Labor of linens
With millennials being more environmentally friendly and making up the bulk of hospitality end-users, choosing linens that lower the impact on the environment can be advantageous to an establishment’s ROI, while also satisfying consumer concerns
Sustainability
In addition to encouraging guests to participate in linen reuse programs, whereby guests specifically request the sheets to be cleaned, or else no action is taken; and receiving room rate discounts for taking part, introducing different fiber types to the linen blends, such as eucalyptus, bamboo or beech, allow the linens to last longer, lowering the need to purchase new ones or replace them. This is in addition to being hypoallergenic and antibacterial. Also, these fibers are light weight and absorb less water, allowing laundry operations to wash more sheets in the same time frame and use less energy to dry them.
The nitty gritty
Karim R. Tabet, CEO of Tabet Hospitality International sal, recommends using “200 thread count (TC) 100 percent cotton percale or 300TC to 400TC, 100 percent cotton sateen bed linens. When it comes to bath linen, 600g/sqm, 100 percent cotton towels is the most essential quality. For F&B linen, 100 percent cotton or linen-cotton blends are still in fashion for fine dining, whether it is for tablecloths, table runners or place mats. Nowadays, for all-day dining or recreational areas, there is a tendency to use disposable linens. For duvets and pillows, the 70 percent down filling is the most adopted in five-star hotels.” Tabet also mentions that white is still the most popular color for room linens.
Technology
Automating linen inventory by using tagging technology – to prevent overwashing, indentify different linen-types, track linen movement to and from the laundry room and other information – have been widely implemented in recent years, in order to ease the laborious chore for housekeeping management. However, the same technology can be used to track linens that have been taken by guests; thereby minimizing the hotel’s property – and therefore revenue – losses. The most popular linens taken by guests include towels, bathrobes, pillow cases, and cloth napkins.
Embedded and sewn into the linen, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are small, durable, thin and used anonymously by establishments, sending out real-time tracking alerts through the system once the article leaves the premises. As a result, the hotel will charge the cost of the linen to the client’s credit card bill; thus reimbursing the hotel for the article taken.