The proper care of your property’s hotel sheets isn’t just about the linens themselves, it’s about meeting and exceeding guests’ expectations about the now-iconic Hotel Bed experience. Guests want hotel sheets to transport them away from the everyday and up to a good night’s sleep.
Investing in the best bedding possible is a solid start, and proper care will help protect that investment now and into the future.
While every housekeeping staff has their favorite tips and tricks, here are top the 10 best practices for the care of hotel sheets.
1. Invest in High-Quality Linen
Starting with hotel sheets that are durable and of high quality is a must. Maintaining great sheets is much easier than trying to prop up linens that aren’t up to guests’ standards. While most hospitality chains swear by 100 percent cotton sheets, others have gone with blends of cotton and polyester.
2. Source or Create Good Water
Hard water is hard on everything, including your hotel sheets. For the best results, you’ll need soft water with low levels of any metal traces. You can either pre-treat water before it gets to your laundry machines or condition it during the laundry process.
3. Use Non-toxic Detergents
Ecolab detergents, for instance, use a combination of high-performing chemistry and well-calibrated dispensers to clean thoroughly without harsh toxins. Ecolab detergents are registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and are 100 percent biodegradable, free of NPE, phosphate, EDTA, NTA and aromatic solvents.
4. Triple-Check for Stains
To catch stains before your hotel sheets make it to the dryer, a triple-checking system is your best bet. Have staff check for stains as sheets are pulled from the bed, before they go into the wash and again before they go into the dryer.
5. Provide Cosmetic Cleaning Cloths to Guests
The best way to fight stains is to prevent them. Giving guests a convenient way to remove eye makeup and other cosmetics will help ensure the products end up on the disposable wipes and not on your hotel sheets.
6. Use Energy Efficient Commercial Laundry Equipment
There are plenty of energy efficient options available for commercial laundry equipment, and a good place to start is with the EPA’s Energy Star program. The EPA currently certifies commercial clothes washers. Certification isn’t available for commercial dryers, but some energy efficiency features to look for include dryness detection technology that stops machines when linens have gotten to a certain level of dryness to prevent over-drying.
7. Properly Store Sheets Between Uses
Make sure your laundry procedures allow your hotel sheets at least 24 hours to rest between uses. Your storage should also be consistently clean, dry and protected.
8. Have the Right Amount of Linen On Hand
Experts generally recommend a three-par linen system, or having three full sets of linens available for each guest room at all times. Having the right amount of linens will protect your hotel sheets from overuse, save on labor costs and help ensure guest rooms are always ready by check-in time.
9. Make Sure Housekeeping Staff Are Fully Trained
Housekeeping staff are your most valuable asset when it comes to protecting your hotel sheets. Make sure they’re trained for all parts of the laundry lifecycle, including: switching gloves between removing soiled sheets and putting on clean ones, stain treatment, not overfilling laundry equipment and using the right settings for all equipment.
10. Leave it to the Professionals
Partnering with a commercial laundry service is perhaps the best of all the best practices. The right commercial laundry service will use the most sustainable detergent and energy efficient laundry machines, have procedures in place to protect your investment and professionally trained staff.
With the right care and best practices performed either onsite or by a commercial laundry service, your property’s hotel sheets will more than do their duty of delighting and pampering your guests. After all, guests are counting on you – and your hotel sheets – for a great night’s sleep.
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