Hi All!
We’ve only been hosting just over a year so don’t have the experience that most of you do but see that everyone says white everything… towels, linens, comforters, duvets …
Are whites easier because you can bleach them? I have mostly gray colored towels etc - what are the benefits of using all whites?
TIA
Far easier to get stains out of white. And whites don’t get discolored blotches from commonly used acne products (which acts as a bleach).
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“Everyone” doesn’t say white everything. I have nothing white. Bedding and towels in colors and patterns. Plenty of hosts do.
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Grey and dark blue here. I JUST had the first bleaching incident in two years with a couple of towels. I’ve never had any bleaching or staining on sheets or blankets. Knock on wood.
Sheets, towels, pillowcases all white here. I buy the big tubs of Oxy at Costco to keep them so.
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Same as @NordlingHouse - all white and wash with Oxy. It’s not just the linens - white towels, bathmats and shower curtains too.
When I’m a guest, white sheets = clean to me.
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Sorry - guess I should have said it appears the majority after reading a previous post. But thanks - so I’m not the only one using colors!
Nada white here either – “Sterile Hospital” is not a fashion statement at the Poolside Cabana here in SW Florida – we go for a Florida Keys pastel look - beach sand beiges, pastel sea blues and greens, splashes of orange and flamingo pink.
We don’t want to look like a mini-Marriott, we are a unique boutique place to stay.
If I had a cabin in the North Woods I’d be using greens and middle browns.
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7 years ago I started out with my guest room down the hall and all linens I had on hand already. I switched from colors to white with the exception of my some of my duvet covers, one blanket and the washcloths. That one grey blanket got a bleach out on one edge. I still use the blanket in one of my “pet linen” (I allow pets and use clean linens of course but use certain sets with the guests who have pets) rotations because the bleached area is on the edge near the bottom of the bed.
I love colors but with my high traffic listing I found white worked better. I agree that white says “sterile” and colors say “homey.” Whatever that says about my listing is what I want it to say.
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I do think it makes sense to choose based upon the style of your place. Oddly, that is how we ended up choosing white. Our apts are small and really old and have lots of scars and bumps in the plaster walls and loads of external conduit and very worn wood floors but a lot of natural light. A good coat of flat white paint (which is the real secret to those Paris apts) and lots of white details is what works for them. We do put a colorful Indian bedspread folded across the end for some color but it looks particularly good on the duvet because it’s white. There’s nothing sterile about the white linens the way we are using them, they are their own “style”.
However, these were all decor decisions made previous to actually opening up the apts and using them for Airbnb. They were aesthetic choices. But now that I have hosted for several years, I can’t imagine not using white linens. I would certainly use colorful towels, if they went with the style of our bathrooms. And I personally prefer colorful interiors generally. My personal linens are not white, but no one else uses them either. But every summer there’s lots of break-outs and news stories about bed bugs and they are easy to check for on white sheets and duvets. Not only as a host, but also as a guest, now that I am more aware of them, I prefer white (or pale pastels at least) bed linens. So, just another consideration, I guess, even though I am confident that colorful linens are the right style for some listings.
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I have colored sheets and towels. I didn’t want white because it’s too hotel like and I wanted the house to feel like home away from home. In addition, I like the poly cotton blend for sheets so I don’t have to iron them.
Anybody else find the topic title cringeworthy?
Hotel is a good thing in my book, as long as its a quality hotel.
Even in my own home, MODERN STYLE = White walls, white sheets, white towels, white dishes. I let the artwork, accents, flowers provide the pop.
And from a functional perspective, white linens allow one to see the stains / dirt, remedy it rather than camouflage it. In the days of a Pandemic, sterile is not a bad thing.
ster·ile
free from bacteria or other living microorganisms; totally clean.
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I have all queen beds, bar 1 double. That bed has coloured sheets so I can tell them apart.
Last week I had 7 white sheets of which 4 were fitted- I needed 4 sheets and thought I had sorted 2 sets. Guess who traipsed upstairs with an armful of linen to discover I had grabbed all the fitted sheets…I hate climbing the steep stairs - 1 more up and down for you!
I feel such a hypocrite. I posted elsewhere “white, white and more white” to a similar post, then realised that I had posted my house, which is for sale in the UK, on another thread.
Quite clearly, I don’t do all white. I have matching duvet covers and curtains in some rooms, most of which originate from before I started hosting, and work well for a quirky setting. But I do have a linen cupboard full of white duvet covers, sheets, towels and pillow cases, mattress covers and pillow protectors. These all come into their own, particularly the duvet covers when turnover is hectic. @muddy, that’s when my matching cushions come into their own!
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Yep. What I’ve done for years no matter where I’ve lived. Settled into the family homestead and painted all the green & yellow walls from my mom & grandma the same white. I have lots of artwork, antique family quilts in my bedroom.
The house is from the 30s, woodwork is all stained Craftsman style Douglas fir. Furniture is basic Ikea or garage sale.
Floors are oak. Colors are in curtains, area rugs, duvet covers, and art. All bed and bath linens except for duvet covers are white.
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No whites here either. We are in the the Southwest and our colors are the colors of the SW. White would look awful in our cottage. I must say that our guests have been very good at not staining our linens.
We are in the SW too. No whites. Mostly beiges and browns for all linens. More homey and no need to bleach.
All white all the time – for sheets, towels and blankets. Colorful king quilts for the queen bed ( 3 of them in rotation) to cover hasty bedmaking droops and crinkles.
I’ve used all types of sheets over the last five years. They’ve all had their problems. I finally settled on a medium gray sheet with a lattice print from Kohl’s.For some reason that seems to be the best sheet as far as cleaning and not having any visible stains. It’s a combination of polyester and cotton it’s comfortable and does not have wrinkles if you take it out of the dryer right away.
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We have several different size beds. Single, double, queen etc. We eventually decided to use different coloured sheets for the different sizes - singles are white, queens are blue, doubles are grey.
Saves a lot of hassle.
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