You’ve cruised through the first quarter of the year and you’re feeling confident about your par level management. And then they arrive: leisure travelers.
Squeezed into rooms next to the business travelers who only use one of the two beds in their rooms and half of the towels are families of four or more who manage to use every linen in their room. Every. Single. Day. And let’s not get started on the pool towels.
As the temperature heats up, let’s kick off our par level management series by asking: Are you ready for leisure travel season?
Business or Pleasure?
As you’re preparing for the busy leisure travel months of June, July and August and wondering if you really need to order more pars to be ready, keep in mind these differences between business travelers and their pleasure-travel counterparts:
Capacity
Business: One person in the room, perhaps two for team travel
Leisure: How many people can sleep comfortably? Great, add three.
Linen Use
Business: One bed, one set of towels, ready to roll
Leisure: Yes, we need extra towels in Room 712. How many extra? How many have you got?
Stains
Business: Too busy working to make much of a mess
Leisure: Sunscreen, makeup, sippy cup spills, the works
How Many Pars Do You Need?
And, perhaps more importantly than how many you need, how many do you currently have? Especially now, it’s a best practice to do a full linen inventory every month.
If you’ve been skating by with just enough pars to get by, you may be surprised to learn that the recommended number of pars is four:
- 1 in all of your guest rooms
- 1 in climate-controlled storage waiting to go into rooms
- 1 in the laundry
- 1 dirty that’s leaving to go to your on-premise laundry room or commercial laundry service
Why Par Level Management Matters
If the idea of spending time and energy on par management has you shrugging your shoulders, here are some compelling reasons to make the investment.
Longer linen lifecycle: The length of a time that linens can be guest-facing is determined by many factors, including how often they’re laundered. If you don’t have enough pars, you’ll be washing, drying and ironing your luxury hotel bedding and towels more often, cutting the time you can have them in service – and out of the laundry.
Time and cost savings: Not having the right par level to turn rooms efficiently means your housekeeping staff has to wait for linens to come out of the laundry or for the truck from your commercial laundry service to arrive, leading to lost productivity and overtime. You also risk the chance of having guests waiting around for their rooms to be ready. You’ll save both time and money by having the number of pars that you need.
Maintain brand standards: We see it happen far too often. Properties underestimate how many pars they need during the busy season, and their preferred linen manufacturer doesn’t have the inventory immediately available or in time. That means ordering from another company as a last resort and not getting the quality of linens that guests have come to expect. Planning and ordering early avoids a mismatched linen situation.
How to Get Ready
If you take the right steps, getting your par level management in order is more than worth the investment. Your staff and guests will thank you for it. And your linens would, too, if they could.
In short, take these three steps to get ready for leisure travel season:
- Conduct an inventory to see how many pars you currently have
- Come up with a realistic estimate of what you’ need and put orders in now with your preferred linen manufacturer
- Set a schedule for a monthly inventory
For more help on par level management, check out our blog.