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Im a relatively new host (since May of this year) and so far, so good, I’ve had more bookings than I expected and my guests have been absolutely lovely - knock on wood
Im seeking your advice with regards to providing -and displaying- towels for my guests. So far, I use a laundry service, so the towel sets come in a sealed transparent plastic wrap, that I put on the beds. I’d like to move away from that, first because I generally try to use less plastic, and also because it gives, in my opinion, a quite “sterile” feeling. At the same time, it probably reassures my guests that the towels are professionally cleaned.
So I was wondering how you guys display the towels (on the bed? in the bathroom? drawers?), and if you use laundry service, do you leave the towels in the wrap or not? How would you feel finding towels in a thin transparent plastic wrap?
Both bathrooms have shelves. I display the towels in neat piles there. Seems like they should be in the room where they are used. An exception would be single room rentals with shared baths.
Not a fan of ‘towel art” such as swans. For some reason it makes me think of honeymoon hotels in Niagra Falls, circa 1970.
Edit: the other part of your question. That’s a hard one. On one hand, plastic itself is bad, but knowing the towels are fresh is good. What do they smell like when they come out of the wrap? That would be the deciding factor for me.
Could the laundry bind them with a paper band instead?
Thank you! I agree with you with regards to the towel swans plus I’d never be able to make it look like something nice, so I leave that to the pro and just have my towels folded.
The towels are fresh when coming out of the wrap. The laundry service does not currently offer an alternative, but maybe I can convince them to use paper wrap, or bring my own paper wrap and ask them to do something with it… Thanks!
Bathrooms – ours anyway – have towel racks for a reason. I use them to “display” the guest towels. WE don’t given them more than 2 sets – bath, hand and washcloth. We would never use a laundry service (got a washing machine and soap) – its an expense we don’t need. Do they also do your linens and such? Personally, I dislike things that “have been sealed for your protection/safety”.
I too have shelves over the toilet where I leave the towel sets. I leave one set each per guest and then have many more sets in a linen closet labelled in the hall. Very few guests ever use more than the set given. I have solar heating so I wash my linens and bedding around noon to take advantage of free hot water. I also have enough linens that I can go a few days without washing if it’s only one guest. I’m always conscious of keeping my costs low. While a linen service sounds nice, it’s just not in the budget for me.
Bath towels neatly stacked in the bedrooms and hand towels neatly stacked in the bathrooms. Three or four per stay only and they are welcome to more if they ask. (They rarely do).
Towel ‘sculptures’ are remarkably naff. Rolled towels are remarkably 2002.
I’d remove the plastic covering but presumably the laundry folds them beautifully and that alone should indicate that they’ve been professionally handled.
Up to four guests share the tiny bathroom in my listing, so I tried to make things as easy to share as possible. Each shelf has a towel, wash cloth, water glass (something I added after taking pics) and a wall hook that matches their shelf color - makes it easy to know which towel is their own.
I’d remove the plastic before placing the towels. If guests are the only ones using the bathroom, I’d place them there. If you have guests + other guests or yourself sharing the bath, then putting them on the bed makes it really clear “these are yours!”
We keep sets folded and tied with a cotton ribbon, similar to how some towels are tied up when bought in sets. We place one set per person either in the bathroom or bedroom, depending on the number of people. We also use only plain white hand towels in the bathroom, but the guest towel sets are all different colors. All the guests can keep track of their towels and they seem to use less towels this way too.
