Hospitality and Tourism industry had to suffer the most due to the Covid pandemic related lockdowns.
This has forced the hospitality and the tourism industry to reboot in terms of managing fixed costs and recurring costs. While there are various costs that the hotels need to look at to be more responsive to changes in future, one of the crucial ones is that of the linens.
A good hotel room experience must include high quality, attractive, clean and hygienic linen.
Hospitality supplies like hotel towels, bedsheets, pillow covers, pillows, bathrobes, etc. are present in every hotel.
And these are not present in the small quantity but in big because they have to be changed after every use and also to match the requirement of the hotel rooms. Hotels have many budget systems for various things with them and one of those budgets is the linen budget.
Sometimes due to the misuse of linen products in the hotel, the linen budget rises and it goes to an extent that the budget for different things becomes short and the hotel faces some difficulties in running.
So, to prevent this from happening hotels are now trying to reduce their linen budget by practicing various things. This way the linen budget gets reduced gradually and the hotel linen products will not go bad before time.
Practices To Follow in Reducing the Linen Budget
Reducing fixed and recurring costs is one of the key strategies in running hospitality business successfully. Below are some practices that a hotel can follow to reduce their linen budget:
Invest In Quality
When the hotel is buying hospitality supplies like hotel towels, bathrobes etc. It should be kept in mind that the quality of the products is good. Because if they’re not good quality then I have to sometimes it is obvious for them to go bad and then the hotel will have to invest in a new one before time.
While buying the linen products Hotels should make sure to check them twice so that they do not have any tears, they are not the defective pieces, and their color is not faded from any part. Only after this thorough inspection, the linen products should be bought so that there is no problem after buying them.
Proper Washing
Hotels should take the responsibility to wash the linen products with proper care. As many linen products get washed at the hotels every day there should be a certain way of washing them so that they do not get damaged after every wash.
These products should be washed some at a time because if the washing machine gets filled with these products and then their first, they will surely get stretched and tangle with each other, which will surely degrade the quality of these products.
Detergents that are free from chemicals and various harmful substances should be used in the washing of these linen products.
Also, these linen products should be washed with a normal temperature of water because extreme cold temperature or extreme hot temperature can damage their fiber which will result in damage to the linen product.
Proper Handling
Hotels should pay attention to how the staff is carrying the linen products. Because most of the linen products get bad due to their poor handling of them.
Hotels should tell their staff to handle the linen products properly so that they do not get torn or dirty by any means after the wash. There comes a housekeeping trolley that can be used for keeping hotel towels and other linen products to carry them from one place to the other in the hotel.
These linen products should be kept in a different section so that there is no weight on them that damages their fluffiness and softness. This way the hospitality supplies will not get damaged because they are being handled carefully.
Reusing
If by any chance the linen product does get torn or fade in color due to some reasons. Still, the hotel should not throw out the whole product and buy a new one because sometimes even slightly damaged linen products can be reused by fixing them.
Hotels can sew the torn products and can re-dye the ones whose colors have faded. This way the hotel will be reducing its linen budget by reusing the products and making the best out of them.
Bulk Buying
Whenever shopping for linen products hotels should always buy in bulk because that way there is no inconvenience to the hotel as they grasp a whole new stock at once.
And this method is also good because you never know when the market price will get up, and then the linen products will be expensive which will add up more to the hotel’s linen budget.
Use Of Technology
Linen products should be washed in the washing machine rather than getting them washed by people because people often handle clothes very roughly while washing them by hands so linen products may end up getting some tears and damage.
But on the other hand, when it comes to drying linen products then they should not be dried in the washing machine but should be dried in the sun so that they do not get stressed and tangle with each other. And because of that, they might damage their fibers.
Conclusion
So, these were the practices following which hotels can reduce their linen budget. These practices are not that hard and can be done with every linen product to increase their life and contribute to saving the linen budget of the hotel.
As Linen products are very soft and delicate, they have to be handled very carefully because otherwise they will lose their softness which is the main part of them and people will not get any comfort while using them.
This way new linen products will not be purchased for the hotel and the budget will reduce from linen and can be put to other things that are required in the hotel.
