Consider the guest

With national hotel-groups enjoying strong purchasing power the hotel market is not usually seen as a lucrative business for laundries. Even the smaller independent hotels have joined marketing associations and formed buying groups so that laundries often find margins on their contracts pared to the bone.

The quality of the launderer’s service has taken a distant second place to cost. When the hotel groups are able to negotiate such one-sided deals, the laundry is left wondering how it can show a profit.

Could the market change, becoming kinder to laundries? Sudden expansion is unlikely, so growth will have to be organic. One way for laundries to boost profits is to add value to existing contracts and look for ways of growing the business with their established clients.

Starting point

A starting point is to consider the needs and expectations of the end-user, the hotel guest. For their needs have far-reaching implications for the way the hotel and laundry industries build relationships.

In a recent survey, hotel guests were questioned about their expectations of the hotel’s laundry service. What do they expect? What are their preferences? What are their perceptions for different categories of hotels? Most importantly, what would make them return?

Attracting repeat business is vital for hoteliers. If a hotel makes a good first impression, there’s a good chance that guests will return, and better still, recommend it. Repeat business is heavily pursued by all hotels but especially by high-quality independent hotels that build their business on a carefully nurtured reputation.

So how can laundries help their hotel clients to increase repeat business? Research shows that 64% of the repeat use of a hotel is influenced by the quality of the bed linen. That’s staggeringly high, especially as many hotels place the cost of laundering before its quality.

In the survey, 51% of the guests said their decision to return to a hotel was influenced by the quality of the towels. Around one-in-three guests would consider coming back if the hotel provided quality table-linen.

Laundering quality clearly matters, so why haven’t hotel managers discovered this from their own guest questionnaires? The answer is that hotel surveys reveal views on what the guests find rather than what they expect or would like to see. Often they will only comment if rooms, food or service is either very good or very bad.

Filling the gap

A survey specifically focussed on expectations revealed a real gap between what guests expect and what they find.

If hotels were to fill that gap, they would have happier guests, and both hotels and laundries could increase their profits. If both were to try and exceed expectations, profits could improve still further. Guests’ perceptions of hotels are often to do with the ‘feely-touchy’ experience of napkins, table linen, towels, sheets and pillowcases.

I recall a passing, but nevertheless sincere, comment from a friend at a wedding reception as he was momentarily overwhelmed by the obvious quality of the cloth napkin.

This may sound quirky but, as quoted in hotel brochures: “Success is the sum of many small things done correctly.” This means using cloth napkins rather than paper serviettes; tablecloths instead of paper-cloths at breakfast; providing bath sheets as well as bath towels; and having at least two pillows on the bed per guest.

How do we get the message over to hoteliers? The research I have quoted was commissioned by the Textile Services Association the (TSA) and chief executive Murray Simpson commented: “We always suspected there was more to be made in this sector, but the findings were so powerful, we saw a major opportunity to equip our members with vital information that would improve the state of their marketplace.”

Must-have pack

As a result, the Pillow Talk marketing initiative was launched with laundry managers being trained to present these findings to their hotel clients. The Pillow Talk pack is becoming a “must-have sales tool.

What has the TSA’s campaign achieved so far? Following the first round of UK-wide training sessions, results of early presentations have been encouraging. David Stevens, at the Cheltenham branch of Paragon Laundries says “Our sales people view the Pillow Talk pack as a useful sales tool that will help build stronger relationships with our customers. They report a genuine openness to the campaign, together with some surprise at the scale of the findings.”

However, he says that hotels are reluctant to implement changes and cost is still a sticking point. Perseverance is needed, but he believes his team can get there.

David Stevens also stresses the need to present the information, not just correctly, but to the right people. Reaching the decision makers is not always easy. Convincing the housekeepers is a first step but getting major changes to the hotel’s laundry requirements can mean lengthy procedural discussions with hotel management.

I talked to head housekeepers at a number of hotels in the Lakes and found that while they are looking for a working partnership with their laundry suppliers, they still need convincing that upgrading the laundry will add value. Guests, they say, only comment when the laundry is below standard.

Obviously persuading hotels of the benefits of improving their laundry quality will take time. The Pillow Talk research gives the facts and reveals the opportunities but laundries will need commitment and patience and a renewed focus on customer care.

Status seekers

Perhaps the industry needs to attack from another angle. Hotels are always looking to improve their status; the number of crowns, stars, or keys they have been awarded are important to them. The industry should also be lobbying the three major hotel rating bodies, the RAC, the AA and the English Tourist Board.

At the moment, upgrading the quality and quantity of laundry items, will not

of itself have much impact on a hotel’s rating. Laundry is seen only as a helpful addition. If, as an industry, we could raise the profile of the laundry service to the extent that it affected the hotels’ ratings, they would be falling over themselves to work more closely with us. After all, of the guests questioned, 85% believed the quality of bed linen and towels should influence the star rating.

The future of the hotel sector does hold some very real growth opportunities for launderers, but they will only materialise if we can change the way hotels and laundries work together. That means adopting a long-term strategy and the burden for change will lie largely with the laundries. Each must grasp the opportunities set before them to ensure a more sustainable, profitable role for the whole industry.

For more information on Pillow Talk

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