Linen Hire?

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greenbarn
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Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 6:41 pm
Location: The Westmorland Dales, Cumbria

Linen Hire?

Post by greenbarn »

Does anyone use a linen hire service that covers the North West?

During our first year we've been using Shortridge www.shortridgelaundry.co.uk (originally North West Linens) for bed linen and towels, and their service has been very poor, frequently delivering bedding that was unusable, and/or not delivering the correct quantities. Last straw was this morning when Lady G put a duvet cover on only to discover a big rip in it :evil:, and the one she replaced it with was marked. :evil: :evil:

They didn't respond to, or even acknowledge, a written complaint some time back, and we just think they can't be bothered to provide a good service.

A quick local search has thrown up a nearby branch of Sunlight - does anyone use them, as I think they're pretty much nationwide? Anyone based up here got any recommendations? Other local owners have also been using Shortridge, and equally unhappy, so if anyone can suggest a good alternative we'd be grateful!
jane reed
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Post by jane reed »

Just to let you know what we do, i have 3 sets of laundry for all our cottages. On change over day i have a large plastic box for each cottage which contains clean bed linen, table cloths, cleaning cloths, teatowels etc. The cottage then gets cleaned and all items used, i place all the dirty items which have come out of the cottage back in the box and it get bagged up and my husband delivered it to the laundry and collect the clean bed linen from the previous week.
I have found this the cheapest solution but you must buy bed linen with button or metal poppers as the plastic ones get melted, also if you find a particularly dirty item i always wash this myself after a soak in vanish.
i hope this helps
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greenbarn
Posts: 6146
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 6:41 pm
Location: The Westmorland Dales, Cumbria

Post by greenbarn »

Thanks for that - it seems like a halfway house between hiring the linen, which we do at the moment, and investing in the time and equipment to do one's own laundry.
Definitely worth a good think!
Nightowl
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Post by Nightowl »

I do the same thing for our london lets. I have turquoise towels for the ground floor flat and lilac for the upper floor and I use the same design IKEA duvet covers for all the single beds and I have a supply of 4 double duvet covers in each flat, plus some spares. That way I know which goes with which flat. I take everything to our local laundry for a service wash, the guy knows me well now and he'll collect from me and deliver it back to me - or I sometimes drop it off on my way home from work.

He folds it all straight after it comes out of the tumble driers and the duvet covers and sheets hardly ever need ironing.

If I've got sets of linen from both flats being done at the same time, its easy to identify what towels belong to which flat, the single duvet covers don't matter cos they are all the same, and I know which duvets goes with which flat. Teatowels and table cloths also go in.

It usually costs me between £15 and £20 per flat changeover (depending on numbers) and he gets it all back to me the next day. He supplies receipts for me for accounting purposes. don't know what I'd do without him.

I wouldnt want to hire stuff in as you can't be sure of the quality (as you are finding). If one of my towels gets stained I can pick it out (me and my cleaner use those ones for polishing the taps and shower screens) so they still come in useful.

Theres no way I'd have time to do it all myself.
Nightowl
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backwards......
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