DC-Area Hotel Laundry Welcomes Customer RFID

In line with an emerging trend among customer-owned goods (COG) hotel laundries to serve select customers with their own RFID-tagged linen, a Washington-area operation recently reintroduced this RFID technology, along with a number of other equipment upgrades.

Metro Laundry Service, Capitol Heights, MD, originally installed RFID tracking equipment in 2018 for hotel customers that used the tags. The service was suspended during the COVID-19 lockdowns until 2023. Now as business has revived, Metro has brought back the RFID system, which is helping improve efficiency and cut losses, COO Steven Young said.

“Now that the system is back in place and being utilized, we’re ready to accommodate our client’s needs, whether they are new to RFID or if they are already using it,” Young said. “It can be a game changer when it comes to linen tracking, especially for our larger clients who have a lot of linen turnover.”

Founded in 2002 in a 1,000-square-foot (92-square-meter) warehouse that resembled an on-premise hotel laundry, Metro has grown dramatically since then to today’s 24,000-square-foot (2,229-square-meter) plant that’s nearly maxed out its productive capacity at 65,000-75,000 lbs. (29,483-34,019 kg.) per day, Young said. Metro recently has made a number of equipment upgrades to boost its productivity in the DC-area hotel market.

The company has five ironer lines. Metro recently replaced several old ironing systems with thermal-oil ironers from Lapauw/Toto. This new equipment provides a range of benefits, including faster turnaround times, increased reliability, customizable heating settings and stain identification. They also operate using natural-gas fired thermal-oil heat instead of steam. This reduces the company’s reliance on less-efficient boilers, thus saving natural gas.

Other equipment upgrades include a three new Olma small-piece folders from JP Equipment. Metro managers are considering adding a fourth folder. “This piece of equipment has worked well for us and increased production,” Young said. “We have had the equipment for about eight months now. On average we do about 2,000 to 2,500 pieces per hour between the three machines. This is without any pre-sorting and processing a wide variety of terry products from different hotels.”

The plant’s main workhorse is its Lavatec Laundry Technology tunnel washer. The tunnel has 15 130-lb. compartments, along with six shuttle-fed dryers. The tunnel processes goods at a rate of .08 gallons per lb. Later this month, Metro plans to install a new Lavatec press for the tunnel that will squeeze more water out of the “cakes” of goods that emerge from the tunnel. This is expected to cut drying time, which will save natural gas.

Metro also has made improvements to its route-delivery operations, by adding dashboard cameras (dash cams) to all its fleet vehicles. This technology helps ensure safety by monitoring driver behavior and alerting drivers to roadway hazards while on the route.

Metro will continue to improve its fleet and plant operations by leveraging the latest supplier innovations that can improve safety, efficiency and throughput. “We are always watching technology in our industry to see what best benefits our operation and our clients,” he said. “The pursuit of technology is not only for increased production and efficiency but also for best practices related to environmental sustainability and business sustainability.” A key goal is to add systems that can help the company address rising utility costs. “We anticipate making significant equipment upgrades to reduce water consumption and overall energy consumption in the next five years,”

For now, business is booming. That represents a dramatic turnaround from the slowdown hoteliers experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This included many of the hotels that Metro was servicing. Occupancy rates fell to 5%-10% per night during the pandemic from a normal rate of 70%-80%. Now, with the late-summer tourist season in full swing, many hotels are running at 80%-90% capacity, Young said.

That spike in demand has spurred Metro’s efforts to keep pace with demand with equipment upgrades, as outlined above. The company is looking for a second location, but demand for commercial real estate in the DC area is fierce.

Metro’s limited capacity has made the company more selective about taking on new clients. “Yes, we are definitely looking to expand and are near capacity now,” Young said. “We are currently investing in newer equipment and more automation at the current plant to increase capacity as much as possible to meet high customer demand. Our service is in very high demand, and we are actually having to turn some clientele away due to capacity. Good problem to have!”