Housekeeping Metrics Beyond CPOR

For decades, General Managers have relied on Cost Per Occupied Room (CPOR) to evaluate housekeeping efficiency. In a stabilized wage environment, it functioned adequately. In a volatile labor market with rising wage floors, CPOR is fundamentally broken.

The Flaw in CPOR

CPOR blends two distinct variables: wage rates and productivity. If CPOR increases from $15 to $18, you cannot immediately diagnose the root cause from that metric alone. Did productivity drop, or did wages increase?

Furthermore, CPOR treats a stay-over clean identically to a departure clean, which wildly distorts forecasting on high-turnover days versus high-occupancy/low-turnover days.

The MPR Framework (Minutes Per Room)

To isolate productivity from wage inflation, operational directors must track MPR. Crucially, MPR must be segmented by room type and clean type.

Implementation Steps

1. Conduct a Time Study: Do not rely on historical data. Have management time 50 departure cleans across different staff members. Exclude outliers (e.g., biohazard rooms).
2. Calculate Baseline Target: Determine the median time, not the mean, to establish the baseline MPR target.
3. Forecast based on Credits, not Rooms: A room is not a room. Assign "credits" based on the MPR ratio (e.g., 1 Departure = 1 Credit, 1 Stay-over = 0.5 Credits). Schedule staff based on total credits required.