Towels per Person

[Giddy Goat]

I tried to spare you another towel thread, (but you love them really don't you!) by doing a search on the existing threads; we have so many of them, I gave up after ten minutes as I'm preparing to go to France at the red-eye time of 0620 - that means the alarm will be set for 0330. Lucky I'm close to Stansted!

I've had an email from our new cleaners, including a long para on our favourite subject. An extract:

"Honestly Jane, I dont think 1 towel per person for a whole week is  enough. Of course they can wash and dry them in the dryer but I am not sure they all want to do that as then they have no towel to use for the time it's being washed. And in summer people shower often."

I have only ever left one bath towel per person plus one hand towel. Guests have these replaced at the end of each week. Does anyone supply more than this?

[la vache!]

I have only ever left one bath towel per person plus one hand towel. Guests have these replaced at the end of each week. Does anyone supply more than this?

No. And the hand towels rarely get used. Guests have a washing machine, a clothes line or rads, a tumble drier if the weather is really bad and that is enough. Can guests not go without a towel for 4 hours, for surely that is all it takes to wash and dry a towel? Or are they using your towels for the pool too?

[Moliere]

That sounds perfectly reasonable to me - who needs to change towels more frequently than weekly? As you say, if they're that fastidious, there's always the washing machine option.

For instance, whilst we change bath/hand towels weekly, we also supply pool/beach towels for our guests, but they are expected to last a fortnight (always with the washing machine option of course)

Moliere

ps GG - are you giddy from twirling around in the tumble-drier?

[Mouse]

I agree - I only leave one bath towel and one hand towel. As LV says the hand towels rarely get used.
Plus in my experience of staying at other rental places - that's the norm.

Mousie
x

[KathyG]

Hi Jane,

I leave 1 bath sheet, 1 bath towel and 1 flannel (sorry Ros!) per person plus a handtowel in the 2 bathrooms. I do need to address the problem of where all these towels live though, they usually end up draped (wet) over the ends of the beds....

Edit: And pool towels! Looking at the above I'm leaving too much!!

[Musetta]

me too I only put out one bath towel, one hand towel and one face cloth. (and leave directions for the washing machine) - more than that and my cleaning costs would DOUBLE - my washer is tiny and laundry costs are very high now...some guests have gone through and taken towles that were "hidden" away (have not gone so far as to lock 'em up)... but I'm not going to go and put out more than one - really would force me to raise rates

[Ju]

GG - do you provide pool towels? If so then I don't think there is any problem with leaving one bath towel plus a hand towel.

If you don't have pool towels though people will need more than this, if they go to the pool, and then want a shower in the evening then the towel will not have had time to dry.

It doesn't matter if you ask people not to use the bath towels for the pool they still will - ours do and we provide pool towels for everybody.

Ju

[Fil]

Two sets of 3 towels per person. The extra sets are placed in a wardrobe and not always used.
I think this is a minimum standard if you are trying to offer top quality.

[Giddy Goat]

Oh, help, Ju - I do say we don't provide pool towels in our advertising, and remind them in the balance confirmation letter to bring their own. I was hoping we wouldn't get onto that subject! You do spoil your peeps! More to worry about, in an economy which is threatening to leave us all with much lower profit margins.

Two sets of 3 towels per person.

Is that per week FIL, or per fortnight?

[alifrank1]

I also only leave one bath towel and one hand towel per person. Being in Spain they only take a couple of hours to dry and no-one has ever complained

[J&J]

I think you're all generous enough with one set, over generous if it includes a pool towel too. We never used to provide towels, but I could see the day coming when we ought to.
If there are washing machines, driers and clothes racks surely one bath towel would suffice. I know people shower more often in summer, but unless they're mopping up the floor after them a towel doesn't get that sodden.
Judith

[Musetta]

Two sets of 3 towels per person. The extra sets are placed in a wardrobe and not always used.
I think this is a minimum standard if you are trying to offer top quality.

good point - I'm going for "budget" price though more than top quility (my home is just not a luxury-type accomodation)

I do leave extra hand towels in the bathroom - in hopes they will be used instead of the big bath towles and I do provide big, nice beach towels for each person...even though we are over an hour from a beach - just don't want my white towels taken to the sand! (others are in the linen chest...so...people do find them if they feel they are needed - just don't want to encourage it! I might feel differently if I were onsite and could just pop things into the wash...but paying a fortune for my cleaner to do it)

[Maggiem]

Adequate towels is a huge bugbear of mine, as we frequently stay in hotels, and the actual provision seems to bear no relation to the cost of the room.

At our apartment, each of our guests has 1 bath sheet, 1 bath towel, 2 hand towels and 1 beach towel per week. Just think about what you use at home, you would never expect one towel to last all week, would you? On holiday it's not unusual to shower twice a day, which equals 14 showers per week. The idea of having just one towel doesn't bear thinking about!

If you look at it from the guests' perspective, they may well have saved all year for their holiday, so are entitled to sufficient thick, fluffy towels to dry themselves, and also not to have to put them in the washing machine.

We often have comments about how lovely it is to have sufficient clean towels, and I'd wondered what on earth people meant, it seemed such an odd thing to specify. I think, if I was offered just one bath towel and one hand towel, I would be one of those guests knocking on your door, or telephoning you!



Maggie

[goosie]

we have one bath sheet, one bath towel and one hand towel per person per week and we call ourselves luxury!

However, we do put out towels on every bed (8 in total) even if the booking number is below that as we can't guarantee where people would want to sleep. So our normal booking of six adults plus children probably do well.

no one has complained (yet!) and one renter commented on the abundance of towels for them - but maybe I should leave a spare set or two in the cupboards just in case?

Now you've got me worried

[Musetta]

Maggiem - I'm just curious what your actual cost is for laundry per week? (Also noticed on your site you charge extra for "linen hire" - is that for bed sheets? or is that the extra charge for the towels? )only asking becasue, at full occupancy (4), my laundry costs alone (without cleaning) are about 50 euros An extra bath sheet per person (on top of the bath towel, hand towels and face cloth and beach towel) would really hurt my bottom line a LOT