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Dirty linen crisis reaches boiling point

Reports of increased laundry charges of more than 5 percent and linen suppliers not meeting demands

AccomNews has been told that several small accommodation businesses have been forced to wash their own linen in-house due to a sudden increase in laundry charges and linen suppliers not being able to meet an uptake in dirty linen demands.

It is the regional motels and short stay management rights resorts that seem to be suffering most from this linen crisis which has left accommodations drastically short of clean towels and bed linen during the busiest time of year.

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A regional motel owner who wishes to remain anonymous told us that despite their regular linen supplier raising charges without notice, they were left without clean linen on one of their busiest weeks of the year when their usual delivery of sheets and towels didn’t arrive. And when they complained to the linen provider, the company declined to offer further linen services.

This motel owner is now washing all their linen in-house after purchasing two industrial washing machines.

Several other motel owners also came forward to AccomNews, and all made similar claims, that recently their linen service has been severely disrupted and below-par, despite increased costs. Again, they all wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from their laundry service provider if they complain. 

Likewise, management rights owners have been faced with significant increases in the cost of the services they provide to their owners (particularly short-term businesses) where cleaning contractor charges and linen charges have risen dramatically.

In one week, AccomNews has been made aware of two management rights owners in Queensland who have not only had their linen charges go through the roof but are also now expected to travel to the linen supplier’s premises to drop off and pick up the linen!

And the main reason for the drastic price rises and disruption in service from the linen suppliers and laundry services?

No staff!

Yes, the blame is being laid at the foot of the current staffing crisis, an ongoing and wide-reaching problem that is impacting every business throughout the sector.

With the September school holidays looming, not being able to maintain a good supply of clean laundry is now yet another worry for many accommodation providers.

With linen and laundry companies forced to close during lockdowns and many having to let staff go, these companies are now struggling to recruit and find it virtually impossible to meet the current workload demanded by accommodation providers who are now very busy and need their housekeeping to be back at full steam.

On top of this, AccomNews has been told the cost of new linen has gone through the roof with supply and delivery chains heavily disrupted due to COVID.

Despite these complicated and unprecedented problems, some laundry and linen companies have been able to keep their customers onside with effective communication.

One motel owner told us that despite their laundry supplier having increased prices by five percent and on occasion not providing a full service, they remained happy because of how well the company’s CEO communicated with them.

The motel owner said he could empathise with the problems caused by staff shortages and receiving a weekly email from the laundry supplier to clarify the difficulties, enabled his motel staff to work around the issues and plan alternative ways to provide guests with clean linen.

If you are an accommodation owner who has been impacted by any of the issues above or a laundry or linen supplier, please get in touch.

2 Comments

  1. We have been dealing with this since reopening from COVID. Our Laundry provider has not been able to keep up with orders delivering short orders every other week and not picking up dirty laundry with out any notice. House keeping had to clean towels and pillow cases.
    Also having to use king sheets on double beds as they could not supply enough double sheets then charging us for the cleaning of king sheets which we would not of used if our order was complete.

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