Laundry service costs

[Mary573]

Laundry is killing me!  

My cleaners are charging me over $50 per load of laundry.  My recent guests used a ton of linens.  

The cleaners did 4 loads.  You can do the math.  

Does anyone have a cleaver idea to help me decrease laundry costs?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mary573 yes, our loundry cost is also high ;(  Self service loundry is the cheapest option here in our area so we use it.

You can use cotton-poly bedding which do not require ironing and dries quickly. Replace thick towels with mid-thick ones and maybe a bit smaller size so more of them fit in one machine and they dry quicker. If you can dry everything on the air. Put just one pillow on each bed and additional pillows in a plastic bag in the closet and wash them only if used. Put a duvet inside a duvet cover and wash just a cover after each guest. Put additional covers/blankets/quilts in the closet and wash them only if used...  solutions like this will cut your loundry cost and will not affect your guests confort significantly. 

[Huaai0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0

I'm still learning so much from you. We should all pay you tuition 🙂

[Mary573]

Thanks for your suggestions!  I will put them to use....

[Ron103]

@Mary573, I limit the amount of linens and towels available to the guests.
I very quickly learned that many guests will use or consume everything that is within their reach. I even seen them put piles of folded towels in the dirty clothes bin  for reasons I could not imagine. After that, I started to provided only enough consumable goods as reasonable for the length of their stay. They would even throw away unopened, unexpired yogurt that I provide. 
In the house, excess linens and towels are stored in bins in the keylocked laundry room, ready to replace those that are needing to be washed.
For the apt, extra's are stored in bins off site. (next door actually)
I assume for most stays under 5 days, one set of linens with the accompanying comforter and blanket per pair of guests is plenty (I also include one spare set of sheets, which i find guests almost never use.)
For towels I provide one bath towel, hand towel, and washcloth per day per guest.
I always meet my guest and show them where the blankets, extra sheets, and towels are located.

I do my own laundry, but my market is not quite as high end as yours, and there is no way I could justify the costs of a laundry service.

[Mary573]

Good advice Ron.  I am off site and gone for months at a time, so I try to leave plenty of laundry.  The last folks used it all and it cost me a fortune.  The cleaning service is happy to do laundry but it doubles the cost of a turnover (I just paid $360 for a 4 day stay--about 1/3 of the total price).  I'm frustrated to say the least!  I live in a college town and I'm thinking there must me a pick up / drop off laundry service out there.  Just wondering how other people handle this situation.

Mary

[Helen3]

Hi @Mary573

Rather than using a cleaning service, use a local cleaner. Ask them to provide the linen service too at an extra cost.

[Susan194]

I have learned that whatever linens are available will be used!  I have a locked closet for all my supplies and linens I don't want used.  I just purchased a locked filing cabinet on Craig's list to keep in a closet that does not lock. This has solved the problem 

have 

[Mary573]

thanks Susan!  Sounds like other folks do the same...

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Mary573

Whatever you DON'T want guests to use or touch, lock it away - including extra linens and towels. Personally, I always put out (in clear view) the bare minimum but always tell guests to ask for more if and when they need it. I'm not stingy about providing more - I'm usually the one to ask first "Do you need new towels/new bedding/extra blanket?", but I do casually emphasize that I do not like to be wasteful. Or if a certain amount of laundry in inevitable, you should adjust your nightly price and/or cleaning fee to properly reflect your costs regardless of the price point *recommended* by Airbnb or what your competitors are charging. It does not make sense to host at a loss or not make any money because of laundry costs.

[Mary573]

Thanks for your advice!  I appreciate your ideas.

[Lisa658]

@Mary573

You could try http://www.hamiltonlinen.com/hospitality-linen-supply/boulder/80322.html

Might be worth a call.  They could even have a recommendation for you.  

You may find that you need to get a few hosts together from the same area to make a large enough minimum order or to get the price down.  The link here would have to be the housekeepers or one host who would want to take on the task of managing the account and storing the linen.  It would be great if there was a housekeeping company that was smart enough to offer linen supply.  If there is a facebook group maybe someone there would be interested in a side job managing linen for other hosts.

If your housekeepers service other AirBnB properties as well this could be a good business addition for them with a small surcharge on the linen for very little extra work - perhaps pick up and drop off service and storage.  They would likely be able to get a big enough order together for a good price if they managed this for a few homes.

We use quite a bit of linen and pay about $1 AUD = .80C USD for each pillowcover and each towel and about $1.50 per sheet - single or queen - plus GST, environmental levy and delivery.  Everything comes pressed and wrapped.  It still winds up less than $50 for one machine full of linen!  I hope they are ironing everything for that price!!

If the company is teetering a bit, you can offer to order a big amount of stock so that it has to be delivered less often if you can organise the storage.  The trucks collecting the used linen are normally out and about every day anyway so collection is not as big an issue.

Doesn't hurt to give them a call anyway particularly where your costs are so darn high!  Lisa

[Mary573]

thanks for your advice.  My problem is that I'm not on site and I really don't want to have to deal with it!  After sleeping on it I have decided to offer my guests a refund of $50 if they do their own laundry.  I'm sure some people will decline, but it maight save me a bundle!

Mary

[Harriet-and-Stu0]

@Mary573 that's an interesting idea.  Please share the details as you work them out!  Would your house cleaners let you know that the guests satisfactorily did the laundry? 

[Michelle2475]

@Mary573 that could cause a host of issues - in my opinion.  What if they just put it on a rinse cycle or don't use detergent etc. just to get a refund?  Some people are honest but I'm finding it's only about 10%.