The Hospitality Newsletter
Today Friday, July 31, 2026

Operations

Minutes per room

Also written: MPR

What Minutes per room means

Minutes per room (MPR) is an operational labor metric measuring the total active time a room attendant spends cleaning a single guest room. It dictates housekeeping scheduling, daily board assignments, and direct labor cost calculations across occupied, checkout, and deep-clean room statuses.

Formula

Minutes Per Room = Total Housekeeping Labor Minutes Spent Cleaning Rooms ÷ Total Rooms Cleaned

How it is used

Executive housekeepers use MPR to calculate daily staffing requirements based on expected checkout and stayover counts. If a hotel has 150 checkouts at an MPR standard of 30 minutes, it requires 75 labor hours, or roughly ten 8-hour shifts. Revenue managers and finance teams track MPR variance to manage overtime, evaluate labor productivity, and refine room profitability models. Decreasing MPR without sacrificing quality scores directly reduces variable room expenses, while rising MPR signals operational bottlenecks, training gaps, or linen supply shortages.

Worked example

A 200-room property cleans 140 rooms in a day. The housekeeping team logs 70 total hours (4,200 minutes) actively cleaning those rooms. The property's MPR is 30 minutes (4,200 ÷ 140). If the resort standard is 25 MPR, the property logged 700 excess labor minutes, costing an extra $210 at a $18 hourly wage.

Common mistake

Confusing total shift hours with active cleaning time distorts MPR by incorrectly including paid breaks, travel time between floors, and morning huddles.