Services

Laundering times

Spotless linen is one thing that hotel housekeeping always strives for. But whether the laundry should be in-house or outsourced is still a question hoteliers ask themselves. Praveen K Singh examines the new practices in the segment

More often than not establishments tend to spend appreciable money on linen since that makes a statement for the quality of services offered by the establishment. However, what is not apparent is the money spent for this kind of quality. Industry professionals therefore advocate on-premise laundries to ease operations.

Generally, hotels, especially in the five-star category, have in-house laundries that help maintain high standards of quality, cleanliness and keep the par stocks low. On the other hand, a majority of three- and four-star properties do not have such facility for they cannot afford the cost of equipment and space required to house the system. Raj K Dutt, laundry manager at Taj Hotels, Delhi, says, "Most of the equipment made in India range from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. However, a growing number of establishments have realised the benefits of running their own laundries. Laundries are a profitable business and offer an essential service and require minimal labour and inventory, without special skills and are an all-cash business." In most large hotels, the in-house laundry is free of cost and the laundry department is a self-sufficient profit-making centre.

However, no matter how good the laundry may be all housekeepers dream to have their in-house laundries for many reasons. Anjum Sarwal, executive housekeeper of The Leela Mumbai, explains, "The feel of the towels and the bedlinen is perhaps the ultimate quality criterion for users. It is advisable for starred properties to own a laundry and be self-sufficient." She describes that housekeepers can set their own standards and make sure the textiles are cared for the way they should be. The safest way to retain full control over quality and maintain customer satisfaction is to run an in-house laundry. "It also reduces the requirement of storage space in the linen room and decrease the overall requirement for linen inventory by nearly 30-40 per cent," points up Sarwal.

The intricacies

Processing room linen requires only a washer-cum-extractor with a flat-work ironing machine. For processing bathroom linen, a drying tumbler needs to be added. Dutt, explains, "As a thumb rule, one requires one washer-cum-extractor of 100 lbs capacity to washroom and bathroom linen for a 100-room four-star hotel for six days with an eight-hour shift and occupancy of 70 per cent."

He informs that the flat work ironer required for processing bed linen, pillow, etc can be single roll machine electrically heated with an 18-inch diameter roll of 110" length to process double sheets. If single sheets are to be processed, it will reduce the cost drastically as the length of the roller will reduce. If the establishment doesn't have sufficient power for the ironer, then a small steam boiler will be required. This boiler should be sized to handle the requirement of a drying tumbler to process the towels. A 50 lbs capacity drying tumbler which can be steam heat will be required to dry the bath towels. "The equipment and a baby steam boiler don't require sufficient space as they could be comfortably installed in a room of approximately 400 square feet. If it is increased to 600 and two hand ironing boards with one steam heated buck press are added, one can also process the uniforms and guest laundry. For washing guest laundry, one can buy a domestic type washer/extractor as it is ideal for washing smaller loads of seven to 10 lbs," he adds.

Right chemicals

One is unsure of the type of treatment given to clothes by outside laundries for they use stronger chemicals and acids. These chemicals in turn weaken fabrics and the frequency of discard increases. In an in-house laundry one can choose the right chemicals for increased production and longer life. Dutt says, "With external laundries, it will be difficult to get the kind of output required by hotel operations, like in case of back-to-back check-in conference or a large group. Since most of the commercial laundries cater to many establishments like hotels, hospitals, etc the chance of the linen getting mixed up is most common." He explains that it is almost impossible to supervise these things in case of an external laundry. "Moreover, they may not be cost-effective for they charge on 'per piece' basis," he carps.

Explaining the importance of a single blend of chemicals, Momeen Khan, laundry manager of Jaypee Sidhartha in Delhi, informs, "A complete detergent requires a whole lot of ingredients. Each ingredient works on a particular aspect of cleaning. In practice, laundries get various types of wash linen, which are soiled, to various levels. If a particular lot is heavily soiled, then it requires more emulsifiers to take care of a particular stain. If there is a single product, then more detergent has to be added for effective cleaning. Here, the surfactants from the formulation has to care for extra soiling. Other goodies won't be used for cleaning." She explains that as a result a lot of ingredients are wasted. "A separate emulsifier would be more cost-effective. Hence, the detergent companies are offering complete products with supporting products," she cites. The supporting products are often called 'boosters', where using a complete range of products better controls the cleaning costs. These include bleaches, neutralisers and finishing products.

Linen control

Linen supply is critical to efficient operation of any property. The word linen includes far more garments than those made from flax fiber. Investment in linens and uniforms can easily mean lakhs of rupees. Akshi Singh, housekeeping manager of Grand Hyatt, Mumbai says, "If not handled well, it leads to instability in operations. Linen costs are expensive for the housekeeping department."

She adds that careful policies and procedures are needed to control the inventory of linen supplies. It should be the prime responsibility of the housekeeper for developing and maintaining control procedure for storage, issuing, use and replacement of linen inventories. The linen control system is generally based on cycle inventories. The cycle inventories system can control the cost. Singh emphasises, "It is imperative to compile certain formats like requisitions and shift hand over report. Requisition to track the receipt or delivery of linen to a specific department on a specific date is a sine qua non. The requisition form acts as a base for shift hand over report, wherein the discrepancies could be tackled. Such a routine report will work as a Bible for the weekly, monthly or annual inventory."

Annual inventory

Proper storage also plays an important role in keeping a track on linen flow. Systematic storage can help in an easy physical count of linen, whereas proper procedure will ensure that each floor linen closet is stocked with its par amount at the commencement of each day. Padmaja Rao, general manager (Room Services) of Old World Hospitality, says, "Certainly, there are times when replacements are necessary due to normal or excessive wear and tear. Under these conditions, undoubtedly a contract with the suppliers for terms and conditions for replacement with respect to price exemption would be in order. For regular re-orders, enough linen should be ordered to bring back at par, but the deliveries should be done on a periodic basis."