Lay My Hat

I'm a newbie who is just settling up a holiday rental in South Devon and am just becoming aware of how much there is to think about.

It's currently towels that are casing me grief. I bought some beautiful, fluffy, white ones from Matalan - really high gsm - and was so pleased to find them - until I started to wash them! They took forever to dry in my (very efficient) tumble dryer. They also took a lot of space - could only get a couple in at a time. Just won't have time at changeover to manage them. Thank goodness for Matalan's very generous returns policy - they were great about taking them back ( though had to keep the ones I washed). It's certainly been a hard lesson. What do others do about towels? Is there a good place to get them from? Any advice ?

Primark Luxury range (not their Home range) are good quality and wash well. I find they last about 2 years with very regular washing. They also look good and, in comparison to all the other suggestions you will get, are cheap as chips. I get pillow protectors there (2 for 4€) and mattress protectors (6€ for singles). Their pillows are not so good but they have a decent memory foam one at 12€. UK prices will be different but you get the idea.

If you and/or your guest are label conscious just snip them out

Interested to read about Primark's range, Marks - will check it out as we're always on the hunt for good towels.

Sherry, if you can't get to a Primark, have a look and see if your local supermarket is doing a 2 for 1 offer. We've bought towels from both a hotel suppliers and from our local supermarket and can honestly say I haven't noticed a difference in the rate of wear-and-tear between the two. The supermarket ones, on the 2 for 1 deal were significantly cheaper, though.

Hi Sherry, welcome to LMH. I also use Primark luxury range. This is the start of the third year in use. Lots of wear left in them.

I also use them at home - starting to look a bit worn after 8 years!

I use the frajen towels from Ikea: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/text ... -40159205/
they're less bulky than normal towels because they have a kind of waffle effect. Had them a couple of years and they're doing fine, mine are the colour of milky coffee.
Instead of bath sheets I use good quality turkish towels, I got mine from Soak and Sleep. For pool towels I also have cheaper and more cheerful turkish towels.

Get double what you need (at least) so you're not racing to wash and dry them during a change over, take them home and do them at your leisure, one less thing to worry about at changover and you might end up with stains or other issues that mean you can't just wash and replace even if they do all fit in the dryer.

You'll never get all the bed linen and towels washed and dried on changeover day if you're in the UK and relying on a tumble drier.

We have 3 sets of everything because we also do short breaks sometimes so it means that towels picked up on a Friday don't have to be washed in time for Monday's changeover.

Our last towels came from a recommendation on here - we haven't had them long so I don't know how they'll last but they're ok so far:
http://www.ajtowelling.com

You really do need 2 or 3 sets of everything.

Our towels are from King Of Cotton and are very good quality for the price.

I've got Ikea frajen ones too.

I am trialling at home some towels from Asda. Hand ones £4 and Bath sheets only £6!! Been washed several times now and are fine. Obviously not as thick and luxurious as more expensive ones but I don't want that anyway as they take forever to dry in tumble dryer. Nice colours too.

Yes I get a lot of stuff from asda - I recently replaced our duvets from there and they are great. I think Asda do reasonable quality at a good price really well. I often order online (more choice) and pickup in store so no p&p. The beauty is that at that price you can refresh things every couple of years if they start to look tired although often things last much longer.

I think the recommendation for A J Towelling came from me. I have all my towels (600gsm) and bath mats from them and they have held up extremely well

We bought white towels (Egyptian cotton from Dunelm) to start with but our housekeeper said go darker as we suffered lots of mascara, fake tan and make up stains. So we replaced them over time with a lovely silvery grey (same make). Now we get lots of patches from bleach use. Can't win!

That's why I went with AJ Towelling - buying in bulk cheaply but with good 600gsm quality. I wasn't going to weep about spoiled towels, I just passed them to my property manager to use for his dogs. I had comments from guests about how good the towels were, and that was because they were not used to within an inch of their lives whereby they became flat, worn, uncomfortable, not exactly white and something short of luxurious.

We went with M+S towels, just down from their top of the range ones. We also went for white, we just feel guests expect white, even if they can be more difficult to keep clean.

Sherry - whereabouts in Torbay are you? We are in Brixham.

We buy our towels from Costco, cheap and good quality.