Retail and hospitality checklists

What do retail and hospitality checklists cover?

Shops, hotels, pubs, restaurants and holiday lets all run on routines that repeat every day or every guest: open the store, turn the room, clean the cottage, check the hot tub, service the kitchen. The checks are simple, but they are done by different people on different shifts, and the paper versions are the ones that get ticked at the end of the day without anyone looking.

The forms here cover those routines. A retail store opening checklist for the shop floor, a hotel housekeeping checklist and linen inventory sheet for rooms, a holiday let and Airbnb cleaning checklist and hot tub inspection checklist for short lets, and a kitchen equipment maintenance checklist for the back of house. Food hygiene records such as temperature logs and HACCP live in food safety, and fire paperwork in fire safety.

Which safety duties apply to shops, hotels and venues?

Retail and hospitality premises are workplaces open to the public, so the general health and safety duties apply to staff and customers alike. A few duties come up in almost every inspection or insurance survey, and your daily and weekly checklists are where you show they are being met.

Fire risk assessment

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person must make a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment. Opening checks should confirm escape routes and fire exits are clear and unlocked. Start with the fire risk assessment template.

Slips and trips

HSE says slips and trips remain the single most common cause of major injury in UK workplaces, with many accidents every year in catering and hospitality. Floors, spills, mats, lighting and trailing cables belong on every opening and room check.

Cleaning chemicals

Housekeeping and cleaning staff use substances covered by COSHH. HSE's hospitality guidance covers storage, dilution, labelling and protective equipment.

Work equipment

PUWER requires work equipment to be maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair. That covers kitchen equipment, laundry machines, ladders and cages.

Gas appliances

Gas catering equipment must be installed and maintained by a Gas Safe registered engineer. See the commercial kitchen gas safety checklist.

Sources: article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (risk assessment), HSE: slips and trips in catering, HSE CAIS22: safe use of cleaning substances in the hospitality industry, regulation 5 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (maintenance) and HSE CAIS23: gas safety in catering and hospitality.

Licensing checks for pubs, bars, hotels and shops

If you sell alcohol, provide regulated entertainment or serve hot food late at night in England and Wales, you need a licence under the Licensing Act 2003, and the conditions on that licence are enforceable. Licensing authorities work towards four licensing objectives: the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, the prevention of public nuisance, and the protection of children from harm. Most licence conditions (CCTV, door staff, refusals logs, dispersal policies) trace back to one of those four.

The Act also requires the premises licence, or a certified copy, to be kept at the premises, with the summary prominently displayed. Selling alcohol to anyone under 18 is an offence. A daily opening or closing check is a sensible place to confirm the licence summary is displayed, the refusals log is up to date, CCTV is recording and the age verification notices are in place.

Larger venues should also watch the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. Premises where 200 or more people may be present at the same time are in scope as standard tier, and those where 800 or more may be present are enhanced tier, unless an exception applies. Check the GOV.UK factsheets for what each tier requires and when the duties start.

Sources: section 4 of the Licensing Act 2003 (licensing objectives), section 57 of the Licensing Act 2003 (duty to keep and produce licence), section 146 of the Licensing Act 2003 (sale of alcohol to children), GOV.UK: alcohol licensing and GOV.UK: Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, scope and premises factsheet.

What a good hotel housekeeping check records

A housekeeping checklist has two users: the room attendant cleaning the room, and the supervisor inspecting it afterwards. The best ones follow the order you walk the room (entrance, bathroom, bed, surfaces, minibar, windows, final look from the door) so nothing gets skipped, and they ask for a photo of anything that needs maintenance rather than a note that nobody reads.

Record the room number, the attendant, the time cleaned and the time inspected. Log faults as you find them (dripping taps, broken lamps, stained carpet, missing fire notice) so maintenance can pick them up the same day. Check the safety items too: smoke detector not covered, fire door closing fully, window restrictors in place on upper floors, kettle and hairdryer leads undamaged.

The linen inventory sheet sits alongside it. Count clean stock, items in use, items at the laundry and items condemned for stains or tears, and compare against the par level you need for full occupancy. A regular count is how you find out linen is going missing before you are short on a busy weekend.

Holiday let and Airbnb safety: fire, gas and hot tubs

A holiday let is a business, and the owner or manager is usually the responsible person for fire safety. Government guidance for small paying guest accommodation says the Fire Safety Order requires a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, identifying fire risks and taking reasonable measures so guests are safe. The turnover clean is a good moment to test smoke alarms, check the fire blanket and extinguisher, and make sure escape routes and keys are where the guest information says.

If the property has gas appliances, the landlord gas safety duty covers premises occupied for residential purposes under a lease or a licence for money, which includes paying guests. Each appliance and flue must be checked for safety at intervals of no more than 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and the record kept.

Hot tubs need the most attention. HSE warns that spa-pool systems are a recognised source of legionella and that outbreaks have been linked to hotels and holiday homes. Its guidance HSG282 covers domestic-type hot tubs used by a business, including holiday-park rental units and hotel bedrooms. Follow it for risk assessment, water treatment, testing, draining and cleaning between guests, and record every check on the hot tub inspection checklist.

Sources: GOV.UK: making your small paying guest accommodation safe from fire, regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (duties of landlords), HSE: legionella and spa-pool systems and HSE HSG282: the control of legionella and other infectious agents in spa-pool systems.

How often should commercial kitchen equipment be serviced?

HSE's gas safety guidance for catering and hospitality says servicing frequency should follow the manufacturer's recommendations, but as a general rule annual inspections are a reasonable minimum for gas catering appliances, with repairs as needed. It also explains that where there is mechanical ventilation, an interlock should shut off the gas supply to appliances if the ventilation fails. Test that interlock as part of your checks.

Between engineer visits, the kitchen team should do the simple checks: door seals on fridges and ovens, fryer oil and thermostats, dishwasher rinse temperatures, extraction filters cleaned, guards in place on slicers and mixers, and nothing left unreported. The kitchen equipment maintenance checklist records each item with a photo, so faults go to the engineer with evidence. Pair it with the kitchen opening and closing checklist and a TR19 kitchen extract cleaning record.

Sources: HSE CAIS23: gas safety in catering and hospitality and regulation 5 of PUWER 1998 (maintenance).

Running checks across sites and shifts

The value of a checklist is in the record: who did it, when, and what they found. SiteSurvey runs on iPhone, iPad and Android and works offline, so a housekeeper in a basement corridor or a cleaner at a rural cottage can complete the form without signal. Each answer can carry photos (with annotation), readings, notes and a signature, and every completed form becomes a branded PDF report for the owner, the brand standards team or an insurer.

You can edit any library form to match your brand standards or house rules, or build your own in the form builder. Each form page shows every question and lets you try the form live first.