It may be the high season, but if your par levels are where they need to be, your luxury hotel bedding and towels aren’t being overworked, overtaxed or overused.
Housekeeping operations are running smoothly, and guests are whisked away to rooms that are made up on time every time because you have the linens you need on hand.
Sound like a dream? It doesn’t have to! With good management of your par levels, this could be your reality. Read on to avoid the nightmare of high linen losses and low pars.
Start with the Right Number of Pars
Before we get into how to maintain par levels, let’s start by discussing how many pars you should have.
The recommended number of pars for busy hotels and resorts is four:
- One in use in the guest room
- One in storage, ready to be used next
- One soiled that’s being removed from a guest room
- One with your on-premise laundry room or laundry service provider
Having those four pars will cost you money upfront but save in the long run. How? Let’s take a closer look.
Remember This Mantra: Par Level Management Saves Money
We say that having the right par levels saves money, but it may be more accurate to say the reverse is true: not having the right levels costs properties money.
Having a low number of pars means you’re laundering your linens more frequently and not giving them the time they need to rest between uses. That puts stress on the fabric, reduces the number of times they can be used and shortens their lifecycle. You’ll have to replace items more often, costing you more.
Those frequent washings also increase your utility and labor costs if you’re running an on-premise laundry (OPL), or the number of pickups and deliveries you’ll need if you work with a hotel laundry provider.
Reduce Linen Loss by Giving Your Storage a Room Upgrade
Once you have the right par levels and can give your linens the R&R they need, it’s time to make sure your storage is up to par, pun intended.
Your linen storage should be:
- Climate- and humidity controlled
- In a separate area or location from your chemical storage
- Segregated from your rag storage
- On the ground floor of your main building
- Locked
Protect Your Linens by Providing Alternatives
Your guests, staff and vendors aren’t setting out to destroy your carefully chosen towels, but if there’s a mess that needs to be cleaned up and your towels are what’s available…well, you know how that ends.
Remove your linens as an option by providing alternatives. For guest areas, that means making sure guest and locker rooms are stocked with makeup remover pads, shoe shine cloths and kitchen or paper towels.
For staff, that means closely managing the number of cleaning rags so that you never run out.
Step Up Your Security
Some linen loss is unintentional, but we all know that isn’t always the case. Some loss can feel inevitable, but there are steps properties can take – today – to cut down on the number of robes and towels walking out the door.
Some steps are related to staff training. Remind housekeeping employees that their carts should never be unattended. Linen storage rooms should always be locked, and a central storage location will reduce the potential points of entry.
Some properties have turned to technology to step up their security by adding RFID chips to their linen inventory. One large resort has credited RFID with reducing the number of pool towel theft from 4,000 to 750 per month, saving $16,000.
Par Level Perfection
You’re now one step closer to achieving the dream of good par level management and reduced linen loss. Once you invest in the right number of pars, protecting that investment will be worth it in both the short and long term.
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