Hotels — Kitchen Extract Cleaning in London

A London hotel kitchen can cook from early breakfast to late room service, with banqueting on top, and its duct often rises past guest floors to the roof. Some hotels also sit above a restaurant run by another business, whose extract climbs through the building. We arrange TR19 extract cleaning quotes for hotels across London. An independent specialist provider carries out the work and issues the certificate, one for each system.

The room count keeps rising. GLA figures show London's serviced rooms grew from 160,000 in the first quarter of 2019 to 174,000 in the first quarter of 2025, with around 105,000 of them in central London.

How often hotel kitchen extracts need cleaning

Under TR19 Grease, a system used 12 to 16 hours a day needs cleaning at least quarterly, one used 6 to 12 hours at least every six months, and one used 2 to 6 hours at least yearly. A kitchen serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and room service will often be in the top band, while a hotel offering breakfast and a short supper menu may sit in the middle one. Each system is judged on its own hours. London Fire Brigade guidance note GN86 calls the canopy and plenum an area of higher fire risk where more frequent cleaning should be considered, in line with insurers' requirements. Read more in our TR19 compliance guide.

Ducts that pass guest floors

GN86 says buildings should be checked for kitchen extract ducting that passes through areas where a duct fire would affect the means of escape. Brigade incident reports show why. In February 2025 a fire that started in the ground floor restaurant of a four-storey hotel on Chiltern Street, Marylebone, spread to the roof via the ducting; the roof and third floor were destroyed and around 100 people evacuated. In September 2022 grease and cooking fat ignited in the extraction system of a restaurant with a hotel above on Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, and crews worked to make sure the ducting running up the hotel was not alight. In May 2025 grease ignited in the ducting of a Spitalfields restaurant with a hotel above. After a 2023 restaurant fire in Belgravia destroyed all the ducting from basement to roof, the Brigade reminded hotel, restaurant and takeaway owners not to let their ducting get dirty.

Fire law, audits and insurance

Hotels fall under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which requires the responsible person to assess fire risk and reduce it, and the London Fire Commissioner enforces the Order in London. The Brigade says around 800,000 premises in the capital are covered and that it targets inspections through a risk-based programme. GN86 says the fire risk assessment should include a detailed assessment of the kitchen extract, that a fire safety officer will ask to see post-clean verification records during an audit, and that poor cleaning could invalidate commercial liability or property insurance.

Inside a full TR19 clean

Each kitchen's system is cleaned end to end: the canopy and filters, vertical risers and horizontal ductwork hidden above ceilings, and the extract fan. Grease thickness is measured at the start and the finish. GN86 says the report should include photographs, recommendations and a sketch of access panels and test points that clearly flags any area that could not be cleaned. Where the route through the building has never been drawn, an inspection report maps it first.

Guests, events and restaurant tenants

Overnight slots and the quiet spell after breakfast both work, with noise and access organised around occupied rooms and the events diary. Where a restaurant tenant's duct runs through the hotel, GN86 expects the responsible persons to co-operate so the whole duct is cleaned in one go rather than piecemeal on different dates. Running a group, or a single hotel with its own banqueting kitchen as well as a restaurant? One quote can take in every system. The cost guide covers what moves the price, such as duct length, access and fan count.

Food hygiene and where we arrange quotes

Hotel kitchens are inspected by the borough council, or the City of London Corporation in the Square Mile, under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, and display of the sticker is voluntary in England. Quotes are available for hotels in the City, Covent Garden, Soho, Canary Wharf, Stratford, Wembley, Greenwich, Hammersmith, Kingston and Croydon. Request a quote for one kitchen or every system in the building.

Where we see these kitchens most

Services: TR19 extract cleaning · canopy cleaning · ductwork · filters · what it costs

Frequently Asked Questions