Linen issues

Energy & Water rates tend to be cheaper after 9 or 10 pm. If the graveyard shift has nothing to do, maybe the property can move the Laundry function from HK to FD. The hostel I worked at had a large space behind the FD, the graveyard shift could wash,dry,sort & fold laundry without leaving the FD, and still had time to do night audit functions and any internet reservations. Don't be afraid to think outside the box.

I was wondering, is it necessary to iron bed linen? Wouldn't it be sufficient to provide clean bed linen. A lot of energy is used in ironing. It is expensive and also no environmentally friendly.

We have 52 beds, and do our own laundry. It's certainly more work than when we had it sent out, but a lot more economical. There's no way in my opinion (in the UK at least) that it'd be cheaper to get it done commercially. We used to get charged 50p per sheet sleeping bag - so were spending hundreds of pounds per week on laundry. There's no way that the power and detergent and machine depreciation cost that much. Also to get them sent out you must have at least twice and possibly 3 times as much linen as beds, to make sure that you have linen available to replace the stuff at the laundry.

Clearly the biggest costs is staffing. If you have to employ someone to operate the laundry specially then it'll sost too much. If you can get exisiting staff (reception, cleaners and night duty workers) to do it then you'll save money. We badically do ours for about 5 hours in the morning during recption and cleaning time. In my opinion if the reception staff have time for facebook etc, they have time for folding sheets. (If you want to get reception to do the sheets, make sure that the machines are not too far from the front desk if possible). In my experience most owner operators do their own sheets, and most larger corporate ones get them sent out, probably because the larger ones are profitable enough to bear the costs.

At your 52 beds hostel, how many washing machines and dryers do yo have?

How much is your time worth and what could you be doing to get more customers as opposed to doing the laundry is how I like to justify it.

Amen to that! I can't tell you how much time my staff spends washing, hanging, and folding laundry. There are more productive (and profitable) ways for them to spend their time.

I was wondering, is it necessary to iron bed linen?

We have never ironed a single sheet. In my opinion it's a waste of time, and my guests don't care.

With 110 beds it really starts to stack up outsourcing and hiring the linen (or purchasing the linen and then out sourcing) especially if you have to end up doing a load or two yourself. How much is your time worth and what could you be doing to get more customers as opposed to doing the laundry is how I like to justify it.

Shannon
Nomads Hostels

How many people do you have working at your 110 bed hostel and how are they assigned (by function, for example, how many recepcionists, cleaners, maintenance, etc.)?