How to hire front desk and housekeeping staff for a small hotel

How many people does a small property need?

Short answer for 10 rooms: a 10-room property usually needs four people on a normal day: a morning and an afternoon receptionist and two housekeepers, with the owner or a night guard on call. Add one more person to cover days off. The Ubud example below shows how the hours fit.

Start with the hours, not the job titles. Write down when guests arrive, when they leave, and when rooms must be ready. Then plan people around those hours.

Here is a made-up example for a 10-room guesthouse in Ubud. First, one normal day:

Now the same guesthouse across one week. It has five staff: receptionists A and B, housekeepers C and D, and E, who is cross-trained for both jobs. Each person gets one day off.

This is not a rule, just a way to see the gaps. Late airport arrivals may mean someone awake after 23:00.

A few tips for tiny teams:

• Cross-train. Teach one housekeeper the basics of check-in, and teach a receptionist how to check a room. Then a sick day does not stop the hotel.
• Keep one person for reservations. Bookings, OTA messages and WhatsApp work best when one person owns them on each shift.

An OTA is an online travel agent, like Booking.com, Agoda or Traveloka. Our guide to the hotel front office (opens in new tab) explains each task in plain words.

Write a clear job description

A job description tells people what the work really is. Keep it short and honest.

Front desk (receptionist) usually covers:

• Checking guests in and out, and showing them to the room
• Answering phone, WhatsApp and OTA messages
• Taking payments and checking who still owes money
• Entering phone and walk-in bookings straight away
• Telling housekeeping which rooms are leaving today

Housekeeping usually covers:

• Cleaning rooms that checked out, and tidying rooms with guests staying on
• Changing linen and towels
• Reporting broken items, like a dripping tap or a dead light bulb
• Telling reception when a room is clean and ready

Add the hours, the days off, the pay range and the languages that matter. Say what is a must and what is a nice extra.

For housekeeping, it also helps to show the standard you expect. Our guide to what a clean, ready room needs (opens in new tab) gives a room-by-room list you can use in training.

See a day of arrivals and departures in the demo

Where to find good staff in Indonesia

Good hires often come from people your team already knows. But use a few channels at once.

1. Referrals from your team. Ask your best staff if they know someone. People rarely recommend someone who will embarrass them.
2. Your village or banjar. In Bali, the banjar is the local community group. Telling the banjar head reaches people who live close by.
3. Tourism schools. Vocational high schools for tourism (SMK pariwisata) and tourism colleges often look for internship places. A good intern can become a good hire.
4. Local job groups and job boards. Post in Facebook or WhatsApp job groups and national job sites. Write the hours and pay range clearly.

Interview questions that test real situations

A friendly chat tells you if someone is pleasant. It does not tell you if they can handle a busy morning. So ask about real situations, like the ones in the sheet below. Listen for calm, honest and practical thinking.

Good answers are often simple. For a double booking, a strong candidate stays calm, apologises, checks the booking details and calls the manager. Our guide on what to do when a guest is double booked (opens in new tab) shows the full steps you can teach later.

Also check references. Call one past employer and ask two questions. "Would you hire this person again?" and "What should I help them with?"

Ready-to-copy interview sheet

Copy this table into a document, print one per candidate, and score each answer from 1 (weak) to 3 (strong). The answers below are examples of what good sounds like, not a script.

See the booking screens your new staff will use in the demo

Use a paid trial shift before you decide

A trial shift is a short, paid work session before you make an offer. Both sides see what the work is really like.

Keep it to half a day, and always pay for it.

Here is how to run it well:

1. Pair the candidate with your best staff member.
2. For housekeeping, ask them to clean one room. Then check it together against your room standard.
3. For front desk, let them watch check-ins, then handle one simple guest message with help.
4. At the end, ask what they found hard. Honest answers are a good sign.

Look for small habits, like greeting guests and asking when unsure. They are hard to teach later.

Contracts, probation and pay: the rules to check

We only share rules from official sources, checked on 26 October 2026. Check again before you sign anything.

• Permanent staff can have a probation period of up to 3 months. A permanent contract is called PKWTT. During probation, you may not pay less than the minimum wage that applies. Source: UU No. 13 Tahun 2003 on Manpower, Pasal 60 (opens in new tab).
• Fixed-term staff cannot have a probation period. A fixed-term contract is called PKWT. If a PKWT includes probation, that probation does not count, and the work time still counts. Source: PP No. 35 Tahun 2021, Pasal 12 (opens in new tab).
• The rules are changing. On 6 October 2026, the DPR passed a new labour protection law. The Ministry of Manpower says it bans holding a worker's diploma or personal documents during hiring. Read the Kemnaker news release (opens in new tab). When we checked, its law number and start date had not been published yet. Check again before you sign a new contract.

Minimum wage is set for each area, so it is different in Badung, Gianyar or Yogyakarta. We do not list figures here because they change each year. Ask your local Disnaker (the manpower office) for the current minimum wage and your BPJS duties.

Put everything in writing: the job, the hours, the pay, the days off and the probation terms. A clear contract protects you and your staff.

The first week: a simple training plan

New staff learn fastest with a clear plan. Here is a five-day plan you can change for your property.

1. Day 1: Meet and watch. Tour the property. Meet the team. Watch check-ins and room cleaning. Give them their own login for each system they will use.
2. Day 2: Learn the standards. Housekeepers clean two rooms with a buddy. Receptionists learn how a booking moves from OTA to arrival. Our guide to the hotel check-in procedure (opens in new tab) is a good base for this day.
3. Day 3: Do it with help. Housekeepers clean rooms alone, then a senior checks them. Receptionists handle check-ins with a senior beside them.
4. Day 4: Messages and problems. Practise replies to common guest questions. Learn who to call for maintenance or a late airport pickup.
5. Day 5: Review. Ask what was hard. Fix one thing together. Agree on goals for the rest of the month.

Write your main steps as short SOPs (standard operating procedures), one page each. Our guide to room status codes (opens in new tab) helps reception and housekeeping use the same words for clean, dirty and ready rooms.

This short housekeeping SOP covers one room. Our guide to the full housekeeping SOP and room standard (opens in new tab) goes area by area.

First-week housekeeping SOP, ready to copy (one room):

1. Knock twice, say "Housekeeping", and wait before you open the door.
2. Open the windows, strip the bed and take out the rubbish.
3. Clean the bathroom first: toilet, shower, sink, mirror, floor.
4. Make the bed with fresh linen and put out two towels per guest.
5. Dust surfaces, refill water and amenities, and sweep or mop the floor.
6. Check lights, AC, hot water and the TV remote. Report anything broken to reception.
7. Tell reception the room is clean, so it can be marked ready.

See the front desk calendar in the demo

Keeping good staff once you have them

Keeping good people is cheaper than hiring again.

• Make the schedule fair. Share it at least a week ahead. Rotate the hard shifts.
• Say thank you in public. When a guest praises someone in a review, tell the team.
• Give a clear path. A housekeeper who learns front desk can become a receptionist. Say so.
• Fix the tools. Staff get tired of chasing bookings across a notebook, a spreadsheet and three phones. Good tools make the work calmer.

When someone leaves, remove their access on the same day. Our guide to giving staff the right system access (opens in new tab) explains how to do that safely.

Getting new staff ready in Kiyo

A new hire learns faster when there is one place to see the day. In Kiyo, every booking from 75+ OTAs, your website, the phone and walk-ins sits on one booking calendar (opens in new tab). Reception can add a walk-in guest as a booking marked "Walk-in" in a few clicks.

Each person gets their own login. Starter includes 3 team members, including the owner; Pro and Business have unlimited seats. You pick a preset role for each teammate, like front desk or housekeeping supervisor. Then you can switch single tabs on or off for that person. Billing and payout screens stay hidden from staff unless you give access one by one, and staff need 2FA before they can get that access. 2FA means a second code from an app on their phone.

Every booking shows who changed the dates, price or status, and when. That helps you coach new staff without blame.

Staff can switch the whole dashboard to Bahasa Indonesia. On the Business plan (opens in new tab), you can assign cleaning jobs to housekeepers, and they work from a cleaner app in their phone browser. On Pro and Business, one guest inbox (opens in new tab) keeps WhatsApp, Instagram and OTA messages in one place, so the afternoon shift sees what the morning shift said.

We set up your rooms, rates and channels with you, so your new staff train on real bookings from the first day. Each property also gets its own WhatsApp group with our team.

Do this inside Kiyo.

1. Add each new hire with their own login and a preset role, such as front desk or cleaner.
2. Show them how to switch the dashboard to Bahasa Indonesia on their first day.
3. On the Business plan, assign today's cleaning jobs so each cleaner sees their rooms in the phone browser.
4. At the end of week one, open the history of a few bookings they changed and coach from what you see.

Your next step: book a demo and walk through a new hire's first shift on real screens.

Plans start from Rp40k per room per month (opens in new tab). Free setup, pay from go-live, 14-day money-back guarantee.

See a new hire's first shift in the demo

Frequently asked questions

How many staff does a 10-room hotel need?

Usually four on a normal day: two reception shifts and two housekeepers, plus one more to cover days off. Map your arrival and departure times first.

Where can I find hotel staff in Bali?

Ask your team for referrals, tell your banjar, contact tourism schools and post in local job groups.

How long can probation be for hotel staff?

For permanent staff (PKWTT), up to 3 months under UU 13/2003, Pasal 60. Fixed-term staff (PKWT) cannot have probation under PP 35/2021, Pasal 12. A new law passed in October 2026, so check the current rules with Disnaker.

How do I hire front desk and housekeeping staff for a small hotel?

To hire front desk and housekeeping staff for a small hotel, map the hours you need covered, find candidates through referrals, the banjar and tourism schools, ask real-situation interview questions, and test each person with a paid half-day trial shift. Always pay for the trial shift.

What are good hotel interview questions and answers?

Use real situations: a double booking, an angry late message, a cash payment, a lost phone and a rushed room. Score each answer from 1 to 3 with the interview sheet above.

Is Kiyo just a PMS, or a full system?

It is a full system. Front desk, housekeeping, a channel manager for 75+ OTAs, your direct booking page and a revenue and expenses dashboard sit in one place, so new staff learn one tool instead of five.

See every part of Kiyo in one demo