alerts for guest floors.
Quick answer
Housekeeping is a mobile job. Room attendants move between floors, linen rooms and service lifts all day, and the supervisor needs to reach them without walking the building. The radio is the link between the floor and the desk.
The radio also has to be invisible. A loud alert in a guest corridor, or a housekeeper speaking into a speakerphone while a guest walks past, damages the guest experience. Earpieces, vibration and a clear floor-group plan solve most of it.
Tell the front desk when a room is clean, inspected or out of order without returning to the desk.
Request linen, amenities or a trolley from the linen room with one call.
Send engineering to a room with the room number and the fault on the right group.
Handle extra towels, a baby cot or a late checkout without leaving the floor.
Report a found item with the room number while the information is still fresh.
| Position | Typical users | Radio & accessory | Talk group | Example quantity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Floor supervisor | 2–4 | DMR handheld + earpiece | Supervisor | 4 |
| Room attendants | 8–16 | Compact handheld + earpiece | Floor groups | 12 |
| Linen room | 1–3 | Handheld + desk charger | Linen | 2 |
| Laundry | 1–2 | Rugged handheld | Linen | 2 |
| Public area | 2–4 | Handheld + earpiece | Public area | 4 |
Example for a 200-room hotel. Add 10–20% spares and a charger in the linen room.
| Accessory | Why it matters | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Earpiece | Keeps room numbers and guest requests private | Discreet wired earpiece |
| Vibration alert | A ringing radio is heard in every guest room | Vibrate or low tone for floor groups |
| Swivel clip | Keeps the radio secure while bending and lifting | Metal clip or holster |
| Spare battery | Covers double shifts and back-to-back arrivals | One spare per radio |
A 200-room hotel typically needs 10–20 housekeeping radios: 8–16 room attendants, 2–4 floor supervisors, 1–3 linen and 2–4 public area. Add 10–20% spares for shift overlap and repairs.
Do not issue one radio per floor if the floors share attendants. Count the people on shift, not the floors.
Group floors into clusters that match the supervisor span: low floors, high floors, suites or a tower. Each cluster gets one talk group, and the supervisor gets a group that can reach all clusters and the front desk.
Keep the hotel emergency group separate. Housekeeping should hear a fire or medical call immediately, but routine room-status traffic should not fill the emergency group.
Guest corridors are quiet, and a radio ring carries through doors. Vibration or a low tone lets the attendant feel the call without disturbing guests. The trade-off is that the user must keep the radio on the body, not in a trolley.
For supervisors who need to hear a call in a service area, a low tone is acceptable. Set the behaviour by role: vibration for room attendants, low tone for supervisors, audible alarm for security.
Room numbers, guest names and requests should not be broadcast on a shared channel. Use a licensed DMR system with encryption, and keep sensitive information on the housekeeping or supervisor group rather than the open hotel channel.
A privacy code is not encryption. Anyone on the same channel can still hear the conversation. If the information would embarrass a guest, it needs encryption, not a code.
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A 200-room hotel typically needs 10–20 radios across room attendants, floor supervisors, linen and public areas, plus 10–20% spares.
Earpieces keep room numbers and guest requests private and avoid disturbing guests in corridors. A speaker radio in a guest corridor is a complaint waiting to happen.
A small guesthouse can use PMR446 within its limits. A full-service hotel with multiple floors, a basement and several departments usually needs a licensed DMR system for coverage, groups and privacy.
Group floors into clusters that match the supervisor span, then give each cluster one group and the supervisor a group that reaches all clusters and the front desk.
Choose 12–18 hours at a 5/5/90 duty cycle, plus a spare battery per radio. Housekeeping shifts often run long and the radio may not return to the charger until the end of the day.
Send the site size, number of users and talk groups. Our engineers reply within one working day with a workable configuration.
