Many OPL hotels, or hotels with on property laundry, already think that they’re operating as efficiently as possible and that when it comes to laundry, there isn’t much to to do cut costs.
But that assumes that they have a good idea of the total laundry budget hotel costs vs. the cost of a commercial laundry service, for instance, and all of the other factors that there are to weigh.
Chances are, there are steps even the most efficient property can take to maximize the investment in onsite laundry, and here’s a look at what OPL hotels can do today to save money.
Calculate Your Current Costs
As the saying goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. For OPL hotels, the cost of hotel laundry service is much easier to manage once it’s being accurately measured. That means coming up with a reliable estimate of what your laundry operation is currently costing your property.
An online OPL Cost Calculator is a great tool for coming up with a figure. It will ask you to provide details on all laundry-related expenses, including labor, equipment, utilities and even depreciation.
Troubleshoot Any Surprises
If any one part of your laundry operation is costing more than you expected, now you have an opportunity to start troubleshooting.
If there’s something about your housekeeping processes, equipment maintenance or overall laundry room setup that’s amiss, you should see expenses drop once you’ve addressed it. Just to be sure, you now also have an idea of what numbers to keep an eye on over time.
Have Enough Pars
It seems counterintuitive – spending money on more pars now to save money down the road. But having enough linens on hand today will cost you less tomorrow.
How?
Reduction in wear and tear: Luxury hotel sheets and towels, no matter how high quality, need time to rest between uses. They won’t get the R&R they need if you’re constantly rotating them in and out of rooms, reducing their lifecycle. You’ll end up replacing them sooner instead of maximizing their time on hand.
Insurance should something go wrong: Anyone in hospitality knows that it’s best to expect the unexpected. If you don’t have enough pars, you’re one unplanned surge in occupancy away from having to turn away guests because you can’t turn rooms quickly enough.
The recommended number of pars is four, which equals: 1 in the guest room + 1 in climate-controlled storage + 1 on the way to the laundry room + one in the process of being cleaned.
Upgrade Your Laundry Equipment
Commercial laundry machines being built today are all about efficiency. For washers, that includes factors such as water use, water extraction, required water temperature.
For dryers, it’s about sensors that prevent overdrying by stopping linens once they reach a desired dryness or temperature.
If your aging laundry machines don’t have those features or aren’t keeping up in other ways, upgrades, like pars, fall into the category of expenses today that will save your property money tomorrow.
Shut Down Your Laundry
One of the main benefits of outsourcing hotel laundry is saving money. Properties that have shut down their laundry rooms have seen their costs decrease as a professional provider handles their linens for less money per pound than they could.
Shutting down a laundry is the end of an era for OPL hotels but the beginning of another, especially for those that transform the space once occupied by the laundry room into a new venture.
Properties have turned the valuable real estate once taken up by commercial laundry equipment into coffee shops, spas and even offices.
Start Saving Today
Once the right steps are taken, OPL hotels see their laundry costs go down and the pride in their efforts go up. And even guests can benefit as savings are reinvested into the guest experience.
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