We worked with some of our most frequent Airbnb linen service customers to find out how they save money on their laundry and linen cleaning.
Quality linens are worth the investment.
Have 3-5x turns worth of inventory.
Keep extra linens locked away.
Request bleach and stain treatment as preventative maintenance.
Get to know your laundry service!
Keep an inventory of damaged linens.
Hotel-style doesn’t necessarily mean hotel-price. After all, you aren’t working with the volume purchasing power or budget of a hotel.
Hotel-style means two things:
We have found that GhostSheets by GhostBed are the perfect bedding solution for hotel-style Airbnb laundry. The quick-drying, easily stain-treated sheets are the perfect balance between cost-efficiency, cleaning efficiency, and guest comfort. With the oversized top sheet and a 2″ GhostGrip elastic band around the fitted sheet, everything is strong enough to both 1) stay on securely, all night long and 2) withstand laundry service treatment at every Airbnb turnover.
Just like the sheets, there are many options for towels. Airbnb guests want to get dry but don’t necessarily want the thickest towel on the market. Remember – hotel-style? The thinner the towel, the cheaper it is to replace and the easier it is to both treat for stains and dry properly. We recommend white, medium-thickness towels made from 100% cotton – these American Soft Linen Bath Towels are our favorites.
As a laundry service, we see a lot of sheets and towels. We recommend GhostSheets Bedsheets and American Soft Linen Bath Towels for all Airbnb laundry service customers.
Ghost Sheets, the sheet set from Ghost Bed, is a linen set that is built to last. These TENCEL® sheets are a laundry service favorite because they are easy to stain treat, wrinkle-resistant, and stand the tough conditions of commercial laundry cycles.
The American Soft Linen Bath Towels are the perfect Airbnb towel. The hint of geometry in its dobby-border adds personality to the greeting without adding color – allowing easy stain treatment. The ELS Combed Cotton means quick drying too.
Miscommunication happens when things get complicated. If you’re operating your Airbnb rental property with just enough linens for one turn, you’re complicating the cleaning process by putting a strict timeline on yourself, your house cleaners, and your Airbnb linen service.
Having only a few linen sets means you are constantly sending your linens for cleaning. And, with most Airbnb linen services, your cleaning costs will be more expensive at lower volumes. Buying enough linens to keep your Airbnb rental stocked with clean inventory for a couple of turns will help you save money with your cleaning service, allow your house cleaners some flexibility on timing, and make sure your guests never show up to a bed without sheets on it.
Trying to stay ahead of guests and cleaners with a limited inventory can be incredibly stressful. And, having extra inventory on hand is an easy solution that most rookie Airbnb don’t consider.
If you’re an experienced Airbnb host, you know that your guests will open every drawer, closet, and storage bin that you have. And, if you haven’t experienced this yet, you will! This is especially true with guests staying more than one night.
If you have your extra inventory or safety stock (see above!) stored in an unlocked closet, the extra inventory WILL be used. This is most common with towels.
Lock them away in a place that only you, your house cleaning team, and your Airbnb linen service have access to.
YOU’RE NOT A HOTEL! Remember?
We’ve found that Airbnb guests have a lower tolerance for stains than hotel guests. It’s backwards…but it’s also true. While staying at a hotel, guests understand that hundreds if not thousands of guests have used the linens before. And, this subconsciously lowers their standards of cleanliness. However, at an Airbnb property rental, their standards seem to subconsciously increase – operating under the illusion that it’s their own private, boutique rental.
If indeed your laundry is white – as this is what we recommend – keep it white by making sure your Airbnb laundry service knows to add bleach or whitener. Hotels use a 15% chlorine bleach – ask for that!
With this, set your laundry service preferences with some consideration for allergies. We always recommend free & clear detergent (detergent without perfumes or dyes) to help protect your guests from having a reaction to your bedding.
Whatever you need – there’s an app for that. But, is that always a good thing?
While you might not care who is delivering your pizza, you should care who is doing your laundry. With the rise of middle-man apps that pair you with the closest, cheapest, (insert any other superlative here) service provider, you have no idea who is picking up, cleaning, and delivering your clothes. And, this likely changes order-to-order based on however the middle man app chooses to schedules your service.
These providers even opt to send orders to individuals to wash at their home instead of a professional company operating in a professional laundry facility.
Here is the rundown:
Stains must be removed from circulation! But it doesn’t have to cost you anything. By charging your Airbnb guest for damaged linens, you can keep from spending all of your profits on new linens. Or even worse – cycling the stained linens through as cleaned linens for continued use by your guests.
A good Airbnb linen service will offer stain treatment AND stain management. Stain treatment is obvious but stain management isn’t always as clear. By asking your Airbnb laundry service to pack damaged or stained inventory separately from the rest of your clean linens, you’ll have 1) an easy time making sure they don’t re-enter circulation 2) you’ll have easy access to pictures of the damage to show the guests that are responsible for the damage, and 3) you’ll know exactly how many items need replacing for a restocking order.
And, if charging your guests seems like too much, be sure you at least leave yourself open to charging them by stating it in your Airbnb profile or rental welcome kit.
Airbnb linen service with free delivery in Austin & Houston, Texas.
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