Taking a load off
The hotel industry has been grappling with difficult choices across the board, in a bid to keep pace with shifting consumer demands without forsaking quality. Yet the considerations that enable operators to maintain optimal results without sacrificing ret
While offering a laundry service to guests staying at a hotel is a given, there has been a gradual shift when it comes to decisions on whether to run an in-house facility as opposed to outsourcing such an amenity, with the main concerns directly related to overhead costs and quality controls.
Philip Jones, general manager of Mövenpick Hotel Jumeirah Beach, told HN that in an ideal world, hotels would certainly prefer to have an in-house laundry, since this gives them direct control over both the quality and quantity of items going in and out. “However, typically the outsourcing takes place when hotels have to convert the laundry space to a more revenue-generating area,” he said.
Elaborating further on the subject, Martin
Kubler, CEO of Sps:affinity, a reputed Dubaibased boutique consulting firm that helps small and medium hospitality and service industry companies achieve their business goals, noted that outsourcing is largely the norm nowadays.
“The only hotels I know here with in-house laundries are either older properties from times when space was still available and labor was cheap, or high volume clustered properties,” he commented. “Everybody else outsources this service and rightly so, because ultimately, we’re hoteliers, not launderers.”
The challenges of in-house laundry
Hotel guests may well be unaware of the fact that an in-house laundry service is very expensive, with costs driven up by the equipment needed and the maintenance required to keep machines running. Other challenges include periods of low occupancy, when the operation becomes even more costly to maintain, with staff required to remain on call.
However, there are exceptional circumstances when a hotel might continue running an existing in-house laundry service or even set up a new one, as Kubler explained. “If the hotel has a lot of money to spare and has the necessary guest laundry volume, or the owning company is diversified and just happens to also own a laundry business, then the decision could be different,” he said.
Yet fluctuating hotel occupancy and shorter stays are significantly cutting into laundry revenues. “There's less certainty and, as a result, forward planning is more challenging,” Kubler admitted. “If you spend money on an in-house laundry, it needs to be used. If you're not sure you'll have the necessary volumes going forward on a consistent basis, it’s probably better to outsource it.”
Given the shifting situation, some hotel guests are relying on a different kind of laundry service all together and doing the outsourcing themselves, helped by the rise of new technology. “Laundry apps are on the rise,” Kubler noted. “Today's guests are internet-savvy and used to the on-demand economy. They have no issue downloading an app and using it. Consider the Dubaibased ‘Washmen’; you simply download the app and get your laundry picked up at the click of a button.”
Advantages of outsourcing
However, this reality is cutting into the bottom line of hotel laundry services and prompts another challenging question, namely: what are the advantages of outsourcing the service on behalf of guests?
In response, Jones said that when outsourcing, ensuring that the work is given to a reputable laundry capable of handling the work is vital. “The outsourced laundry needs to have the right equipment, a spacious store, as well as proper laundry separations, and production capacity to deliver in a timely manner,” he concluded.
While outsourcing may well come across as the most effective solution for some hotels, disadvantages include the forfeiting of control that an establishment has over the service.
Nonetheless, it would seem that the advantages of outsourcing are far greater than the risks, as Kubler suggested. “Outsourcing of non-core services is
generally on the rise, in areas such as security and housekeeping,” he said. “Building an in-house laundry would go against this trend.”
A significant portion of hotel operators seem to share that view and understandably. Better results are achieved when the work is done by professionals and cases of accidental damage to materials are reduced, as are costs, such as employee sickness.
Going beyond the habitual, Kubler explained that the trend for outsourcing would, in all probability, soon have hotels renting the very same linens being sent to second party laundry service, as is already the case abroad.
“Why do we not already have multiple linenrental companies competing for business here?” he asked. “In Europe, very few hotels own their bed-linen. It’s all rented in an endto-end solution, i.e. supply of linen, tracking of linen, cleaning and replacing of worn-out linen.” Such services offer added flexibility and save storage space, Kubler added.