Nothing is better than slipping into crisp, white sheets at the end of a long day in a hotel room. Did you know that hotels have a system for keeping their linens and towels clean and fresh? Hotels can use hundreds of towels and sheets per day. Inns, hotels, and bed and Breakfasts use a combination fast maintenance and gentle care to maintain the linens’ long-term cleanliness. These seven tips can help extend the life of your blankets, towels, and sheets in your home.
Many hotel guests may be surprised to learn that hotels use regular, store-bought laundry soap, which is similar to what you might find in most households. Because of pH, hotels should use regular detergent and not professional grade detergent. The neutral pH of normal detergent can be found in most grocery stores. Professional grade detergents are often more acidic or have a higher pH. High pH detergents can cause fiber breakdown on towels and sheets faster than if more neutral detergent is used.
Hanging towels up after each use is a great way to keep them fresh and free from mildew. The hotel will encourage guests to do this by placing a card in their bathrooms with instructions on how to hang up towels. Mildew can quickly grow on towels if they are not dried properly after use. This can lead to musty odors even after washing. To avoid mildew smells, hang a towel.
It is a good idea to not overfill or under-fill a washing machine. This will help keep your linens fresh. Overfilling a washer will not give the machine enough mechanical action to clean clothes. Filling a washing machine too full can cause the machine to take on too much mechanical action. This will lead to the linens becoming less durable. A washing machine should be filled to 80 percent of its capacity.
Setting the washing machine’s settings is also important to keep towels and linens clean and fresh. It is important to choose the washing time based on how often the laundry will be washed. No matter what the laundry condition, the washing time you choose will not be beneficial to linens. Long-term washing can cause linens to become brittle and can make stain removal difficult.
Also, it is important to wash linens in warm water. Towels and sheets should be washed in warm water. This will not wash the linens well and may leave behind bacteria and dust mites. Because of how often they are washed, however, hot water can cause damage to the fabric.
Vinegar can also be used to keep towels and sheets fresh in hotels. Vinegar can be used to replace fabric softener. It kills bacteria and refreshes fabrics. Fabric softeners that are traditional coat fabrics with a film make it difficult to clean linens thoroughly. These linens can be washed with detergent and vinegar. The sheets and towels will smell fresh and not like vinegar.
One important component to keeping hotel linen and towels clean and smelling fresh is regular washing of the machines. Mildew can quickly transfer to linens when it grows in washing machines. This mildew smell can easily be avoided by being proactive and regularly cleaning the washers.
These seven steps will ensure that hotel guests have clean sheets and towels. If towels or sheets are not properly washed, guests will immediately notice the difference. These laundry methods can also prolong the life of hotel linens, which results in lower prices for both the hotel and the guest.