Build your schedule
Start with your type of property. It ticks the equipment most properties like yours have and fills in typical counts for shared plant. Change anything. The schedule below updates as you go.
How the schedule is built
Each plan applies to every unit of its equipment type. Forty rooms with an AC each means forty monthly filter cleans. If all forty were due on the same Monday, they would not get done. So the first round of each plan is spread across one interval: unit 1 is due on the start date, and the rest follow at even steps until the interval is used up. Forty monthly filter cleans become one or two a day. Twenty quarterly AC services become one every four or five days.
After the first round, each unit comes due again one interval after the last time. The schedule assumes every job is done on its due date. In real life some slip, and that is fine as long as the next due date counts from when the job was actually done.
The start date defaults to the next Monday at least three days away, which gives you a weekend to print labels and brief the team. Tags follow the room number, so the AC in room 214 is AC-214 and the second water pump is WP-2. Put the same tags on the units themselves and anyone can match a job to a machine.
How often hotel equipment needs preventive maintenance
These are the 29 plans in the builder, with the step that must not be skipped. They are sensible starting intervals for a hotel, not rules. Your manufacturer's manual, your local codes and your insurer come first, and some items, like elevators and fire systems, need a licensed contractor.
| Equipment | Plan | How often | The step that must be done |
|---|---|---|---|
| Split AC or PTAC | Filter clean | Monthly | Run 5 minutes and check the airflow |
| Split AC or PTAC | AC service | Every 3 months | Test cooling for 10 minutes and record the supply air temperature |
| Ceiling fan | Fan check | Every 6 months | Run on every speed with no wobble or noise |
| Minibar fridge | Fridge check | Every 3 months | Check it holds 2 to 5 °C (36 to 41 °F) |
| In-room safe | Battery check | Every 6 months | Open and close with the master code |
| Water heater (in room) | Water heater check | Every 6 months | Check hot water at the tap |
| Smoke detector | Detector test | Every 6 months | Press test: the alarm sounds |
| Electronic door lock | Battery check | Every 6 months | Test with a guest key and the master key |
| TV | TV and remote check | Every 6 months | Cable and wall mount secure |
| Generator | Test run | Weekly | Run for 15 minutes and log the hours |
| Generator | Generator service | Yearly | Run under load for 30 minutes and log the hours |
| Water pump | Pump check | Monthly | Pump starts and stops on pressure |
| Water tank | Tank clean | Every 6 months | Lid and overflow screen tight |
| Central boiler | Boiler service | Yearly | Check the flow temperature |
| Solar water heater | Solar check | Every 6 months | Check the tank temperature |
| Chiller | Chiller service | Every 3 months | Log supply and return temperatures |
| Pool pump | Pump check | Weekly | Look for leaks and listen for noise |
| Pool filter | Backwash | Monthly | Pressure back to normal after |
| Ice machine | Clean and sanitize | Monthly | Check it makes ice again |
| Kitchen fridge | Fridge check | Monthly | Log the temperature, 0 to 5 °C (32 to 41 °F) |
| Freezer | Freezer check | Monthly | Log the temperature, -18 °C (0 °F) or colder |
| Walk-in cooler | Cooler service | Every 3 months | Log the temperature |
| Washer | Washer check | Monthly | Run a short test cycle |
| Dryer | Lint and vent clean | Monthly | Run 10 minutes with normal heat and airflow |
| Elevator | Inspection | Monthly | Test the alarm button and emergency phone |
| Fire alarm panel | Alarm test | Monthly | One call point sounds the alarm everywhere |
| Fire extinguisher | Inspection | Yearly | Sign and date the tag |
| Water filter or softener | Filter change | Every 3 months | Log the date on the housing |
| Shuttle or service vehicle | Vehicle service | Every 3 months | Lights, wipers and seat belts work |
The full checklist for every plan is in the builder's output and in the CSV. For the room-by-room and area-by-area version, with daily and weekly rounds, see the hotel preventive maintenance checklist. Hot, humid and coastal properties should read the guide to AC maintenance in humid climates before settling on filter and drain intervals.
Turning a schedule into work that gets done
A schedule on the wall of the engineering office tells you what should happen. It does not tell you what did. Three habits close the gap.
- Give each week a number. The builder shows the jobs in an average week and in the busiest one. Compare that with the hours your team has after repairs and guest calls. If it does not fit, move the low-risk plans to a contractor or stretch their interval, and keep the safety plans where they are.
- Make each job a record. Tick, initial and date every line, or close it in a system with a photo. A plan without a record looks exactly like a plan nobody followed.
- Review what slipped every week. Overdue preventive work is a warning, not a footnote. A short weekly backlog review decides whether each late job gets booked, handed over or rescheduled.
From spreadsheet to automatic
The CSV works in any spreadsheet. Sort by due date for a weekly list, filter by tag for one unit's history, or add a column for who did it. Many hotels run this way for years.
When the spreadsheet gets heavy, preventive maintenance software does the bookkeeping. In Turndown, the guided setup asks the same questions as this builder, suggests the same plans for the equipment you pick, spreads the first round the same way, and then creates each job ahead of its due date (a week ahead, or two days for weekly plans), with the checklist attached. Required steps block the job from closing until they are ticked, and every service lands in the unit's history. It is one plan at $299 per property, per month, with a 14-day trial and no card.