13 years
How many sheets per month are you having problems with, and how many beds do you have?
Charging for stained linen
Housekeeping and Maintenance
My husband and I are running a hostel in China and we offer a variety of rooms, all of which have the same type of linen (which is white). We opened last month so everything is new. We've been having a lot of problems with guests dirtying/staining pillows and sheets--mostly blood, make-up, and pen marks. My husband is insistent on charging people for the price of new linen if it appears to be stained and a fraction of the cost if it is considerably dirty and needs to be sent to the dry cleaners or washed by hand. Is this fair? We keep butting heads on the issue because I feel like he is overly zealous on charging people and he thinks I'm being to0 lenient and ready to run the business into the ground being "too nice" to guests.
Any opinions or ideas on how to deal with this? We are thinking of posting the price of linen and appliances in the rooms or at least having a copy at the front desk.
- Comments
13 years
We have 54 beds but since we just opened we, on average, have about 10 guests per night. In the past week we've had two stained pillows and one sheet. The spots are usually small and the most recent ones have come out after some rather intense scrubbing.
13 years
How much does a sheet cost?
I would calculate the linen replacement/cleaning costs and include them in your rates. I probably wouldn't regularly charge guests for accidents (stained sheets, broken dishes, etc.) unless the damage was intentional.
In my opinion, charging guests for minor things like an accidental stain could cause bad feelings, and possibly lower reviews. Guests want to hear, "don't worry about it, it was just an accident," even in the cases where the guests say, "I will pay for it."
You are treating them as a friend instead of simply a revenue source when you say, "don't worry about it."
13 years
This is my feeling too. It sucks to end a stay with being charged for something. It sours the experience and leaves things on a low note. I think raising our rates on our dorms, which are already quite low, might be a good solution. I'd love to hear other people's input too.
13 years
We don't charge for these things. There are lots of small things that cause a financial damage to us as hostel owners and that's part of the business.
We take a deposit from each guest and we use it rarely in cases of lost towels/keys etc.
13 years
Well, this is becoming a daily problem for us now that the business is picking up. My husband stands by charging people, whereas I am still leaning more towards raising rates a little and not charging. We are in China and white linen is the standard for most hotels and hostels. What color linens do you guys use?
We talked to a hostel in Beijing and they also charge when linens get stained--but that's just one hostel. It's frustrating for me because I honestly don't know what hostels typically do in China.
13 years
We use off-white linen with blue blanket covers
I don't know about Chine but linens get stained in any hostel that I know and don't get charged unless it's something really bad
13 years
It's probably badest idea to charge guests for ocassional stained linen. It may have physiological nature, so you can confuse your valuable guest when discussing this question. Finaly, in XXI century lots of reliable cleaners were invented to remove most of stains, dots, blood, oils, cosmetic traces etc.
I think it is more psychological thing for your husbend. This is your brand new hostel which you love and invest much money and even smallest dot on your snow-white linen provoke a kind of aggression to "wrecker" who damages your "baby". But, ask him to think wider. It is much cheaper to invest few dollars to reliable cleaning substance but not to loose loyal clients just for few small stains or dots.
Only case you can charge to replace linen, if your guest return it absolutly unconditional and it can't be used after cleaning.
Have a good and profitable business!
13 years
Romandavydov,
LOL, you hit the nail on the head. I think my husband is a perfectionist (#1) and sees the hostel as his baby (#2). I have finally, finally gotten him to see the light! We aren't charging anymore unless there is some sort of large, horrendous stain due to complete carelessness of the guest.
I actually was reading through some hostel reviews on hostelworld last night (Am I totally lame? I love to see what people complain about!). One hostel that I often stay in in Beijing recently got a very negative review because they charged a guy for getting blue pen on his linen. He was convinced it was a money making scam. I definitely don't want that to be us!
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