As a hotel manager, you are probably always trying to keep ahead of the competition. In a competitive market, travellers are looking for higher and higher levels of luxury when choosing their accommodations. They are also more liberal with their opinions and won’t hesitate to post bad reviews on travel websites when hotel standards fail to meet their expectations.
So what exactly can you do to give your hotel that little something extra that other hotels don’t have? How can your hotel deliver glamour and sophistication that will keep your guests happy, the reviews positive, and visitors coming back time and again?
One answer is much simpler than you would think: it is the sensory experience of top-quality linens, both in the bedrooms and in the bathrooms.
Getting the Linen Right for Your Guests
Crisp, clean linens are a necessity for hotels. Your guests do not have to be the most discerning travel experts to be able to pass rapid judgement on your hotel’s service standards. You may well be chuffed with the number of guests your hotel has comfortably accommodated over the years, but if you want to continue bringing in more guests in the future, your rooms need to look as though they have never been slept in.
The first thing that guests notice when they walk into a hotel room is the bed. If there is even as much as a tiny crinkle on the pillow case, covers, or sheet, you are going to start off on rather shaky ground. Remember, first impressions last, and that hotel bed needs to be whiter than white, as soft as a baby’s bottom – possibly more delicate, and as crisp as a snowflake.
No guest appreciates even a hint that another person has slept in the bed before them, let alone hundreds, if not thousands, of people over the years. But don’t despair. Once you get it right, your guests will be parachuting into those beds, luxuriating in the freshness and brightness of your topnotch linens.
Don’t Forget About the Bathroom Linen
The next inspection test guests typically do is the hotel’s bathroom linen. While the hand towels, bath towels, face cloths, and bath mats aren’t always the first things they will see, it may actually be just as important. After all, it is these items that your guests use intimately when showering and bathing, and if those linens are not fluffy, soft, bright white and thick, it is just an assault.
No guest wants to think that the towel they are vigorously wiping across their body has already dried copious numbers of strangers’ bodies. If your bathroom linens don’t look like you have personally sourced them from an upmarket store, you, and no doubt the rest of the online world, are going to hear all about it.
Your guests are spending a lot of their hard-earned money per night to stay at your hotel. It is a lot of money to waste if they are not getting what they want, but it is mere peanuts if their experience is a charming one.
While your linen is just one item on a long list of important factors that you have got to get right, it is certainly one of the most essential. In fact, it could be the thing that keeps bringing those guests in. One thing’s for sure: it will definitely be the thing that drives them out if it is not up to par.
Delivering linen that is below the minimum standard for quality is a deal breaker for guests. Even if all your other services are above and beyond the norm, it can be almost impossible to come back from.
Get It Right with the Professionals
Improving the standard of your hotel’s linen services can obviously benefit your guests, but there are several other ways it can improve your establishment’s reputation, such as improving its expenditure, its service quality, and even its environmental impact.
Reduced Expenses
Busy hotels have a fast linen turnover, so it is far more profitable to your business to hire a professional linen service instead of continually sinking your money into a bottomless pit. If you are laundering and keeping track of your hotel’s linens, you will already know just how expensive it is to have to replace linens often. Furthermore, there is less risk to you inlaying out capital. When you need to adjust your stock levels, you simply have to change your order, as opposed to disposing of old linen and purchasing extras or replacements.
Quality Increase
You and your staff are probably experts in the hospitality industry. No doubt your expertise includes greeting and looking after guests, solving any issues that arise, getting every last detail in every single room absolutely perfect, and juggling check-ins and check-outs. But are you experts in linens?
While there are plenty of hotels which do have the capacity to take care of their own linen, over time, those sheets and towels are going to look tired, old and frankly, disgusting. Linen professionals who are used to serving the hotel industry can manage vast volumes of linen, and it is their duty to deliver an endless supply of top-quality linen that will look and feel brand new for a long time to come.
Improved Environmental Impact
Professional linen services can be a great deal less taxing on the environment. With years of experience, along with stateoftheart technology, these companies are able to consume and waste less water than regular in-house services do. Since they have perfected their techniques, they are able to extend the life of the products even further.
Your hotel’s linen is one of the most important aspects of the overall profitability and success of your business. If you have not yet considered upgrading your linens, now might be the perfect time to do so. Who knows, it could be the very thing that gets your hotel that extra star.
