Setting Up Your Airbnb: A Comprehensive Guide to Linen
Supplying high-quality linen for your Airbnb property is essential, especially if you regularly host international guests. With linen now mandatory on Airbnb, and other booking platforms likely to follow suit, it’s crucial to ensure your property is well-prepared.
The Basics: Three Sets of White Linen is Essential
Having three sets of white linen per bed is absolutely essential. This ensures that your cleaners always have a fresh set ready without needing to wash linen on busy changeover days. Each set of white linen should include a fitted sheet, a flat sheet, and pillowcases. White linen is an excellent choice as it can be washed at high temperatures and bleached to remove tough stains, aside from giving your property a clean and inviting look.
Storage: Keep Linen Secure
Store your linen in a locked cupboard that your cleaners can easily access. This prevents guests from helping themselves and driving up your cleaning costs.
Labelling: Avoiding Mix-Ups
To prevent your linen from being mixed up with linen from other properties, label each set with the property name and size (e.g., Single, Queen, King). Use a proper linen marker pen for durability.
Efficient Bed Setup
For a smooth operation, instruct your cleaners to make up all the beds and set out towels for each stay during every clean. This ensures that your property is always ready for guests, preventing last-minute booking panics.
Managing Bed Usage and Extra Fees
Clearly communicate to guests that they may use a number of beds equal to the number of guests in the booking. Specify that extra fees will apply if the number of beds used exceeds the number of guests. For instance, if four adults book your property but six beds are used, you are entitled to charge an additional fee for the extra two beds. To support this, ask your cleaners to provide photographic evidence of the bed usage on the day of check-out.
Sheets: Quality Matters
Provide both a fitted sheet and a top sheet for each bed. Ensure the sheets are of reasonable quality; a 250 thread count is acceptable for budget properties, but at least a 500 thread count is recommended for higher-end properties.
Pillowcases: Keeping it Fresh
You will need one pillowcase per single bed and two per double/queen bed, with the remaining pillowcases supplied as part of the doona sets. To keep them fresh, kindly ask guests not to use the pillows provided with the doona set.
Protectors: Essential for Longevity
Invest in mattress and pillow protectors to keep your mattresses and pillows stain and odour-free. Ensure your cleaners wash these regularly. You will need two sets of protectors per bed.
Towels: Quantity and Quality
To maintain a high standard, ensure you have three sets of bath towels for each guest, with white being the recommended colour. Additionally, provide three hand towels and three bath mats per bathroom, also in white. White towels are preferred as they can be easily bleached and washed at high temperatures to maintain cleanliness and hygiene.
Pressing Linen: Enhancing the Guest Experience
Where possible, have pillowcases and flat sheets pressed to give a crisp, professional finish. Large commercial laundries have the machinery to do this, which can add a touch of luxury to your guest experience and enhance the overall presentation of the beds.
Additional Items to Purchase and Label
To ensure consistency and quality, the following items should be purchased and labelled with your property name:
- Tea Towels: 12
- Mattress Protectors: 2 per bed
- Pillow Protectors: 2 per pillow
These will help keep your mattresses and pillows stain and odour-free.
Doona Sets and Covers
Each bed should have three doona sets and one doona. A doona set comprises a doona cover and two matching pillowcases. It’s advisable to have a spare doona of each size per property in case one needs to be washed. For rooms with multiple beds, choose doona sets that match, avoiding garish colours or designs. Throw pillows can add a nice touch.
Please note that due to intensive commercial washing processes, coloured doona covers are likely to fade over time. It is recommended to use predominantly white doona covers or good quality colourfast doonas.
By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your property is not only compliant with Airbnb’s standards but also delivers a high-quality experience for your guests.
