Free front of house opening and closing checklist template
This free front of house opening and closing checklist template — printable PDF or editable Excel — takes the floor from doors-locked to service-ready and back again, including the pre-service brief and the checks guests notice first.
Free. No email address, no sign-up — the front of house opening & closing checklist downloads straight away.
Guests judge a room in about ten seconds, and almost always on the same handful of things: a clean table, a clean toilet, the right lighting and someone who knows they have arrived. A front of house checklist should weight those heavily rather than reading like a cleaning schedule for the floor.
The pre-service brief is a task on this sheet, not an optional extra. Covers booked, large parties and their timings, allergy notes, what is off the menu and what the specials actually are — a team that has heard those four things sells more and apologises less. If the brief keeps getting skipped, it is because it is not written down as a step anywhere.
Toilet checks are on an interval, not a single opening tick, because that is the one area where a guest's opinion changes fastest during service. The sheet has slots to initial each check through the day so it is obvious when the last one happened.
The closing block deliberately ends with tomorrow's setup: reset the room, put out the reservations for the next day and note anything broken. A close that leaves the room ready is what allows the next opening shift to spend its time on guests instead of furniture.
What's on the sheet
Checklist — pre-printed tasks in sections · Portrait A4 · PDF, Excel and CSV
Header fields
Venue / site · Date · Opening supervisor · Closing supervisor
Columns
- Task
- Done — Initials
- Time — hh:mm
- Issue found / action
Opening — the room
- ·Unlock, alarm off, lights and music on at service levels
- ·Heating or air conditioning set; room at a comfortable temperature
- ·Floors clean, no marks from last night, entrance mat clean
- ·Tables wiped, level and set to standard; check every chair for stability
- ·Cutlery, glassware and crockery polished and stocked to par
- ·Condiments filled, wiped and in date
- ·Menus checked — clean, current, correct prices, no missing pages
- ·Specials board written, spelled correctly and accurate
Opening — before doors
- ·Toilets checked: clean, stocked with soap, paper and towels, no odour
- ·Card terminals on and test transaction cleared
- ·Booking sheet or system printed; table plan set for today's covers
- ·Pre-service brief: covers, large parties, timings, allergy notes, 86'd items, specials
- ·Section allocations agreed and staff know their tables
- ·Baby chairs, accessibility route and outside area checked and clear
- ·Staff presentation checked; name badges on
During service
- ·Toilet check and initial — mid-morning
- ·Toilet check and initial — mid-afternoon
- ·Toilet check and initial — evening
- ·Entrance and outside area checked for glasses and litter
- ·Menus wiped between services
Closing
- ·All tables cleared, wiped and reset for tomorrow
- ·Condiments, sauces and sugars refilled and wiped
- ·Cutlery, glass and crockery polished and returned to par
- ·Bin liners changed, waste taken out, recycling separated
- ·Toilets final check and restock
- ·Lost property logged and stored
- ·Tomorrow's bookings printed and any notes flagged to the manager
- ·Maintenance and breakages noted for the manager
- ·Floors swept and mopped, furniture reset, outside furniture secured
- ·Doors locked, alarm set, lights, music and screens off
What you get
- ✓Printable PDF, portrait A4, four sections covering open, pre-service, service and close
- ✓Excel (.xlsx) version you can edit for your own room and service style
- ✓CSV version for import
- ✓Timed toilet check rows to initial through the day
- ✓Pre-service brief step covering covers, timings, allergens, 86'd items and specials
- ✓Issue column that doubles as a maintenance and breakage log
How to use it
- 1
Print one sheet per trading day and keep it on the host stand where every supervisor can reach it.
- 2
Work the room section first, then the before-doors section, initialling and timing each row.
- 3
Run the pre-service brief with the team present and tick it only once everyone has heard it.
- 4
Initial each timed toilet check as it happens through service.
- 5
Close the room so it is ready for tomorrow — reset tables and print the next day's bookings.
- 6
Hand the completed sheet to the manager, with breakages and maintenance items written in the issue column.
Questions
What is a front of house opening checklist?
It is the list of tasks that take a dining room from locked and empty to ready for guests — room setup, table standards, menus, toilets, payment terminals, the booking plan and the pre-service brief — with sign-off so it is clear who did what.
How often should toilets be checked during service?
Set an interval and stick to it. Many venues check at least every two hours, and hourly during peak trade. This template has timed check rows so the last check is always visible rather than assumed.
What should be covered in a pre-service brief?
Covers booked, large parties and their arrival times, allergy or access notes on any booking, anything off the menu, today's specials with prices, and section allocations. Keep it under five minutes and do it with everyone present.
Can this be used in a hotel restaurant?
Yes. Add the rows specific to your operation — breakfast setup times, room-charge procedure, in-room dining handover — using the Excel version, and pair it with the housekeeping checklist for the rooms side.
Or stop printing it altogether
Rotahr does this check on a phone — timestamped, with the person who did it attached, reminders when one is due, and a PDF export when somebody asks for a month of records. Same job, no folder to search through.
Templates that go with it
Kitchen opening & closing checklist
This free kitchen opening and closing checklist template — printable PDF or editable Excel — lists the open and close tasks in the order you actually do them, with initials and time columns so the last hour of the night is never guesswork.
Bar opening & closing checklist
This free bar opening and closing checklist template — printable PDF or editable Excel — runs from cellar and gas through to till reconciliation and lock-up, with initials and time columns on every task.
Housekeeping room checklist
This free housekeeping room checklist template — printable PDF or editable Excel — covers a room in the order you clean it, distinguishes departure from stayover service, and ends with a supervisor spot-check line.
Free to print, copy and use in your venue — no attribution required. Written for an international audience: where a threshold is a widely used figure it is printed as one, but food safety and employment rules differ by country and change. Check yours before relying on this sheet.
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