Bed Linen- lost the will to live !

If you are planning to buy a rental home, or you're thinking about what to do with one you have just acquired, this is the place for any questions about starting out in the rentals business.
Wiltscottage
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 11:29 pm
Location: Bradford on Avon

Post by Wiltscottage »

Thanks Zebedee,
I am going for two bath sheets, four bath towels and six hand towels, so just enough for six at a time. I'm looking into other brands such as mitre and richard ashworth but they are all of a similar price so I must be out of touch.
Am now going to look at Dunelm and poly mixes!
zebedee
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

I looked at dunhelm, but then rejected them.

For towels you need them to have the edges (I don’t know if the expression is over sewn), but whatever it takes to stop the edges from fraying.
Out of Eden ones meet that criteria. I can’t remember if Dunhelm ones did, or if it was the reviews about washing etc that made me decide to go with out of Eden.

That was more than a year ago. Reviews may say different things now.
Emmy
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2016 10:01 am
Location: Charente
Contact:

Post by Emmy »

Hi,
See my post directly above your original, willscottage. I use Hilden. I know a lot about textiles and opted for 80/20 for a variety of reasons. You do need 3 sets per bed - that's what we've found. We spent £2,000 on bedding in around June 2016 and apart from a few stained pillowcases we've thrown out,it's all still in good order. Mattress protectors were not part of this, nor were actual pillows and duvets. It covered single and double fitted sheets, duvet covers, pillow protectors, pillowcases, bath sheets, hand towels, bath towels (for pool) plus a few kitchen towels. We have 5 bedrooms so that's for 4 double beds and 3 singles/10 people at any one time. It IS more expensive than you'd think, but £600 for 6 seems way too high. I'd also say that 300 count 100% cotton isn't always the best option. We get very hit summers and ours have had no complaints.
Joanna
Posts: 1091
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2007 3:12 pm
Location: Chester, North West England & Sidmouth, East Devon
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Post by Joanna »

We get towels from http://www.ajtowelling.com/ and they've been good value and reasonably priced.

We got bed linen from Dunelm when we started because I didn't know where else to look (that was before I discovered LMH). It was OK but seemed to shrink over time, especially where we use a commercial laundry, so the fitted sheets get harder and harder to put on!

I recently ordered some replacement pillow cases and sheets from https://www.richardhaworth.co.uk/ after recommendations on here.

It gets easier when you can just order a few replacements at a time. It's those early set up costs when you have to buy everything in one go that can be eye watering! As always, it depends on your market - if you're going for luxury then you'll have to pay more. We were more mid-range so Dunelm was OK for us to start.

Our general principle was to start out with what we could afford and then every time something needs replacing we go up a level in quality if at all possible.
Jo

Joint owner of Baker's Cottage in Chester & Chandler's Cottage in Sidmouth
rosebud
Posts: 625
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:24 pm
Location: Steyning, West Sussex

Post by rosebud »

Hi Wilts Cottage

Yes that does sound a lot to me ..

At the end of last year I bought 2 sets of fitted sheets and pillowcases (poly cotton) for my 2 bed, sleeps 3 cottage, to replace my assortment from different sources in shades of white that didn't always quite match. Hoping that if I need to buy more the same brand will be available.

You could shop around .. I have bought Christy's towels online previously, and John Lewis towels and duvet sets - sometimes in the sale.

Still using a (cheap) BHS duvet set bought when I started in 2011! Not much damage to my bed linen over time .. towels tend to have a shorter life.

Jenny
Wiltscottage
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 11:29 pm
Location: Bradford on Avon

Post by Wiltscottage »

Thanks for all of the advice and suggestions.

I spent hours researching online and eventually went for Out of Eden commercial laundry range for my first set. I then spent hours looking in stores at the quality for subsequent sets, but the comparable quality towels were actually just as if not more expensive that Eden, so I bought duplicates from them too.

Now to find a storage box as our local laundry doesn't collect on changeover days....
Karen&John
Posts: 59
Joined: Sun Aug 13, 2017 6:50 pm
Location: Norfolk

Post by Karen&John »

Now to find a storage box as our local laundry doesn't collect on changeover days....

This presented us with a problem when our local laundry changed their pick up/drop off day.
We started with 3 sets of everything but then we found that we then needed 4!
Happy days.

Best,
J&K
nicknsally
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2016 9:15 pm
Location: Cornwall
Contact:

Post by nicknsally »

We got a huge amount of useful information from this post and the forum a couple of months back when we were furnishing our two holiday places - so we thought we would post what we did. The guests certainly seem to like it all.

So for beds we went to hotelcontractbeds.co.uk - we bought the Pocket Dream 1000 mattresses, some on divans, some on slatted beds. Also a sofa bed which is excellent.

Bedding - arrgh! So after much deliberating we asked our laundry where they would recommend - and they suggested Mitre. They were excellent, really helpful and suggested some things we hadn't thought of - increasing the quality and saving us money. We went for their Comfort Satin range - they are really well made and launder beautifully. We also got duvets, pillows, and everything else from them - speak to Mike Colston, he is excellent.

So two slight hiccups. First was when we slept on the beds ourselves to test them - hard! Well we thought so anyway. So we went back to Mitre and bought high quality tercel toppers for all the beds - everyone loves them so that worked. The other is that we bought a five foot zip and link for our second bedroom - greedily hoping to make it suitable for a wider customer base. It hasn't really worked - the 2ft 6in singles it makes are too small for anyone but children - and even older children really prefer something a bit bigger. We will probably swap them for two three foot singles before next summer.

So thanks for all the advice here - and hope this is useful to someone else starting out!

Nick and Sally
Sunbeam
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2015 5:24 pm
Location: Spain

Post by Sunbeam »

Richard Haworth Blenheim - cotton percale has worked well for us. We launder and iron ourselves and find it quite easy to iron. We have 2.5 times what's needed (for changeover and a bit to spare) and it still all looks and feels as good as new after 5 years. Their customer service is excellent too.
RoseRed
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2021 3:27 pm
Location: Norfolk

Post by RoseRed »

Hi … First timer here.

I bought double duvet sets, mattress protectors and pillow protectors in lovely prints from Asda. They are cotton and wash beautifully. I also bought brushed cotton fitted sheets and pillow cases. Very pleased with everything as they have washed and ironed well.

I once bought Egyptian cotton sheets for our home and they were absolute pigs to iron so I would never buy those again.

Cancer UK charity shops do a brand new range of towels and face cloths. I bought mustard colour bath sheets for £6.49 and they are fantastic quality. Lovely and thick and they wash well. I also bought hand towels and they were only a few pounds each. They come in mustard, pink or grey I believe.
zebedee
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

The test may come after a bit more time. I think you only sleep 2??? But if say you had a couple of single beds as well, you would want matching duvet covers and when one needs replacing and the other is serviceable, you sometimes find you cannot get the pattern again.

Generally, hospitality standard linen can be matched at a later date, is easier to put on the bed and lasts longer. This may not be an issue for you with one small let.

You may also be able to achieve a higher rent with higher end bed linen. Don’t forget it is difficult to not be booked this year owing to travel restrictions. But next year you may get a better idea of what your competition is. I hope you continue to reinvest in your property and you will find it worthwhile. Just on a personal note, I would hate to find brushed cotton bedding as I can’t abide the feel of it. I’m pleased you are on the forum as your suggestions will be of help to others. It’s expensive setting up a holiday let, particularly when others do your changeovers, and you need at least 3 sets of everything. Did you get waterproof mattress covers from Asda as well as cotton covers? It’s a good idea to have both as less expensive that buying a new mattress if an accident occurs.
Sunbeam
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2015 5:24 pm
Location: Spain

Post by Sunbeam »

good advice from zebedee. investing in good/hotel quality bedlinen will pay for itself in time - not just for the positive reviews but it will last longer. I also agree with zebedee's brushed cotton comment. with a small rental the outlay shouldn't be too onerous.
May_8
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jan 30, 2018 6:41 pm

Post by May_8 »

I’m just setting up and am looking at bedding.

I’m wondering about two protectors, one zipped to fully encase the mattress, then another to go over the Out of Eden feather and down topper. Thing is, are all waterproof protectors a bit plasticky? Does anyone know a good breathable one? I’m wondering if it’s worth getting the feather and down topper to then go and put a synthetic protector on top!?
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