Towels??

[villa sibillini]

We run a small b and b in marche, italy and started with our own linen and towels. However after the same experience and of course with stained tablecloths, we now use a really economical laundry service.

They supply all linen and we pay by weight. Every week we call to order and they take away the soiled linen. Its all in plastic, labelled washed and ironed, and if something is damaged its not our loss, as they supply everything.

Would definitely not go back to having our own - saves on everything including time and worry.

[Mouse]

The main problem I have had with towels have been the lighter coloured ones - I'm now gradually changing these. I have a very dark natural colour (which are by far the best) and dark plum - nothing shows on them.
However the turquoise ones and some old light yellow ones I used at first where quickly ruined with stains I couldn't remove.

What I decided to do with the stained towels (cos the dog had more than enough!) was to make them into cushion covers for round the pool! I have lots of very cheap cushions outside (to save guests being tempted to take the inside ones outside....even though they're told not to). But these quickly became stained. So I got a friend to stitch the towels into covers and they're great! So cheap. Absorbent and it doesn't matter what condition they're in.
I've done 4 so far and need another 4 to complete the sunbeds.

Perhaps hiring the towels out at a cost would be better for you Susan. Or make it VERY clear that any ruined towels will be deducted from the damage deposit.
I do this but do hate it, however after being very nice about damage for the first year - I got a reality check and now charge! So far this years clients have been nice about it and I've had to deduct from the deposit of 4 lots of guests so far.

Mouse
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[debk]

Ohhh, I can't pass up a towel thread... but I haven't much to say except this: Could the stain problem be related to having pools/suntan oil? Or are non-pool owners having the same problem?

We get our fair share of messy guests, but I'm getting ready to steal good rental towels for my family because "ours" are horribly worn out and the rental ones still look great after two years. I'm tired of waiting for a stain to get some fluffy towels back into the family mix.

We have white -- fluffy obviously -- towels (from Textura in Spain) in our four rentals... le's say 30 bath per week, plus the face and hand towels... and only max 2-3 bath towels get permanently stained per year. That's about 1%.

After losing a few white face cloths last summer to mega-makeup users, I started this year with a small, framed sign in each bathroom that says "Please use colored face towels for removing makeup. For other cleaning, please use rags stored under kitchen sink." So far, no destroyed face cloths.

We are careful to put stain remover on each/every spot before throwing in the wash (we do this at checkout and leave in the rental washing machines so that we don't bring towels home; sheets are enough to fuss with!). We use liquid SKIP detergent which is a good quality. Nothing unusual in all this. Maybe it's our water?

So, in reading this thread, I wonder if suntan lotion from using nearby pools might be the culprit? Everything else, including makeup, shoe grime, etc, comes out in the wash around here. (OK. I'm remembering one family last year, so friendly, so FILTHY on the towels, that i had to soak them... after getting advice here at LMH. But it eventually all came out.)

All in all, I'm sorry to hear about these troubles. I know I'd be quite miffed if a lot of our towels suddenly got ruined. They are expensive!
debk

[Mouse]

Oh I might just add that towel bales are now extremely cheap in the UK (2 x face cloth, hand towel and bath towel).
You can get them in M&S I think for about £9.50 complete. My neighbour bought hers there (a dark colour) and she says they are holding up great (and they have lots more colours now)

I got mine from Next at £18.99 per bale and apart from a little fading on the most used plum ones they have lasted very well (nearly 2 summers now).

I think thats enough to pay for towels is you have 'average' guests.

Mouse
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[Ciapolin]

Villa Sibillini,

I have thought about using a company to supply all linen, but assumed we aren't big enough - I can have a maximum of 12 people at any one time.

What numbers do you handle?

[Hells Bells]

I can confirm that the £9.50 towels bales are lovely. That is what is in my apartment. Some of them were a little hard and grey,intead of cream, but that was down to the hard water and not using enough detergent. I solved that with the tip in the original towel thread(page 15) Two of everything. I supplemented with some larger bath sheets which were for personal use, but they were just £5 on my local market stall.

[Sue Dyer]

Matalan in the U.K is good for cheap but hardwearing and presentable towels too.

[Ju]

I've had Matallan pool towels before, in fact I now use them (why do we always get the second hand stuff when the guests get the nice new stuff!), but I didn't find they stayed very fluffy, or presentable. I now use Ikea pool towels, which although more expensive, are also harder wearing.

[la vache!]

Thanks to everyone for their advice - I think I'm going to do stick with the towels and put the price up as Ju suggested, but only go for darker colours, although they are more expensive. If I hire them out, I still have to buy them and have them in stock anyway!
Another question, for bath towels, what dimensions do you think - 1m x 1.5m or 70cm x 1.4m? The last lot I got were the bigger size, but my own towels aren't that big and they do take up a lot of room in the washing machine at that size.

[Ju]

I use bath sheets for the double rooms and bath towels for the twin rooms. Mostly our twin rooms are used by children, but when they are used by adults I've never had any complaints about the towel sizes.

Colour wise the ones which stand up best to wear are the mid tones. Very dark colours tend to fade noticably, but the mid tones don't show when they fade. My best set is a forget-me-not blue which I have used for four seasons and they still look as new.

Ju

[Highams Park Harry]

we offer towels for an extra £20, most people ask for them, it does take up a lot of space for people flying

big ag getting them washed and dried but I think it's a cross to bear, the price of bales from various places is noted, decent towels seemed hard to get in the Dordogne

[sunny by nature]

Yaaay another towel thread.
Just to put you all off your lunch, the worst experience we ever had was when one horrible family (edited to protect those of a sensitive nature).
But if anyone else wishes to avoid them booking, I'll send you a PM to tell you who they were.

[Fraise]

Oh, that is just gross !! Did you take the money off the security deposit ( talking of deposits... )? I'm ALMOST speechless

[suttonanne]

We provide dark blue towels. This works quite well!

[Mouse]

I think it was Ju who mentioned that she had larger towels for the double rooms - and I thought that would be a nice added extra for the master bedroom for next year (as thats inevitably where the person that has booked with us goes! So it would help to impress).
I'm also spurred on by the fact that a guest has just ruined one of the towels from the bale that goes in that room by getting bleach on it (I mean WHO bleaches when on holiday?) so need to replace the whole bale or have an odd towel

I've seen some nice luxury ones with a longer pile (is that what its called?) and wondered if anyone could say if this type gets plucked/pulled easier.
I never had this problem last year but this year I seem to be snipping off threads on a regular basis - and thats on short pile towels (so not too bad).....would I be worse of or the same?

Mouse
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