Your luxury bedding and spa-worthy towels are so important that we’ve developed a set of hotel housekeeping tips just to keep them with guests – and out of the rag pile – longer.
Other than factors such as outstanding customer service, guest satisfaction in hotels is tied to the quality of the night’s sleep and the pampering provided by the linens. That’s why you’ve made the investment in the best products and why it’s so important that your staff are well-equipped to protect that investment.
Here are hotel housekeeping tips to lengthen the life of your linens (say that three times fast!).
Invest in the Best to Start
If you want linens that will stand up to whatever guests throw at them, in addition to the rigors of the commercial laundry process, you need to start with high-quality products.
You’ll maximize the power of these hotel housekeeping tips if your staff is starting with the right raw materials.
Have a Good Stained Linen Collection Program
Stains don’t have to doom linens to the rag pile, but to salvage them, they need to be specially treated with an aggressive cleaning process.
Your housekeeping staff are on the front lines of spotting stains before they make it through the laundry cycle, and you should have a good process in place for how items are isolated for treatment.
For OPL hotels, or hotels with on property laundry, housekeeping and laundry staff should be educated about the stain separation plan.
For properties who partner with a commercial laundry service, there should be a system in place, such as different colored bags for stained items, both on the way in and the way out.
Housekeeping staff also play an important role in ensuring clean but stained linens don’t make their way back into guest rooms.
Doublecheck Bedding for Non-Linen Stowaways
It’s inevitable: Guests inadvertently leave glassware, keepsakes, items of clothing and more tangled up in hotel sheets.
That’s why it’s essential that housekeeping staff take the time to check for non-linen items before sending their piles to be laundered. Broken glass can damage linens, commercial laundry equipment or hurt staff.
Use Chemical-free, Climate Controlled Storage
Hotel housekeeping tips for protecting linens don’t just apply to clean items, they go for soiled sheets and towels, too. Storage is a perfect example.
Clean linens should be stored between uses in climate-controlled storage that keeps them away from hotel cleaning products and other chemicals.
Dirty linens, such as pool towels, should be kept out of the elements and not left to languish outside, where the acid in rain can cause damage.
Don’t Hold on to Linens Too Long
We understand: It’s hard to let go of sheets and towels your guests have loved for so long. But if you allow linens that are past their prime to linger, you’re not only paying to launder and sort them, you aren’t giving guests the premium experience.
Staff should understand when it’s time to take linen out of circulation, keeping an eye out for:
- Fraying
- Graying
- Ripping
- Stubborn stains
Keep Rags Separate
Once linens have reached the end of their lifecycle, sending them to the rag pile to be used as cleaning clothes is a way to give them a new lease on life.
Many properties dye their rags blue or another color, which is great – unless they somehow make their way back into the regular laundry cycle. Remember: once linens go to the rag pile, they can never go back anywhere near your guest-facing supply.
Here’s to a Long Life
Hotel housekeeping tips aimed at creating a long life for your linens can also make linen laundry a seamless part of your hotel operations.
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