Towels, bamboo and otherwise

1

Hi folks,

I could not find much discussion about different kinds of towels in the forum.

I have historically purchased cotton towels for my own and guest use.

I recently thought I would experiment with bamboo towels. I purchased Velve Bath Towel, 250 GSM, 150x75 cm in April 2023 to try out. One reason I tried this is that the reviews for this product looked like they might actually be real. There are tons of fake reviews on Amazon.

The towel is very light and thin compared to standard cotton towels. As you can see, it is advertised as 250 GSM and 150x75 cm. Extra points because the weight was listed as 280 g, which agrees with the GSM and the dimensions.

I.e. 250 * 150/100 * 75/100 = 281.25

Close enough. Often listed products on Amazon don’t even pass this basic sanity check.

My initial reaction was that it was very thin. Which it is, compared to a conventional towel.

However, I got used to that quite quickly. Some preliminary observations:

PROS:

  1. It feels smooth on the skin. Hopefully it will continue feeling like this, even as it gets older. In contrast, conventional cotton towels become increasingly rough as they age.

On the flip site, it might tear more easily because it is thin. I only have the one towel, and it hasn’t torn yet.

  1. It does a good job absorbing water, even though it is so thin.

  2. It dries quickly, compared to conventional cotton towels. Bombay is often hot and humid, so this is a helpful feature.

  3. Related to (3), possibly less likely to pick up bacteria over time and smell. This one is a bit hypothetical, because I haven’t used it enough to know.

CONS:

The towel is thin. It might tear more easily.

From the guest POV, they might reject it because it looks too flimsy.

Additional random observations: The towel feels quite stretchy in comparison with a cotton towel, which isn’t stretchy at all, in my experience.

Also, after using the bamboo towel for a while and then going back to a cotton towel, I noticed that my brain had recalibrated, and now using a regular cotton towel felt to me like using a piece of carpet. (Yes, that’s the analogy that my brain came up with.)

Similar products:

FURBO Bamboo Turkish Bath Towel, 220 GSM,
150x75 cm

and

Ryt’sense Bamboo Bath Towels, 250 GSM, 150x75
cm

There are also heavier towels available, which I’m guessing are blends which include bamboo. E.g.

REFLEKT Bamboo Bath Towel, 600 GSM, 140x70
cm, which is presumably a cotton bamboo mix. The description includes “Material Cotton Blend”.

FURBO Bamboo Bath Towel, 600 GSM, 138X75 cm
The description includes “blend of high-quality viscose”. Confusingly, in the title description it says 600 GSM, and later in the description it says 280 GSM. The weight is given as 690 g, so the former is more likely to be correct.

So, I was wondering if I should buy more of these and see what the guests thought of it. If you have tried similar products with your guests, then let me know what they thought. I have no idea how generally such products are used in a STR setting. I expect they would be a good choice for travellers, because they dry quickly.

If there is some reason why you don’t think these are good choices for guests, let me know. Or if you think there is some alternative that is better, let me know.

3

I think it could depend on where guests are from as to what type of towel they would prefer. For example, Americans might be accustomed to big fluffy towels in rental accomodations, and I have read that Chinese guests often use small hand towels and leave the bath towels untouched.

Those Hammam towels are definitely great for travelling, as they dry so quickly and take up so little space in luggage. One of my guests brought one with her- said she uses it as a towel, a beach blanket and a beach wrap.

As suggested, experiment- provide both types and see which ones your guests choose most often.