Tips to Help You Save Money on Airbnb Laundry Service

Hotel-style doesn’t necessarily mean hotel price. After all, you’re not a hotel with the volume, purchasing power, or budget. So what does hotel-style mean?

Hotel-style means things:

1. Pure White Color– This makes stains easier to treat and remove than colored options that can’t be bleached. It will keep your laundry in circulation longer. And, it will keep your stain treatment costs down. The exception to this rule is black makeup hand towels.
2. Standardized Size – Keeping your inventory sizes standardized will prevent you from purchasing frequent replacements. If you have large towels for the master bath and smaller towels for the guest baths, when one is permanently damaged or lost by a guest, replacing it can be a headache. You’ll likely need to buy more than one – even if you only need one. Instead, consider standardizing your inventory to 4-6 items from room-to-room and stocking extra of these 4-6 items instead of 10-15 pieces. Lots of backups!

While it’s not for all Airbnb hosts, stocking double flat sheets and using them as fitted sheets (by tucking under the mattress) can give you a safety net for inventory management. Instead of rushing to schedule laundry service because limited inventory, you’ll rest easy knowing you have a large inventory of flat sheets that can double as fitted sheets. If you are not going to double up, be sure to purchase enough inventory! 

We recommend A1 American if you are looking for a linen vendor.

Whatever you do, do not buy Amazon Basics. These cheap sheets attract static – meaning they attract dirt and hair. Plus, they wrinkle easily. They are notorious around our laundry facilities. We recommend you run your business with professional, hotel linens. They’re better quality and priced for wholesale purchases.

Miscommunication happens when things get complicated. If you’re operating your Airbnb rental property with just enough linens for one turn, you’re complicating the cleaning process by putting a strict timeline on yourself, your house cleaners, and your Airbnb linen service. 

Businesses need redundancy plans – especially hospitality businesses.

Having only a few sets of linens means you are constantly doing laundry. And, with most Airbnb linen services, your cleaning costs will be more expensive at lower volumes. Buying extra inventory for a couple of turns will help you save money with your cleaning service, allow your house cleaners some flexibility on timing, and make sure your guests never show up to a bed without sheets on it.

Plus, it will save you a lot of headaches…

If you’re an experienced Airbnb host, you know that your guests will open every drawer, closet, and storage bin that you have. And, if you haven’t experienced this yet, you will! This is especially true with guests staying more than one night.

If you have your extra inventory stored in an unlocked closet, the extra inventory WILL be used. This is most common with towels. It’s perfectly normal to stock extra linens for the guests to use as needed. But, be sure the majority of your inventory is kept safe. 

We see it way more than you think. A guest uses 80 pounds of laundry in a weekend stay. Lock it up to be safe…

Lock them away in a place that only you, your house cleaning team, and your Airbnb linen service have access to.

Tide and Downy aren’t commercial solvents…

And, please, don’t use softener. Softener coats your linens and makes them harder to clean and significantly weaker over time.

If your laundry is white – as this is what we recommend – keep it white by making sure your Airbnb laundry service knows to add bleach or whitener. You’re going to want a commercial oxygen or  chlorine bleach – ask for that!

With this, set your laundry service preferences with some consideration for allergies. We always recommend hypoallergenic detergent to help protect your guests from reacting to your bedding.

Even if you are not using a laundry service, you should consider stocking commercial solvents for your Airbnb cleaners. Connect with a local chemical distributor to purchase the proper commercial laundry solvents.

Whatever you need – there’s an app for that. But, is that always a good thing?

While you might not care who is delivering your pizza, you should care who is doing your laundry. With the rise of middleman apps that pair you with the closest, cheapest, (insert any other superlative here) service provider, you have no idea who is picking up, cleaning, and delivering your clothes. And, this likely changes order-to-order based on how the middleman app chooses to schedule your service.

‍These providers even opt to send orders to individuals to wash in their homes instead of a professional company operating in a professional laundry facility.

‍Here is the rundown:

1. ‍You’ll want to find an Airbnb linen service that ACTUALLY does your laundry: It takes a simple Google search. You’ll find a couple of options of app-based middleman companies that shop your laundry out to the nearest provider. These almost always cost you twice as much as going directly to the source. When deciding on an Airbnb laundry service, be sure to research or ask who is doing your laundry.
2. Dry Cleaners vs. Laundry Services: There is a difference. If you thought the third-party middleman apps were expensive, dry cleaners typically cost 3-4x the price of a true laundry service. Dry cleaners specialize in high volumes of small garments. While your Airbnb laundry service focuses on small volumes of bigger garments – sheets, towels, comforters, etc. And, for the most part, dry cleaning your linens is a good way to expedite the wear and tear on them. Check both the linen care tags and your dry cleaning receipts before using a dry cleaner.