Guests want clean rooms. It’s a fairly obvious statement, and one that’s been proven by customer surveys.
Your customers expect your rooms and beds to meet their expectations, and if that doesn’t happen, they’ll complain to management and ask for a remedy: a different room.
We addressed this issue in our last blog post about clean white sheets, towels and bed bugs. A tired-looking room, with a worn carpet, faded draperies, broken blinds or ripped towels sends the wrong message. Every guest deserves a well-appointed and clean room every time.
What else do guests want? Here’s a list:
- Good mattresses
Your mattresses should be supportive, and not saggy, lumpy or too soft. Zipped-on mattress covers are very important, as they show guests your mattresses are guarded against stains and – more importantly – protected against bed bugs.
Add a mattress pad into the equation as well. It keeps the mattress from moving around while your guests sleep. These pads should be changed before each new guest arrives.
- Their choice of pillow
Guests want quality pillows. Pillows are so important that many guests choose to travel with their own pillow rather than trust the ones they find at their hotels. But many guests still appreciate a pillow menu – like the one we offer on our website – that lets them choose their own pillow.
- Clean sheets
There’s nothing like falling asleep under a set of clean, white sheets. While the guests in a recent survey said they appreciated high thread count sheets, they said it was more important to have sheets that are in good condition, look and smell clean and feel soft.
- White bedding
Guests prefer white bedding. It looks clean, and this preference had led many properties to furnish their beds with white sheets and duvets.
Coverlets and duvets can be washed more easily than standard bedspreads. A duvet cover can be changed and washed and the duvet insert (comforter) can be put back into the duvet.
Although the duvet may be used by a guest, we always suggest using a third sheet with a blanket. If dressing the bed this way, there would be a fitted sheet, flat sheet, blanket and third sheet on top of the blanket. If you’re doing turn-down service, the duvet can be pulled down, leaving the third sheet and blanket as decorative bedding. This will indicate to the guest that they can use the duvet if they require more warmth.
When using a bed skirt, a tailored bed skirt is preferred rather then using the ruffled variety, as the ruffles may create more dust in the ruffles. If you choose the tailored variety, you may not need to wash as often.
If you aren’t using a bed skirt, you may want to add a decorative box spring cover.
Finally, when changing a white bed before the next guest arrives, it is much easier to look for stains and treat them on the spot before sending the bedding to the laundry.
- Bed scarves
Another important bedding item is a bed scarf, which protects your bedding from luggage in rooms without a luggage rack. (We always recommend having at least one luggage rack.)
But remember that many guests won’t use the coverlet, duvet or bedspread if they’re concerned that they are not cleaned.
We’ve stayed in properties that leave a note for guests: “All of the linens in the room were changed before your arrival.”
Trust us when we say that gives us a great deal of reassurance, letting us know that the room and bed are up to the standards that we – like most hotel guests – have come to expect.