I am just wondering what the experience is for having to replace linen. I have so far had one pillow case to replace, but it seems that the duvet covers (which are the most expensive) seem to get marked fastest. I have had to replace two within 10 bookings - is this a normal cost of doing business?
No. I have white and have yet to replace them in two years of hosting. That said I use bleach when needed.
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I have white everything, including duvet covers and bedspreads. The current batch was bought in December 2015. I’ve never had to throw anything away. I treat stains straight away (it’s one of the first things I do when guests leave) then soak them if necessary. Sometimes stains have remained after soaking and sometimes a really mucky towel will go through the soak/wash routine half a dozen times but I’ve never had a stain that hasn’t come out.
And I’ve had a lot of stains 
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I use white cotton percale from IKEA everything and I have yet to replace something. I use hydrogen peroxide periodically.
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I forgot to say that I also put washed-but-still-stained towels, pillowcases etc. on the line. The sun bleaches them brilliantly and it costs nothing
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I also use all white cotton sheets, pillow cases and duvet covers from Ikea. Thank you guys have good advise. @Barthelemy @jaquo @Zandra. I have been use them for one year, couple of fitted sheets I bought from Ikea the rubber on the corner got loose. Just replaced couple of sheets. Some pillow cases look worn out. Some wash clothes stained badly, had to throw them away but they are cheap to replace. I really like the towels from Costco. Good price and good quality, I am going to slowly replace them all.
I have been using the most expensive ones on the marked in Denmark (almost) in order to get that luxury hotel feeling - I send the laundry out of the house (not towels but bed linen) because it gets ironed which ads to the luxury feeling- I think. But this is so hard on the linen that I have to change everything once every 1.5 years
I use cheap but 100% cotton sheets from my local home store. For one thing, I try to shop local (Costco and Ikea are my big exceptions. And yeah, I do own stock in Costco so I’m glad everyone else loves them, too). For another, I have much less patience for stains (3 little boys. So much laundry). And the biggest is I’m picky about color. I don’t do white (yet. I may be convinced later) because I have 3 different sizes of mattress in the house, and being able to say “light green is for guests, blue is for the boys, crazy floral pattern is for me” helps keep laundry from devolving into sheer chaos.
To answer the original question, I think I get about 2.5 years of use out of a particular set, but that probably translates to 1 year of hard usage. I don’t iron but i do line dry whenever I can.
My sister worked at a dry cleaners, and you have to be careful with bleach on white as it turns protein stains yellow. She makes me a soaking solution that is a mixture of dawn decreasing dish soap and borax.
(The other great thing about line drying is it doesn’t set stains the way the heat from the dryer does)
What are your guests doing in bed? 