Hotel room status board in Google Sheets

Housekeeping sets each room's Status from a dropdown in the Google Sheets app on their phones, the front desk works from a saved filter view that shows only Inspected rooms, and anyone with edit access can right-click a cell to see who changed it. About 20 minutes.

5 min read · Checked 25 October 2026

The five steps in 25 seconds

The steps from this guide, 25 seconds, no sound.

Transcript of the video

0:00
HOUSEKEEPING
Know which rooms are ready
Google Sheets. Free. About 20 minutes.
0:01
1
One row per room
sheets.google.com/create
COLUMNS
Room / Status / Note
0:04
2
Add a Status dropdown
Insert > Dropdown
Dirty, Cleaning, Clean, Inspected, Out of order.
Colour Inspected green with Format > Conditional formatting.
0:07
3
Housekeeping update it by phone
Share > Editor
They set Status in the Google Sheets app.
0:10
4
The desk sees only Inspected
Data > Create filter view
Only assign rooms marked Inspected.
On the desk computer.
0:13
5
See who changed a room
Right-click > Show edit history
On a computer.
0:16
What this does not do
It does not read or update your PMS.
It shows only what staff set.
It does not alert the desk.
0:19
Every step, with the exact statuses, is in the free guide.
vivifiedtech.com/guides
Link in the post.

Step 1: Make the board

On a computer, open sheets.google.com/create, or go to sheets.google.com and click New.
Name the file "Room status board".
In row 1, add three headers: Room, Status, Note.
Below the headers, add one row per room.
Example rows: 101 | Inspected, 102 | Cleaning, 103 | Out of order | AC repair.
Keep Note for short notes about the room. Leave guest names off the sheet. A room number is enough.

Step 2: Add the Status dropdown and colour Inspected rooms

On a computer, select the Status cells below the header.
Click Insert, then Dropdown.
In the Data validation rules panel, type "Dirty", then click Add another item and add Cleaning, Clean, Inspected, and Out of order. Click Done.
By default, anything typed into a Status cell that isn't on this list gets rejected, so the status words stay consistent.
With the same cells still selected, click Format, then Conditional formatting.
Under "Format cells if", choose Text contains, type "Inspected", choose a green fill under "Formatting style", then click Done.
Colour Inspected only. A rule for "Text contains Clean" would also catch Cleaning.

Step 3: Share it with housekeeping and the desk

Click Share, enter each person's email address, set their role to Editor, and click Send.
Housekeeping open the board in the Google Sheets app on their phones and update Status as they work through each room.
On iPhone and iPad, Google says the dropdown list has to be built on a computer first; after that, staff pick an option from the list in the app.
On Android, the app shows the drop-down list directly in the cell.
To change a status on a phone, double-tap the Status cell and pick the new status from the list.

Step 4: Give the desk an Inspected-only view

On the front-desk computer, click Data, then Create filter view.
Filter the Status column to show only Inspected.
At the top right, click Save View, then Save.
To name it, click the view's name next to Name at the top left and type, for example, "Ready to assign". Press Enter.
Find it again later with Data, then Change view.
To bookmark it, apply the filter view and copy the page's URL.
A filter view only changes your own view of the sheet, so housekeeping are not affected by it.
Google says filter views are only available on desktop, not in the Android or iPhone app.
Google does not document how fast this view picks up a change made on a phone. Change one test room from a phone, then check the desk's filter view to see how long it takes.
Check a room's row on the filter view before you hand over its key.
Agree one rule with the desk team: only assign a room marked Inspected.

Step 5: Check who changed a room

On a computer, right-click the Status cell you want to check.
Click Show edit history.
It shows who changed that cell.
Some changes don't show up here: added or deleted rows and columns, formatting changes, changes made by a formula, and changes from before a past version was restored.
Anyone without edit access to the file can't see this history.

Details and limits

Checked on 2026-10-25. Google changes menus, so re-check the linked pages.

What it does

One shared list holds every room and its status. Housekeeping update it from their phones, and the desk reads it from a computer. There is one rule: only assign a room marked Inspected. It needs only a Google account and the Google Sheets app. Nothing here needs an add-on or a paid plan.

What it can't do

It does not read from or write to your PMS. The PMS status and the board can disagree, so someone still has to update the PMS by hand.
It shows only what staff set. If nobody updates a room's Status, the board does not know.
It does not alert the desk when a room turns Inspected. Someone has to open the filter view to see it.
The filter view and the edit history both need a computer. Neither works in the phone app.

Limits

By default, editors can also share the file and change its permissions. The owner controls this under Share, then Settings. Give Editor only to staff who update the board.
A Google Sheets file can be edited from up to 100 open tabs or devices at once, and shared with up to 600 individual email addresses. A hotel's staff list will not get near either number.
Google's Create a filter option can be unavailable on a sheet with data validation or conditional formatting rules applied, which is why this guide uses a filter view instead.

When this stops being enough

When you want the status to come from the PMS or go back into it, an alert at the desk when a room turns Inspected, or turnaround times per room, a shared sheet cannot do that on its own.

To skip building the sheet, Room Ready Board is our free board with the same rule: housekeeping mark rooms from a phone, the desk sees Inspected rooms live, and there is no account to create.

Read how the no-build-fee model works.

Sources

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