Get insight into why U.K. hotels prefer full-service linen rental to buying inventory and outsourcing its laundering. You’ll also hear from a U.S. linen service that has 90% of its hotel volume in rental as opposed to customer owned goods (COG). The vast majority of U.S. TRSA members who specialize in this market point to difficulty achieving such success as rental fees are higher and customers don’t do the math to recognize the bottom-line benefit. In the U.K., linen services can charge more for COG. Hoteliers view rental as more effective, economical and satisfying to guests.
Virtues of rental perceived by hoteliers that may incline them to choose this option:
- Simplicity of delegating purchasing and laundering so they can dedicate labor to other functions
- Linen service pinpoints losses by evaluating each customer’s linen replacement rate, recognizing where deliveries exceed pickups
- Availability of luxury, mid-scale and economy linen lines
- Expertise of linen service in choosing merchandise economizes with selection of more durable, equally attractive products
Learn from rental success stories how hoteliers recognize they don’t buy enough linen on their own, which requires repeated servicing of the same linen. They realize their merchandise costs increase and so do the linen service’s (especially route labor and fuel). Hoteliers ultimately bear these COG service costs, further increasing the allure of rental.
Presenters: David Stevens, CEO, Textile Services Association, London, England; Mike Benik, chief operating officer, People’s Linen, Keene, NH
