Pre-cleaning (Strip) Phase

Track a pre-cleaning (strip) pass before the full clean: separate worker and timer, Pickup room status, and the cleaner blocked until it is done.

Some properties clean a checkout in two passes: a pre-cleaning (often called a strip or prep) by one team, then the full clean by another. HelloShift tracks each pass as its own job with its own worker and its own timer, keeps the clean from starting until the pre-cleaning is done, and tells your PMS the room is in Pickup in between.

Overview

  • Two jobs per checkout room: a pre-cleaning job and a cleaning job, each with a worker, a task type and a timer

  • Sequencing: the cleaner's Start button stays off until the pre-cleaning is complete; the cleaner gets a notification the moment it is

  • Room condition: Dirty → Pickup (pre-cleaned) → Clean → Inspected

  • Time per phase: reports and the Excel export show pre-cleaning minutes and cleaning minutes separately, for hourly billing

  • Nothing changes for properties that do not use it: the extra column, buttons and Pickup status only appear once you add a Pre-cleaning Type

Room condition flow

Condition

Set by

PMS

Dirty

Checkout (PMS or automation)

—

Pickup

Pre-cleaning worker taps Complete

Opera Cloud and StayNTouch receive Pickup; other PMSs receive nothing until the clean

Clean

Cleaner taps Complete

Clean

Inspected

Inspector completes the checklist

Inspected

Pickup is Opera's own word for a room that needs less than a full clean. In HelloShift it counts as "still needs cleaning": the room stays in the Dirty lanes of the board and shows the Pickup badge.

Turning it on

  1. Go to Settings → Housekeeping → Custom Fields

  2. Under Pre-cleaning Types, add a name such as Strip/Prep. Adding the first one turns the feature on for your property; removing the last one turns it off

  3. A name cannot also be a Cleaner Action (clean type): each label belongs to one phase so reports never merge the two

  4. Optional: create a checklist with exactly the same name. The worker sees its items in the Complete popup, like a clean type does (see All About Housekeeping)

Pre-cleanings never require a photo and never create an inspection.

Planning the pre-cleaning

On the Assignments page

  • A Pre-clean column shows each room's pre-cleaning task, worker, status and minutes

  • Select rooms and use Assign Pre-cleaner, Unassign Pre-cleaner or Set Pre-cleaning Task; Multiple Actions can set the pre-cleaner and the cleaner together

  • Clear assignments resets both jobs, but never a job that already has recorded time

On the room page

  • The Pre-cleaning block shows the worker, task and timer, with pencil icons to change them

  • No pre-cleaning planned yet? Pick a task and a worker and click Add Pre-cleaning

  • Deleting the pre-cleaning job (unassigning it and setting no task) lets the cleaner start right away, which is the manager override

Automating it

A room automation can create the pre-cleaning job for every departure each morning, scheduled a little before your departure-clean automation so the sequence is in place before anyone starts work. HelloShift support sets this up for you today; it appears in Automations → Rooms as Pre-cleaning: <task> and can be turned on or off like any other job (see Room & Cleaning Automations).

For the pre-cleaning worker

  1. Open Housekeeping on your phone. Rooms where you are the pre-cleaner appear under My Rooms with a Pre-clean badge

  2. Tap the room. The pre-cleaning block is at the top with its own timer

  3. Tap Start, Pause and Complete as you would for a clean (see Housekeeping Time Tracking)

  4. On Complete the room goes to Pickup and the assigned cleaner is notified

For the cleaner

  • While the pre-cleaning is open, the room shows Waiting for the pre-cleaning to finish and Start is disabled

  • You get a push notification when the room is ready; Start then works as usual

  • Pause, Restart and Complete are unchanged

Reports

  • Reports → Housekeeping shows one row per cleaner per phase, so pre-cleaning minutes and cleaning minutes are separate

  • The detailed report charts a pre-cleaning task as its own series, named <task> · Pre-clean

  • The Excel export gains a Phase column

Troubleshooting

The cleaner cannot start the room

  • A pre-cleaning job exists for that room today and is not complete. Finish it, reassign it, or remove it from the room page

"is already a cleaner action or pre-cleaning action" when adding a type

  • The same name exists in the other list. Rename one of them; a label belongs to exactly one phase

A late pre-cleaning did not change the room

  • A pre-cleaning completed after the room was already Clean or Inspected, or on a later day, keeps its minutes but does not move the room back to Pickup

Pickup does not show in my PMS

  • Only Opera Cloud (OHIP) and StayNTouch carry a Pickup status. Other PMSs are updated when the clean completes