Guests using throw pillows to sleep

Do you wash the shams between each guest?

I know this wasn’t directed at me but I have shams and they are washed after very guest.

2 Likes

I’ll bet my ___ that @HH_AZ does wash them. And I think the majority of hosts on this forum would (at least among active posters.) There are a few hosts who don’t but they generally reveal themselves quickly.

1 Like

Well, @jaquo, I think you may call them something else (envelope closure? oxford pillow case?) but you definitely have them in the UK. Instead of the pillow case being open at the end, they have a closure in the back or an envelope type end - where the pillow couldn’t be seen without opening some kind of closure. They usually match or coordinate with the duvet or quilt as opposed to matching the sheets.

I think some people do as you do @lauren_g and use them as decorative pillows but it’s not how I am most familiar with them. I’m also in the US. We use shams exactly the same way as we would use pillowcases. I used to wonder why some pillows at bnbs seemed less clean or kind of lumpy until someone else told me that they use them over old pillows for decoration. I didn’t know that before. We just always used them as sort of fancier pillow cases. My mom liked them because the pillow was more protected in them or something.

Yes; the sheets, pillowcases, duvet cover, and shams are washed (and ironed) between every guest. There’s been only one time when I didn’t launder … and it was a guest who was leaving on Friday, and returning on Monday. I didn’t have any guests over the weekend. She had asked, and insisted that I not launder them. As uncomfortable as I felt about it, I complied but I did refund the cleaning fee.

They’re a sham!

5 Likes

Brilliant! Now don’t confuse our english language learners!

1 Like

I will go there. No decorative pillows. Not enough time for the extra laundry and changing time.

2 Likes

I switched from decorative pillows to removable decorative pillow shams. I have two set. I just assume anything in the bedroom has to be laundered.

I’m behind the times. I absolutely hate the phrase ‘in my day’ but ‘in my day’ I don’t think they existed? Mind you I’ve not lived there for 25 years so who knows what strange standards they have now I’m not there to keep my beady eye on them? :rofl:

I dont see any problem with using a sham as a pillow as long as it is washed between each guests. I always assumed that a sham that matches a duvet and was made of pillow material, would be washed each time.
It is the reason every decorative pillow is tossed on the floor.
so shams that wash = good
decorative pillows and shams that are for presentation only = bad

Lol! You’re not that old and I actually consider them something quite old-fashioned, at least the ones with the ruffles around the edges.

I asked a friend of mine who is legitimately old (early 90s) and originally from the UK and also was in home textiles for her job. She says you do have “shams” and that shams go back a few hundred years. She said she would only call them shams typically if they were especially “posh” with applique and ruffles and such (which supports @lauren_g’s use as only decorative!) but that what we are calling shams now are what would be called more oxford pillowcases or plainly envelope style pillowcases in the UK. I thought it was really interesting!

She also said the reason the fancy ones were called shams originally because they were “shams” of being a fancy pillow, when really it was only a pillow cover. I dont’ think I’m explaining that correctly…but shams because they were shams, get it? Well, that’s todays pillowcase PSA :laughing:

2 Likes

Here in the US there have been shams as long as I can remember but it’s funny that indeed they were only something seen as posh. We didn’t have them on the daily sleeping bed but only in a guest room that was all done up. A comforter and shams was the standard for a nice set up. Growing up we always had bedspreads, occasionally with a decorative pillow on it.

@georgygirlofairbnb, I agree that

However, I would never believe that any shams (or throw pillows) I found anywhere—in an Airbnb or a hotel—were washed. I’d toss the whole pillow, sham and all, off the bed. To me,

shams = dirty

1 Like

I appreciate hearing another perspective! I guess a lot of it simply comes down to how you were raised and what you are used to. Also the type of sham too. Ours match the quilt on the bed and have some embellishment/stitching and I just don’t see how they would be more comfortable than the pillows that match our sheets. But to each their own!

We mention it casually, but don’t strictly enforce guests to strip beds and put any used linens by the washing machine when they check out. Most of our guests have been really good about doing it! If there’s any indication that a sham was used, I wash it. After reading everyone’s comments though I think I’ll start washing them every time just to be safe.

1 Like

Ha, my grandma had the ruffly ones up until she passed three years ago. She would’ve lost it if anyone so much as laid their head on those things :rofl:

She had the full ruffly getup. I can’t believe nobody has mentioned bed skirts yet! Haha.

Although: I hadn’t used a bed skirt in a long time but I do have one on the bed in the airbnb. Just to hide the metal frame.

2 Likes

I keep thinking of all of the “princess beds” I would see as a kid in the 70s when I’d spend the night with a school friend. They had pink ruffle canopies, pink ruffle bed skirts and, of course, pink ruffle shams! They were somewhat bizarre to me as I came from a hippies-household. I had a waterbed with an Indian bedspread. Lol.

3 Likes

I grew up in the 90’s and I still wanted a bed like that :rofl:

1 Like

I just have a spare bedroom in the house where we live. Some of you may have other ideas about the accoutrements for guests, and that may include decorative throw-pillows. My personal philosophy, as extended to AirBnB is that people will do what they do, and if I provide a simple path without complications, they will mostly conform to my expectations.

I don’t think anyone has stolen books from our spare bedroom, or played with, or nabbed any Legos or board games from the closet. But people do odd stuff, and if I provided shams, I’d expect someone would find some creative use of them that I hadn’t considered.

I provide full (refillable) squeeze bottles of body wash, shampoo, and conditioner in a private bath. They’re more or less indestructible, but every tenth guest seems to break the cap off of one of the bottles. So it goes. Part of the cost of doing business :wink:

what’s the difference between shams and pillows? I only provide regular pillows (extra in the closet) and two decorative pillows with removable covers that I wash once a month. People are not supposed to sleep on them but they do. In one bedroom I have pillow covers with sequins and embroidery that I bought in Turkey. Guess what? People sleep on those two although it beats me how they can do it. You’d think the sequins would scratch their faces.

It sounds like the decorative pillows with removable covers are similar if not the same as shams. In our space, we have a bed with a white duvet and a decorative quilt at the foot of the bed. We have two white “shams” that are hard to explain but basically a quilt material with some embellishments. The other two shams match our quilt. They are bright and colorful and made with thick stitching. To me, the shams we have don’t suggest that they are for sleeping on but like you say, people seem to sleep on anything. The pillows we have that are meant for sleeping match the sheet set on the bed. They are soft, smooth, something you’d think people would prefer to use.

Seems like whether shams were used (or if that was the word used to describe them) varies from person to person regardless of where and even when you grew up. My mom had them on all of our beds as did her mom. I’m a creature of habit I suppose!