The actual work of cleaning and caring for the guest room is performed by the room attendants. Their duties include recognizing the guests, introducing room facilities and service, making or changing beds, dusting furniture, sweeping or cleaning floors and carpets, washing bathrooms, replacing towels and washing clothes, making up room and doing turn-down service. They should also supply any personal service to satisfy the guests' reasonable demands, such as wake-up service, room service, laundry service, shoeshine service and baby-sitting service. Whenever and wherever possible, the staff should offer to do extra things for the guests. In addition, they are expected to check up rooms and report any signs of damage or wear and tear that may make repairs and maintenance necessary. Finally, to be competent hotel staffs, they should be capable of handling with unexpected emergency and try to minimize the damage or negative influence.
Room attendants have an intimate contact with the guests. A guest may ask the attendants to make up his room at a certain time, or he may indicate he does not want to be disturbed at all, or he would like to have meals in his room. Almost all hotels provide signs that the guest can hang on the doorknob in either of these cases. In addition, guests frequently ask room attendant for items that are supplied by the housekeeping department, such as irons, transformers, special pillows, extra hangers, cribs for infants and hair dryers. In some hotels, the room attendants pick up and deliver clothing for the laundry and valet service.
Heavier chores are performed by men who are usually called housemen. Their work involves window-washing, shampooing carpets, polishing metals, removing and cleaning draperies, cleaning the public areas of the hotels, and many other tasks that might be beyond the physical capacities of women. The housemen also run errands for the housekeeping department, such as providing guests with extra things on request.