I’m sure you all have discussed this, but what kind of towels are you using? I’ve been getting those white 100 percent cotton towels at Walmart for $3.97. I use bleach, but have to get new ones every 20 stays or so. What do you all do?
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I use the costco white towels, they are 7-9$ I think.
RR
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White also. They are washed in cold water but pre-soaked in oxy if there are any marks. If the marks don’t come out in the first wash then they are soaked again until they do.
I have some towels still going strong that were bought in 2015.
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First towel that has gone into the rag bag this week was purchased in 2016 - $14 from Aldi 100% white cotton. A hole appeared, so literally worn out.
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We buy white towels from Ollies at a cost of $4.99 each. I carefully look them over before washing to make sure all marks are treated with an oxy spray from the Dollar Store.
In three years, only two towels have needed to be replaced.
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Royal blue, Actil brand
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White, from Kohls, have not had to replace any. Maybe 6-8 bucks? can’t remember.
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Oxy it is! Sounds like a towel saver! Thanks!
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We purchased from Amazon white towels to replace the blue ones we had. 100% cotton.
The reason we changed from blue to white was to be able to bleach them.
The washcloths seem to get the most abuse and no matter how long I soak them (I’ve tried Oxy, bleach, vinegar - never together 
), I cannot get the bright white back. They are slightly grayed out.
The other thing I noticed is that the white towels get piles easily. I am going to make a sign for my guests to not wash the towels with other color items, because the piles are usually a different color fabric.
One guest washed the white hand towels with something red. The next guest washed them with something blue. So a bunch of my new towels are all sorts of colors. At least the blue and the red did come out after soaking for several days.
I have been buying them at Kohls. I wait until they have a sale plus I use a coupon. You can find coupons online. I paid about $7 each for William Sonoma bath towels but I purchased 30 of them. I rotate them and so far they still look good after three years.
Grey for me - I know everyone here says white is easier, but I haven’t had any problems in over a year. I get them from Costco when they’re on sale.
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We never use white towels; we have no pretentions of being an hotel, and sterile white just doesn’t fit our tropical decorative scheme.
We have sand/beige and darker brown sets of hand and bath towels, and a range of pastel washcloths in a wicker basket on the window sill. Our bed linens are 2 sets of pastel blue and one set of sea green. We have never had guests bleed on, barf on, wipe up with, or hair-dye our linens
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Have you tried a product like Out White Brite?
I have one towel that does that and it has microfiber in it. It’s softer than the Charisma I get at Costco but I don’t particularly like it.
@LisaCharlie I am a fan of the white towels. I rarely use chlorine bleach. Regular use breaks down the fibers. I use OxyClean regularly though. I started out with the colored towels I had on hand because I rented out the guest room in my part of the house. But when I remodeled to make the guest room separate and bought more stock I switched to all white and all cotton for sheets and towels. I use brightly colored washcloths and I have a printed duvet cover that I use in a rotation.
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It sounds beautiful. I can see when you have a themed rental (STR?) why you do that. Lucky on never having it barfed on. I get mostly guests for weddings since we are less than 2 miles from two nationally known wedding centers.
Btw, what does STR stand for? Newbie here!
Short Term Rental
LTR Long Term Rental
IB Instant Book
OTA Online Travel Agency
EC Extenuating Circumstances (referring to Airbnb’s hated policy usually)
PITA Pain in the Ass (LOL)
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I don’t do white anything. Towels are sage green and terracotta. I’ve never had guests stain the towels at all.
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Sounds nice:) I would have gone with colors but since they are folded up in a cabinet, it doesn’t seem like I needed decorator colors.
My sheets and everything else is colored.
Also I don’t care if my white washcloths don’t match towels set exactly, as they do get stained. I can replace them anywhere. I also provide dark blue washcloths.
I wash towels separately so the pilling onto other items doesn’t happen.
I use white cotton towels also and the sets I bought 2 years ago are still going strong. I rarely bleach them, only if there is some stain that is not being removed through normal cold wash. I do notice that they are not as sparkling white as new ones but that is really only noticeable when placed side by side with a new towel. Since all the towels I provide are in the same vintage guests don’t really notice.
STR = Short Term Rental. We never accept more than two weeks; we do accept one-night bookings as people do come through and stop over before taking a flight back north. We never accept locals and never allow Instant Book
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We started out with eight sets of sage green towels for one Airbnb bathroom. Over three years of hosting, we have only a handful of those left that aren’t stained tan in spots. We can still put together two full sets of those towels; that’s it. The stains are from acne or cosmetic products.
When we replace that bathroom’s towels, we’ll go to all white cotton. We already use white cotton in our second Airbnb bathroom. Those towels soldier on, without stains.