Without clean sheets, towels, napkins, and uniforms, a hotel, restaurant, or spa can’t operate. While clean linen may be essential, a hotel laundry isn’t.
For Hotels, a Laundry is Never a Wash, It’s Money Down the Drain
Unless your business is laundry, having an on-premise laundry (OPL) is never a revenue stream. It’s not even a wash.
Even if a property has the space for an OPL, it is always a cost center. Investments in equipment, chemicals and labor are impossible to recoup because that is precious square footage that could be directly improving hotel RevPAR instead.
An OPL is the proverbial lost sock in the dryer, except in this case, it’s lost profit.
Hidden Costs Expose the Myth
Hotels allocate precious space and resources to OPLs, believing that with onsite facilities come the promise the of the linen you need, when you need it.
It’s a model that over promises and under delivers.
Even if a hotel maintains the industry linen standard of four par, there is a laundry list of multiple, unaccounted for costs, including capital investments, equipment depreciation, management time, utilities, and liability.
The cost for an OPL to process laundry is a minimum of $0.15 more per pound than the cost to outsource. When you consider that a 300-room hotel produces almost two million pounds of soiled linen annually, the savings are substantial.
Break the On-premise Cost Cycle
Outsourcing laundry is the way for hotels to break the on-premise cost cycle and sharpen their lens on enhancing guest experiences.
Accurate Budgeting
Outsourcing allows hotels to pay by rooms sold, enabling a fixed cost structure and means to better manage expenses.
Recoup Labor Costs
Whether a hotel laundry has a dedicated staff or duties are shared by housekeeping, outsourcing reduces all labor related expenses.
Reduce Capital Expenditure
Processing linens requires state of the art equipment, continued capital expenditure and expensive expertise to manage and repair assets.
Exceed Sanitation Expectations
A dedicated laundry provider can provide assurance that your linens are hygienically processed to protect your employees, guests, and brand.
Why Now
COVID -19 has changed everything. The pandemic has mandated adoption of new protocols across the hotel experience.
For hotel employees, a densely populated laundry room presents a high-risk area in which CDC guidelines for physical distancing are hard to enforce.
In the guest room, clean and hygienically prepared sheets are fundamental to a hotelier’s reputation for safety.
New expectations for sanitization can prove particularly challenging for hotel laundries. When operated without specific expertise, on-premise laundries risk compromising the ability to protect staff and guests effectively.
And in low occupancy periods, the on-premise cost to process a pound of linen increases. It is difficult for hotels to flex their cost structure to match decreased needs.
Stay Guest Ready with Our Clean Commitment
“While we have outsourced our linen for many years and appreciate the quality and consistency that go along with that, an added benefit post-pandemic is the additional level of confidence that the housekeeping staff have when handling the linen - knowing the high temperatures that are part of PureStar's process gives them peace of mind.”
DAMIEN, GENERAL MANAGER
500+ ROOM HOTEL, CHICAGO, IL
Once a Laundry Now a RevPAR Contributor
When you outsource your laundry you have time, space, and staff to devote to the amenities and experiences your guests really want inhouse – a restaurant, retail outlet, conference room, business center or a spa. The possibilities are endless.
PureStar Hotel Laundry Transformations
When an 800-room hotel in Chicago outsourced laundry to PureStar, the employee cafeteria moved into the old laundry space. Now it is a ballroom capturing a food and beverage minimum of $25,000 per event.
Outsourcing to PureStar helped one landmark hotel turn their 3rd floor laundry into 18 guest guest rooms.
With 70% occupancy at $145 a night that’s $666,855 in topline revenue.
In Denver, after outsourcing to PureStar, a hotel is remodeling the 3,000 sq. ft of the laundry into a café and retail space that will rent for $8,000 per month plus profit sharing.
A 1,600+ room resort in Orlando transformed their laundry into a spa.
It is estimated that for every dollar that an available room brings to the resort, on average, the spa contributes an additional 31 cents.
Contact your local PureStar Laundry Expert for an assessment of your facility.