Advise Needed-Towels (I know-weird topic)

[Summer64]

When I started Airbnb-I read someplace that the advice was to do all white towels. I do have a black little wash clothe with "Make Up" monogrammed on it for female guests. Anyway, so lately over the past couple of months, I've had a lot of ruined white towels. Stains that are orange/brownish which honestly looks like blood or fecal matter.  I've sprayed on stain remover, then bleached, and still ruined.

The towels I buy are about $8 each, so when 1 out of 3 guests starts staining them (the big towels, not the wash clothes) it gets pricey. 

So....couple of questions/advice: 

1. Do you use white towels? If so, are you having this issue?

2. Is there a cheap place you're buying your towels?

3. Would you switch to a darker colored towel so that these stains aren't visible if they don't come out?

Would love to get some advice from some experienced hosts about this.

[Jill-And-Ron0]

@Jenny349  Your places look incredibly clean and well-maintained so we would stay there even with colored towels!  They are beautifully designed, not cluttered and your gray towels in the one listing are neatly folded.   We would take all of these things into account.  When we were new to Airbnb we stayed at a couple disgusting places and are now very careful. 

[Emilia42]

I use primary white towels. I have dark grey towels in one of my listings and I occasionally find them with small blech stains (from acne face wash or blech reside left in the bathroom or because I sometimes use bleach when doing laundry.) Oddly, this happens quite often to the bathmats. But for the white towels, I have found that the cheaper the towel, the easier it is for the stain to set. My first round of cheap towels was done in about 3 months. I now use a $20 towel (which goes on sale to $13-$15 once a year and I stock up.) I've had these towels for almost 2 years now and I swap one out every once in a while. They are definitely blemished when I put them in the washing machine but come out of the dryer stain-free.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Emilia42 

Agreed - cheap linens are false economy.

[Linda108]

I find this topic interesting because all the responses seem to have great thought and rationale, much of which I hadn't considered.  I am a white towel person in my own life so just extened that to hospitality.  In my case, I provide make up remover toweletts and my guests have been fairly careful with the white towels, but I have a good friend who doesn't realize that the leg tanning cream she uses is highly staining and resistent to bleaching. 😞  I like the Ikea large size towel, in white of course, as it seems more luxurious, especially for larger people.  I also like that there is a tab sewn into each size towel, which works well with the hooks I use in place of towel racks.  I live in the desert and nothing stays moist for long so hooks work here.

[Anonymous]

@Summer64  Personally, I'm in the Colored Towel camp (or shall we say, Towels Of Color). You're a homestay host, not a hotel with an industrial laundry, so Regulation White is not essential. 

If white is more your style, there's nothing wrong with that either. But I hate the idea that a towel is somehow ruined when it has a stain - that's just needlessly wasteful. As long as the fabric is still in good shape, you can upcycle it by dying it a dark color and repurposing it. I've seen a rule in several holiday houses: white towels are for in-home use, colorful towels can be taken out to the beach/lake/pool. 

[Summer64]

@Anonymous  I had not thought of dying it, but that is an inspired idea! Figured I'd just be using them as rags. Though it would have to be a dark color. Pretty convinced due to the amount of washing and bleach used, it isn't coming out at this point. I upped my listing price by $1 more....just to start covering towel cost. LOL. Though, I guess I should charge people, I mean, I'm in my house, I could soak it and provide another if something gets on it in order to save it. 

I aspire to one day have a pool to provide towels of color (that cracked me up, BTW) for....but won't be this house. I have some very nice, big, established trees I refuse to cut that shade a lot and some squirrels/lizards/birds have made home in. 

As always, so thankful for my fellow hosts' feedback!!!

[Debra300]

We have a large capacity front-load washer and dryer at our guesthouse and in the apartment.  When we did all of the laundry for guests who stayed in our suites, we used plush colored sets of towels.  After we renovated, and put compact washers in each suite, we switched to the Costco white hospitality towels, because they fit in the small machines.  We also provide dark colored makeup face towels.  Thus far, only one guest has stained a towel, but she left it to soak in the washer.  I sprayed some stain remover on it before washing, and that did the trick.

We've been re-opened for just one month, and it must be a Caribbean thing, because all of our guests have been either locals, returning nationals, or regional, and most have brought their own towels.  Even the folks who now live in Canada and the US traveled with them although the listing photos show that we provide towels.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

we have all whites. We had a lot of problems with stains but then we have changed the laundry service and now we don't have stains anymore

We Tried gray towels but they were stained by acne product within the first month.

This is the best solution  🙂

[Brian2036]

@Summer64 

Incidentally I don’t think this is a weird topic at all.

It has been very instructive and useful and I thank you for posting it.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Summer64 

I also use different shades of grey and blue towels. Same for bed sheets/covers. We haven't had a single guest complain about the color of our bedding and towels. 

[Jillian115]

@Summer64 I use white towels so I can bleach them and get rid of bacteria. I have had stains in the past. When bleach doesn't do the job, I use Fels-Naptha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REMQUyTjRBs

[Christine615]

I use dark blue towels from Costco. About $7.99 each unless on sale. They're soft, fluffy and hold up to guest use. So far, so good.

[Willene1]

We use mostly white fluffy luxury towels but I like to add a few soft mint ones to match the bathroom.  I was puzzled how our new soft mint hand towels were ruined with bleach stains recently so messaged the guest privately. He said his 3 kids wipe their faces after brushing their teeth and is probably from the bleaching toothpaste as it happens at home as well!  (I would think if he knew that, he would’ve had them use the facial wipes we also provide) He was kind enough to insist on paying to replace them but I was mighty upset about that it happened. I did end up bleaching the mint towels to white as they were brand new and they came out surprisingly okay. So adding colour into the mix here certainly backfired on me!  

[Colleen253]

@Willene1 “….as it happens at home as well!” That’s the part that gets me. If it happens to your stuff at home, you’re well aware of the problem, and pardon me but why then do you let it ruin other peoples things? How is that acceptable? Ugh. 

[Cyan5]

I use navy blue or dark green towels.

With the water here, white is almost impossible to maintain.