Hotel Bed Linen: Care Advice for Hotels and Hospitality

One of the qualities that hotels are renowned for is their large, comfy beds with crisp white sheets - always so invitingly clean and plush. Nothing beats falling onto a hotel bed after a day of travelling, knowing that you will have one of the comfiest sleeps of your life.

As a hotel owner, you’ll want to ensure that this is exactly how your guests feel during their stay - after all, their satisfaction and comfort is imperative to your business’s success and reputation. This is why you should pay attention to how you care for your hotel linen, prioritising this as part of your room maintenance plans.

From large-scale hotels to BnBs, read on below to see our advice on how bed linen used in hospitality should properly be cared for, ensuring its cleanliness, quality and longevity.

Considerate Washing

Wash Whites, Darks and Colours Separately

This one is a given, but just to be sure that you’re not already doing it - don’t mix colours when you wash your sheets! At home, of course, you can get away with the odd pair of white socks getting thrown in with your colours, or a bright coloured top getting mixed in with your darks - usually a colour catcher will do the job if you don’t want to risk any colours transferring.

However, when it comes to commercial linen, this isn’t worth the risk. Even if colours don’t directly transfer, washing your whites and darks together can leave your whites appearing dull and almost greyish over time, rather than staying their brilliant white.

Instead, always wash them in separate loads. Not only will this stop colour transfer, but by being separated your sheets will have more space to tumble and get properly clean in the wash, which leads on to our next tip.

Don’t Overload Washing Machines

When it comes to washing machines, it’s not just the hot water and detergent that cleans your linens, but the tumbling action that they go through as the washing drum rotates. Should you overload your machine, however, then this loses its efficiency.

You should only fill your machines till they are three-quarters full for each load. This will ensure that there is enough room for them to rise and fall in the standard ‘10-to-4’ position, thus allowing for a good circulation of water, heat and detergent and preventing your sheets from bundling up. All these things make sure that your sheets are fully cleaned.

Not only that, but a fuller washing machine means a less effective spin, which then leaves your sheets wetter than they should be after the spin cycle is complete. This means you’d either have to repeat the spin or leave them in the dryer for longer, which could not only damage the fibres of your commercial linens but increase your energy bills, also.

Similarly, you don’t want to underload your machine, either. As tempting as it can be to chuck on a small load rather than wait for more sheets that need to be washed, this really should be avoided. If you don’t have enough in your machine, then there will be lower friction and your towels or sheets may even end up floating in the water, rather than actually spinning, resulting in a low wash quality.

Use Industrial Machines

You may be tempted to use your average domestic washing machine, thinking this will save you space and money, but in reality this isn’t the case - in fact, it’s the opposite. Domestic washing machines aren’t built with big enough drums to give you the space you need to wash multiple sheets of bedding or towels.

As such, you would either be overfilling them and not getting an efficient enough wash, or would be having to do so many separate washes that it would quickly wear down the quality of the washing machine, as well as boost your utility bills from not being an energy efficient solution. They also may not be able to get up to or sustain the high temperatures needed to completely remove germs and stains.

Commercial washers, on the other hand, are built to handle large loads and constant use. Furthermore, most will also often come with ‘auto-dosing’ pumps, which control how much and when detergent is added into the wash, so that the right amount is used each and every wash depending on the type of water and fabric being used.

This isn’t the same with domestic machines, in which you must add the detergent manually prior to turning the wash on. The issue with this is that too little can leave you with undesired cleaning results whilst too much may increase the build-up of residues, which can then cause skin irritancy to your guests.

Don’t Mix Sheets and Towels

There are a few reasons why mixing sheets with towels in the wash is a no-go. Firstly, the contrasting fabrics can lead to friction; though still soft, towels are made of a much rougher material than your smooth bed sheets, which can cause frictions when they rub together in the wash. As a result, you may experience pilling and loose fibres in your sheets, deteriorating their otherwise pristine quality.

Another reason why you shouldn’t mix the two is because towels can easily get wrapped up in the sheets whilst they’re in the wash. Not only could this stop them from getting cleaned properly, but it can stop them from drying as well, which in turn could cause bacteria to grow and leave them smelling damp and/or mildewy.

Choose Gentler Spin Cycles

Though a good spin is needed, both to help wash your commercial linen properly and to help dry it before it goes in the dryer, it’s advised that you pick a gentler spin cycle as opposed to a high one. This is because high spin cycles can cause knotting and may heavily crumple your sheets due to the aggressive movement.

Not only does this make them more of a pain to fold or press, in order to get them crisp again, but it can also wear them out over time.

Store Properly

Once you’ve washed your linens, they should not be put back into service straight away. They should always be folded neatly and allowed to rest for at least 24 hours before being used again. This is because they need time to re-absorb the moisture that they lost in the dryer. If they are not given time to do so, then this puts stress on the fibres and increases the risk of tearing.

They should also not be stored in plastic, which leaves room for condensation to occur (resulting in mildew) nor should they be stored in sunlight. The best place to store your hotel linens is in a cool, dark and well-ventilated area.

Consider Investing in Commercial Laundry Services

As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into caring for your commercial linens. If you don’t have the time, space or budget to invest in commercial machines and care for your commercial bedding and towels yourself, then you should certainly consider outsourcing your laundry, instead.

By outsourcing your laundry, all your linen care needs are taken care of for you. The company that you outsource it to will specialise in cleaning commercial linen, so you can rest assured that they will be using the best industry practices to achieve the necessary results, ensuring that your linens are thoroughly cleaned whilst maintaining their quality.

Hotel Linen Supplier

If you own a hospitality business that uses commercial linen, then why not solve two of your needs in one? Here at Stalbridge Linen Services, we don’t only supply linen for hire, but we also offer commercial laundry services to our customers, making your linen needs much more streamlined and cost-efficient.

If you’ve wondered ‘where’s the closest laundry service near me?’, you won’t need to search anymore - Stalbridge is the answer. Being one of the leading hotel bed linen suppliers in the industry, we ensure that we meet all our customers' needs, no matter where they’re based, which is why we offer our hire linen hire and laundry services across the UK.

You simply pay for what you need, when you need, then leave the rest to us. Though based in Dorset, we have multiple sites based throughout the UK, enabling us to provide an efficient pick-up and delivery service, making us the go-to option when it comes to quality hotel linen hire.

For more information about our services or to arrange a quote, then get in touch with us today.