Episode 54 – Hospitality/Hotel Market: Converting OPLs

Welcome to the TRSA podcast. Providing interviews and insights from the linen, uniform, and facility services industry. Most Americans might not realize it, but they benefit at least once per week from the cleanliness and safety of laundered, reusable linens, uniforms, towels, mats, and other products provided by various businesses and organizations. TRSA represents the companies that supply, launder, and maintain linens and uniforms. And in this podcast, we will bring the thought leaders of the industry to you.

 

I’m your host, Jason Risley. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Linen, Uniform, and Facility Services podcast, interviews and insights by TRSA. On today’s episode, we focus on the hotel market and how to convince hotel ownership groups to close their on premise laundries in favor of a commercial laundry provider. Joining us to discuss this topic is Bob Corfield, CEO of The Laundry Design Group, Steve Miller, vice president of Victor Kramer Company, and Terry Satchwell, vice president of strategic accounts at Pellerin Milnor. The trio has more than 110 years of experience in the linen, uniform, and facility services industry and has a wealth of knowledge in hospitality and hotel laundry operations.

 

So let’s, let’s get right into it, guys. Terry, I’ll kick it to you first. When we look at, you know, who’s converting, what does that market look like, and what does the market look like today? Absolutely. Thanks, Bob.

 

You know, as we really look at the addressable market, it’s of size and scope that it really deserves, I think, every professional Waterman’s, attention. How it fits into your plan, your current offerings. But with over 52,000 hotels and over 5,000,000 hotel rooms, it certainly is like in other parts of the world. I’ll use Europe as a a standard. We’re just beginning to do the conversion that we’ve seen in other parts of the world.

 

And so I would also add, given the pandemic, given the labor shortages, and we’ll get into some of that a little bit later, there’s a strong tailwind. The market’s solid. It’s not going anywhere, and it’s a matter of how do we go out there and capture some of it. Steve, so, you know, the studies that you’re performing, you know, what are the decision points that actually drive the discussion on whether they should either continue to in source or possibly consider outsourcing to a capable vendor? Sure, Bob.

 

It’s it’s no surprise. Everybody’s heard it before, but number 1 is cost. Can they save money? And usually, the topic comes up when capital comes up with the owners. The owners say, well, should we keep it open?

 

Let’s take a look at it. Those those are the 2 big ones. Yeah. Is there a size of property that really fits that model better than others? I mean, you know, one of the challenges I see is is that some of the providers out there will only take hotels of a certain size, say, 80 rooms and large or a 120 rooms and large or depending on their market.

 

You know, if it’s a major resort environment or an urban or or possibly a suburban environment. What do you what do you see in that respect? In my experience, the the luxury segments and the and the upper scale, that’s not room size, but they they favor having control over sir service even at a premium. And by that, I mean, if it costs a little bit more than outsourcing, they’re okay with that, particularly because of what they charge for a room, and and they like that control. So it’s a it’s a big the big point of of, of not converting.

 

And and anytime you have a large hotel in certain resort areas that you you can have a tunnel in your laundry, they have the scale to be competitive with the marketplace. They don’t need to pay for delivery charges. They don’t need to make a profit. They can compete. And in my analysis, a lot of times, they’re lower than than outsourcing.

 

But the other side works as well. I I’m objective about it. I find I find some should close. It really depends on the market too. And, Terry, what, you just came from the other side where, you guys were closing LPLs and and in sourcing.

 

What, what were the key metrics, and what really drove that? You know, I think, most importantly, it’s always good to know your audience. Right? So when we think of, ownership of hotels, you know, there’s different groups. They have different objectives.

 

And, maybe we could kinda put a label on that a little bit, take a minute. Some of these hotels, these resorts, casinos are really privately owned and operated. And so when you think about what are their metrics, you know, they’re looking at return on equity. And they they certainly, as Steve has touched on, guest service quality, taking care of the guests is a a highly competitive business. And so some of the things they really are looking at is, you know, they have the ability to adjust pricing as we all know, the average daily rate, the RevPAR.

 

And one of the things if they do fly a flag that’s critically important is guest service scores and the brand standards. I think as a commercial wanderer, as you approach the customer, I I would say that transition from being a professional wanderer to becoming a hotelier is really critically important. When you look at the circularity of our industry, the way I like to approach it in my mind is from guest use of textiles to guest use of textiles. And if we look at the model, Bob and Steve, is the healthcare industry. And we go back 20 years.

 

What led to the conversion of the healthcare industry? As has been stated, economics, it’s that’s the headline. But there were other issues. They had lost the expertise to be able to run the technology, meaning the complicated equipment. Certainly, there was a large capital investment, the space required for that equipment.

 

And so they begin to outsource. Among that was really having the expertise to be able to run the technology. And so I think as we look at what are some of the key metrics for outsourcing, one that we have to look at is what’s the ownership group? Do they lease the property? Do they own it?

 

Is it managed? Is it franchised? And I think as you start to break those apart, you’re gonna see that some of the motives of the decision makers are gonna be become more clear. Yeah. So I’m gonna I’m gonna kinda jump on one of the things you had, and that is talk about brand standards.

 

And that’s been one of the the biggest elements with managing because most hotels are COG. They buy their own one, and they they are looking for a processor to process it if they’re looking for an outsourced provider. Is there a shift now in brand standards? And, Steve, I’ll I’ll throw this out to you first. Are you seeing, are you either relaxation or at least an opening to, kind of the European model where it’s a quality standard, but not necessarily a brand standard in the bed makeup?

 

It’s a great topic, Bob. And I think over the last 2 years, you could throw everything out the window because people, you know, with supply chain issues where they they abandoned the brand name. They just wanted to win it. We we we probably have all heard the horror stories in in getting getting what you needed. So I think in certain markets, I’ve heard large management companies like like your Marriott, looking to, standardize and go to a linen supply system for their groups of hotels.

 

Back in the eighties nineties when I was with Marriott, they had plungers. They they were on the on the cusp of building them around the country, and they split up into 2 companies, a REIT and a management company. No longer it’s they have an interest in that. They don’t it’s not their core business, which is which is what Terry was talking about. But it’s it’s tough.

 

I think I think it it was temporary that they were shifting away from from the a brand standard. It’s competitive, and they all they all wanna have their own brand linen in the room. And, Terry, what, what what have you seen especially even at, the resort style in either Hawaii or or, or Las Vegas or other or Orlando. Are those those markets? Were you seeing that shift as well?

 

You know, absolutely. You know, with the labor shortage, and right now, though, I know the 3 panelists who are all traveling were different parts of of North America, but, I’ll just ask this question rhetorically. When was the last time you were in a a hotel room and you had no washcloths? And and if you look at the towels, how dissimilar was the the hand towel from from the bath towel? And so as it relates to the standards, what’s really exciting, I think, for our industry is that there’s a lot of entrepreneurs and investors coming into this space.

 

And one of the things they’ve been able to mitigate is, listen, if I’m providing linen at the standard acceptable, pick the brand, fill in the blank, or higher for the guest, then typically there there’s a variance given. I I remember very specifically. Well, if we all go back, we think of the bedwars. You know, they start it started in Manhattan with Weston. Right?

 

The heavenly bed, the heavenly bath. It it’s interesting because the actual linen and the sleep experience was so strong on its impact with the average daily rate that it became the rage. And it was great for all of us in the industry. So much so Bernie Starlick put the heavenly bed in the lobby in Manhattan, and they were selling mattresses and linen packs all over the world. And I think we’ve gotten away from that just a little bit through this pandemic.

 

We’re grateful, right, that we have people willing to come in and clean the room. There’s been a big change, I think, and I would say a business threat between a hotel operating today as it relates to linen and the guest experience in Airbnb. In other words, if you’re staying in a hotel for 3 nights and the only time your room is cleaned and services rendered for linen is on checkout, it’s a different experience. And I think that what we’re going to see from an operator and a franchisee and certainly as consumers, that that conversation is gonna be put forward, I think, with a little bit more clarity and voice. When I check into a hotel now, I ask if I can have my room cleaned daily.

 

And at a minimum, I want fresh towels. If I don’t ask, it doesn’t happen. Yeah. I think we’re seeing that. And I think but as the consumer is changing, it that becomes the question.

 

As the consumer is younger, it’s with all due respect, Terry and Steve, it’s not us, okay, that are that are worried about the business traveler. In some cases, it’s the resort or possibly the the casual traveler, and and how much are they gonna drive that. And and to your point, the Airbnb experience could have every color of towel under the rainbow, could have every, you know, every every different type of bed makeup. One of the key elements is is basically that we’ve got rid of the bedspread in in almost every major, hotel chain. In fact, every minor hotel chain.

 

I haven’t seen a bedspread in in years, and that was one of the major changes when we moved to triple sheeting, and, duvets and or, or or blanket set on triple sheet setups for beds and then multiple pillows. Even when you check into something as simple as a Hampton Inn, they would have as many as 5 pillows on the bed. Again, different feel of the pillow itself, so that bed makeup. But I think outside of of cost and and and let’s say that we can maybe start seeing a relaxation of brand standards. If a laundry or if a hotel is going to outsource, what are the non cost driven elements that are just absolutely essential?

 

If you’re making a recommendation to close a laundry, and and let’s say that it’s gonna move to a central provider, what are those non cost driven elements that are just nonnegotiable? And, Cibal, give this one to you. Oh, it’s the basic service metrics. It’s it’s on time delivery. It’s quality and service.

 

Control over services is something I just mentioned. Sometimes I’ve had clients ask me put a, you know, put a claw cost to that. If if they don’t have their winning on time, you got a housekeeper standing around waiting for it. That’s a problem. Like, that’s a costly problem.

 

I don’t think it’s so much the brand the branding of the linen. And I think we all know that when you convert an OPL to to a COG customer, you’re gonna find that they never had enough linen in the system. And and unless you can transition and let them know that they need to buy more linen so that you could serve them properly, it’s gonna be a a trouble from the start. Yeah. No.

 

I agree. I’d like to, you know, linen inventories, and some of the, some of the projects that we’ve looked at were so low, they were operating with under 2 par. And when they had their OPLs and then when they went to an outsized out outsourced provider that it needed at least 24 hour turnaround, They it it that that began the frustration as it’s setting those expectations. That’s where, really the discussion in some of the casino properties that we’ve worked with have actually moved into into into rental. And, that’s the model that they just wanna exit the laundry business, but they want assurances of quality.

 

And and again, they, they they don’t wanna fight, the supply chain for making sure that they’ve they’ve got the branded linen or the unbranded linen in the right quantities to be able to in fact, one of the biggest things. And and we’ll even go to a bit of a recent headline on this, and that is, room availability, being able to turn that room and be ready for the next guest. And, there’s a recent headline in Las Vegas that just hit, hit the market last week, where they, had reported nearly 15,000 lost room nights based on a a poor performing provider in that case. And I think that’s an important conversation because we see that in health care where, again, misdeliveries, have a direct impact on, the patient transfers, bed availability, bed transfers, and I think we’re seeing that trend. I think it’s gonna be interesting, post, you know, post COVID to see, you know, how, our industry really, looks at that.

 

So which part of the the market is is converting? Is it more urban or rural? What, Terry, what do you what do you what do you see in that? You know, I really think for me, and the clients that we work with, and certainly, again, there’s just a lot of great professional launderers, for profit laundries getting into this space. The the properties that are 200 rooms and higher, I think is really key.

 

And and the reason is that there’s some economic metrics there. But typically, they would have a flatwork ironer. And I I’m gonna kinda answer this with, kinda two sides, the risk mitigation component as well that I wanted to, for us to address. Generally speaking, when these laundries were designed and put in, they’re they’re in a basement. They’re they’re in a really crowded space.

 

Typically, worker compensation costs are real from the standpoint of air exchanges and and certainly in our current environment with COVID and how that impacts people. And so when these flatwork ironers and folders that radiate a lot of heat in a very low ceiling in a damp place, it’s really tough to get people to work in this environment. And also, in the last 10 days, there was a major fire and a and a laundry burn. You know, we know that there’s risk between gas fired equipment and lint accumulation. And so my point on risk mitigation, I think that if I’m approaching a hotel and I wanna have the kind of discussion to where all the costs become known and qualified, I wanna bring up, you know, what impact that has on insurance, what impact it has on the environment, what impact it has on employees.

 

We all know there’s a very strong labor shortage. A lot of money is being spent with recruiting and retaining employees, customer or employee appreciation. And it’s pretty difficult, I think, for a lot of these hoteliers to be able to keep people in these spaces. And so, Bob, as you think about not only geography, whether it’s urban or a resort, I think that given water and certainly the sustainability aspect, a lot of hotels are really interested. They’re they’re in the hospitality business.

 

They care about people deeply. It’s in their DNA. They’re uncomfortable asking people to work in air conditioned spaces. And, oh, by the way, you’re not a housekeeper. You’re a laundry worker.

 

You have to go work in in in 95 degree heat or something like that. And so I would say that as we think about technology, as Steve had mentioned and and Bob, you as well, if it is a laundry utilizing conventional washer extractors and they don’t have the volume or space to utilize a continuous batch washer. There’s a huge impact on the environment and the economics. Just some ratios that might be helpful. I’m sure many people could say this better than I’m I’m gonna try to say now.

 

But, water sewer costs are only going one way. They’re going up. And you have the heat of that water. And, of course, you have the cost to condition the water to the point where your softness allows you to provide the product necessary for the guest experience. 1 eighth of the water, 1 eighth of the sewer is what a modern tunnel washer will do.

 

And these washer extractors are 8x, 10x. And so I think that from a marketing perspective, from the standpoint of ESG, all the different things that are important to these corporations and what they’re socializing to investors and to the public, I think that environmental piece is is critically important. So I would just add this last comment relative to the geography. So when you’re in a market, a resort area, or where you know water costs are really high, I would also say there’s a marketing piece that’s important to that hotelier, to that operator that they can put out for meeting planners, recruitment of employees, and certainly, being part of the business community. Yeah.

 

And, Steve, what what are you seeing from, which parts of of the market really are not and great? Is it driven or is it price point or or size of service driven? What what are you seeing? It’s all of the above. I I think what the ones that are gonna convert are in in certain markets are the ones that have a good customer service and sales program.

 

You have to have someone on the street that’s going to see the customers that they have and making calls on new ones, prospective ones. Your general managers move around a lot, and and I’ve had experience in selling selling to them. When they relocate and they’ve had a happy experience, that’s the first one you call on if they have a laundry. Terry mentioned marketing. It’s it’s customer service slash salesperson out in the field on the street.

 

Any big laundry should invest in having somebody doing that, helping with the inventories. We talked about the inventories, making sure they have enough wind in this. It’s holding their hand. Successful getting other customers. Right.

 

In Europe, we’ve actually seen, programs. I’ve I’ve visited plants in in the UK and other areas that do, almost a a dedicated rental program, where, again, the rental supply or the linen supply is actually managed by the laundry and not by the hotel. And, it’s kind of a kind of it’s synergistic in that respect and also includes warehousing and new injections, and and there’s a there’s an ongoing, you know, process there. And, we’re starting to see some of that in North America, where, again, you take the hotel out of the constant replacement of of linen and understand that their quality expectation and their ability to buy new linen needs to needs to be balanced, and then usually it’s not. And, and I think that, you know, to answer the question that I’ve asked both of you is, like, where I’m seeing it, from my standpoint is combination of 2 things.

 

1, where there is a capable provider or multiple providers in a marketplace, you have good solid outsourcing occurring. And there’s, you know, there’s a a a real resource and understanding of logistics and the turnaround times, as well as the quality and fulfillment expectation. Where there are rural communities or or remote sites, mountain resorts, or in some cases, islands or other cases, you know, other, resorts that do not have a capable provider in their market. We are seeing where that is, where, the growth of OPLs continues to to grow, and they’re they’re looking to invest in capital because they really have no there’s no option for them. In that case there, it’s it’s difficult to get those those facilities to convert.

 

So, again, if there’s a difficult road getting to or from a particular area, that’s where, that’s where your challenges are gonna be. Let’s talk about the pandemic. I know that from my experience, and, I’ll have both of you jump in as you see it. We’ve seen a number of of of laundries, that were operated as as, hospitality, COG, hotel laundries fail during that period of time. We’ve we’ve counted nearly 18 laundries that have, either failed either during or just post or or or technically today as we stand here, not very not very healthy from an operational standpoint.

 

And but at the same time, the there the the hotel and the laundry are competing for the same labor market. Are you seeing this in in in your experience as well? And and how is the how is the the recent pandemic really changed the, the the laundry and, and, the OPL market for operating on on premise. You know, I can speak to that first, perhaps. You know, when we think about the pandemic and the impact it had on all of us, you know, certainly business activity as well as our personal lives, you know, we recently all have been to The Clean Show probably, and and there were some great panelists that were speaking about, CEOs of major companies.

 

I remember, one of the presidents saying, you know, in a matter of 48 hours, you know, their their revenue decreased 85%. And there were some incredible decisions that had to be made. Happened to be a major linen supplier with 80 plus plants in in North America. So we we’ve never any of us experienced the kinds of things that we’re working through. In many cases, there are many plants operated by for profit entities that that never closed.

 

I I can think of several clients. And, unfortunately, you know, a lot of tough decisions had to be made. I think the capitalization, access to liquidity, the the spirit and preciseness of decision making of the executives that had to make decisions, I think really had an impact. At the same time, I think the industry in general and hospitality specifically, everyone went through a lot of changes where they had to let key people go and and reduce service. So I don’t see that, Bob, necessarily as an obstacle to overcome, if you will, because I think everyone has experienced the hurt, the pain, the adjustment, you know, whether it’s a restaurant or whether it’s a hotel, whether it’s a commercial laundry serving a hotel.

 

But I do think it’s important that we, as launderers, become hoteliers. And what I mean by that, we need to understand their language. We need to understand their financials. We need to understand what’s important to them. When you think about having customers post a bad experience on social media about your hotel, it’s a major issue for them.

 

Earlier in my career, I was fortunate to serve, on the board of directors of Asfana, which when Starwood Hotels and all their brands, they would bring vendors and operators and, of course, West and all Sheraton and all those folks. And we would sit together twice a year and talk about things, about guest services. And I can just tell you that being able to understand the the real challenges really furthers that discussion. I’m one that believes that if the technology in space isn’t there to run an OPL, it’s just a matter of time. But I also think it’s so important to have someone that understands the hotel that’s there.

 

For example, this touches on a little bit of the rental that we’ve touched on in COG. Hotels are not good at reordering linen to maintain a sufficient par to be serviced at a high level of quality. In other words, the par levels that they have within the laundry service agreement, are they really being maintained? Are the washcloths? How often do they run out?

 

And, of course, it’s always the laundry’s fault. I didn’t get all my laundry back. And so I think that like in the health care experience of the conversion that took place 20 plus years ago, embedding ourselves into the distribution of the product on property and helping them with reorder points, helping them understand the shrinkage, if you will, of losses, whether it’s Terry products, the flat work, whatever it might be, just increases the value. Increases the value that we as an organization, as an industry, as a professional launderer bring to this clientele. Having walked on both sides, if you will, having those kinds of conversations have always been an educational opportunity for the customer.

 

In many cases, they would say, if they weren’t already rental, they would wanna convert to rental because they just were not good at keeping their par levels up. Then, that really kind of, you know, dovetails into the next conversation. That is, are they ready for rental? Because I think that’s the opportunity. Is that market ready for true rental programs, which, of course, let’s be candid with that.

 

That actually rolls right into the food and beverage side of our industry, which have ironers in processing and capability and are really good at rental. On the food and beverage side versus, say, the traditional COG operator usually doesn’t capitalize the cost of linen and, inventory management. They process what the client gives them, gets it back to them in that period of time. You know, Steve, what do you think? Is the the, hotel and hospitality industry ready for rental programs?

 

That, to me, should be the end game is is to get groups of hotels, whether it’s Marriott or Westin in the market and a little little rental bin supplies conversion. It’s it’s probably the most challenging thing though. But in my experience, when when Hilton had its central laundry, when Marriott had its central laundry, that’s the way they ran it. That’s years ago for Marriott. And Hilton with its Maritex plants, they they closed them both.

 

And I guess it’s partnering with with with textile bundles. So that that that’s that’s certainly a key ingredient is to make it happen. But I’ve I’ve heard the I’ve talked to people within Marriott in certain markets. They are interested in doing it. It’s a big big investing on the part of, of the entry operator.

 

You you then besides investing equipment, I have to have to worry about investing in land and replacing it and accounting for losses. It’s a challenge, but it should be an end goal. And we’re seeing the same thing. We’re seeing that conversation in, in in the unbranded, hotel and resort market, which, which is, in in some cases, even the virtual Airbnb or vacation rental, type hotels. They are now, offering a quality of linen, and and then a price that that goes with the service related to that.

 

And it’s, rental programs are that in the casino market. They’re they’re highly interested in it in some of the areas outside of outside of Vegas where they’re quite large or or or other areas. But, in the, secondary, in the secondary casino markets and and the rural and urban, cities and states, I think we’re seeing more of that, that conversation had at a at a very serious level. I think that that is, that’s an opening for, you know, for, TRSAs members to look at and start thinking about how they would approach it if they want that business. And then, potentially, they would pick up food and beverage, floor care, other things that potentially make a, you know, an ongoing stop at a at a hotel, a bit more more viable.

 

And, Terry, are what do what do you see, what do you see in in that respect? Do you see it moving quickly, or or still is it just a slow conversation moving towards Europe I think you had mentioned before? I I think it’s really a challenge. Trepidation, concern, worry. The discussion of correct linen replacement cost, the merchandise cost, is a complex one, and and it’s one that requires a lot of heavy lifting.

 

Right? So I think I I think of the adage, Henry Ford said once, whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right. And and so I think it almost has to become, you know, one of your core beliefs is that let’s think about plant operations for just a minute. Would you rather run 45, 55, 60, pick the number, number of properties, Separate batches. Keep them separate through your entire factory.

 

Right? Every department. Or have 2 or 3 different styles of linen, if you will. Standard, which is great. Luxury and maybe even specialty.

 

And so I think it comes down to the contractual relationship and the understanding of absolute truths. What I mean by that is this. Linen will be lost. Linen will be stolen. There is shrinkage.

 

And I think that a real holistic approach to that goes a long way in the relationship. Specifically, if in my judgment, whether it’s COG or whether it’s rental, it’s been my experience that if there isn’t a lot of attention given to housekeeping cleaning rags, Stains will occur. The housekeeping staff will take a piece of textile fabric, pillowcase, hand towel, or wash cloth. And they’re gonna do what needs to be done in that room or in the hallway back of the house. The point I wanna make here is the the immediacy of of addressing that, for example, has a material impact on linen replacement, stains, and tears.

 

I think that from a commercial position, that particularly if you’re up the food chain, this is a much more difficult conversation with operational people, mid mid management. It’s a much easier conversation when you’re dealing with the the folks that control the equity and are running the properties at a high level. And that is they have historically an accounting system that shows how much money they have spent on linen laundry service in house. Now as accurate or inaccurate as it may be, meaning let’s take a minute to talk about direct expenses and indirect. Just looking at direct typically and having spent a lot of space and time with as Steve and Bob has in this area, it’s easy to account the people that HR has put into the laundry.

 

It’s much more difficult on the linen distribution side and certainly more difficult when you have crossover employees that occur in most properties, meaning housekeepers finish. They’re out of towels. Everyone’s down there folding towels to get them up to the guest room. If an approach that is inclusive of linen replacement costs, All in, based on room nights sold, is approached to an executive from an operational accounting finance position, general manager and above. That’s what he needs.

 

It’s easy to plan. It’s easy to put in the budget. Just pick a number, but we’ll just use arbitrarily $4.50. But whatever the number is, they know when they sell a guest room based upon their standard, based upon the level of service they wanna provide, as Steve mentioned, whether it’s a luxury customer or whether it’s full service hotel, whatever the case may be, he can plan for that. And in that cost needs to be the appropriate amount of money to have a rental program that takes the argument, the confrontation away from the service provider and the hotel.

 

Some models, actually, that’s how they would charge a hotel. Not on pounds, not on pieces, and it was room nights sold. And so maybe some of our listeners here, they’re thinking, well, how in the world would you do that? What about trust? Remember, each of these hotels are contracted to report rooms nights sold both at a state level and a local level for sales tax or for room tax.

 

It’s easy to ask and obtain those records that are submitted for verification of room nights sold. It’s a nice way candidly to enhance the profitability of the relationship. And the convenience is so nice between now if a general manager is selling a 135,000 room nights, he knows exactly what his expenses are. It’s pay as you go. It’s, you know, pay by room nights sold.

 

So I like that model. I I like it a lot, and I think it can help be the, accelerant, if you will, to see the COG conversion to more rental. I I’m gonna agree, and I’m gonna say that there is the the as as we like to use this word, there’s a buzzword. It’s there’s a hybrid model. We have customers to your point.

 

I think you pointed out earlier in the discussion is that, mostly flat sheets, ironing. That kind of thing is quite difficult. Our textile providers out there are now providing no iron sheets that look decent and and at a certain price point for a certain type of hotel, business hotels, some, others. But, in the luxury market, I think Steve would probably say that, yeah, that’s not gonna be acceptable. But I think what we’ve seen is that we’ve we’ve looked at, hybrid relationships where the flat goods, are are are sent out and processed and possibly even rented, whereas the cherry items are kept in house.

 

That becomes, to your point of high loss items that have to be managed as well as high damage items, which have to be managed and addressed, where Terry is is kept in house and processed, whereas flat goods are sent out. And, we’ve we’ve actually seen a couple programs and recommended a few of our clients move in that direction. And, that becomes an opportunity for the professional launder, in in a in a particular market, either a COG or possibly a rental service company to pick up that work. But maybe stay out of the towels and terry business where you have high loss rate. And, potentially, depending on the quality of the towel, you could have some challenges with, again, keeping them branded and and at the at the same level.

 

So, I think that, you have to sometimes think a little differently as you’re talking about, how they would charge for it either as a percentage of room night revenue, or, or, or which is essentially what we see in the Airbnb laundry development market, where, again, it’s a percentage of of of room night revenue is is an acceptable rate for the the amount of laundry cost for for a particular room night. So those become, areas of opportunity and discussion. If you’d like more information on the hospitality and hotel market, send an email to podcasts attrsa.org. That’s podcasts attrsa.org. If you liked what you heard today, please subscribe, rate, and review our show on Apple Itunes, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.

 

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