You are given a caddy, a stack of folded linen and the master cabin. The guest is on the flybridge and may come down at any moment. You have 25 minutes. What you do in the first 60 seconds decides whether the cabin is finished on time and to standard.
The service sequence: top down, dry to wet, clean to dirty
Working out of sequence means re-cleaning. The rule is top down (dust falls), dry before wet (you cannot dust a damp surface), and clean areas before dirty areas (bathroom and bin last, or with dedicated cloths).
- Knock, announce ("Housekeeping"), wait, enter. Prop the door if the boat allows it.
- Survey: guest belongings, spills, damage, laundry left out, anything to report to the chief stew.
- Ventilate: open the blind, run the extractor in the head if fitted.
- Strip: linen and used towels into a bag — never onto the floor, never carried loose through guest areas.
- Bathroom: clean, dry, polish, restock.
- Bed: make or change.
- Dust and detail surfaces top down; glass, mirrors, lacquer, frames.
- Bin and waste, segregated.
- Floor: vacuum/mop from the far corner back to the door.
- Reset: amenities, remotes squared, curtains, temperature, lighting.
- Doorway check: look at the cabin from the guest's eye line.
The trolley and the caddy
Larger yachts run a housekeeping trolley (linen, towels, amenities, waste bags, vacuum); on smaller boats you carry a caddy — a hand-held tote with the day's chemicals and cloths.
- Keep the trolley outside the cabin but never blocking an escape route or a guest passage.
- Stow it fully whenever you leave it — a trolley that slides in a swell is a hazard and a damage claim.
- Decant only into correctly labelled bottles with the product name and hazard information; never into an unlabelled or a food/drink container.
- Caddy contents typically: neutral pH cleaner, glass cleaner, bathroom cleaner, stainless polish, disinfectant, colour-coded microfibre cloths, gloves, scraper/detail brush, waste bags.
Cabin sheets and checklists
The cabin sheet is the boat's record of what was done, what was replaced and what needs attention. It typically records: date, cabin, service type (daily/turndown/change), linen changed Y/N, amenities replenished, defects found, guest preferences noted.
Checklists exist because interiors are complicated and turnover is fast. They protect you: a documented "reported cracked glass in guest shower, 12/06" is evidence; a memory is not.
Guest personal effects
- Do not move guest belongings unless you must — and if you must, move the minimum, put it back in the same orientation, and note it.
- Tidy in place: straighten, square, align. Do not stack, do not reorganise, do not open drawers or bags.
- Cash, jewellery, medication, documents: do not touch. Report anything left in the open to the chief stew.
- Never discuss guest belongings, habits or conversations. Discretion is a condition of employment and often of a signed NDA.
Onboard Notes
- Two things sink a cabin: fingerprints on gloss lacquer and hair in the shower. Check both last, every time.
- Carry laundry in a closed bag through guest areas — never an armful of used linen.
- If you break or stain something, report it immediately. Concealment ends careers; accidents rarely do.