Preparing for the festive season – how to avoid running low on linen supplies

Posted on Oct 05, 2016

As the festive season draws closer and occupancy levels rise, we know housekeeping teams are put under further pressure to service bedrooms and meet the rising demand for clean linen. To help alleviate this pressure and ensure a fuss-free festive period, we’ve put together our top tips to ensure you have the right amount of linen when and where you need it.

1. Check your delivery schedule in advance. With CLEAN as your linen provider, changes can easily be made to future deliveries so if you know your occupancy levels are going to be higher than expected, let us know and we’ll happily supply you with what you need.
   
2. Don’t forget to submit your linen counts. This ensures we are able to provide you with the right amount of linen when and where you need it.
   
3. Fill cages with as much dirty linen as possible. Filling up cages fully ensures there are plenty of empty cages in circulation for all of our customers keeping things running as efficiently as possible.
   
4. Only order the stock that you need. Over ordering can deplete the overall stock available in the linen pool which can have an effect on other customers. It’s important that at one of the busiest times of year not to stock pile but communicate any peaks to your account manager as quickly as possible – with a network of laundries across the UK we can utilise stock from our other laundries to meet additional needs at very short notice.
   
5. Return any imperfect items regularly. Occasionally you’ll find an item that has slipped through our quality control net, make sure you return these as soon as possible so we can replace them as necessary and return them to you shiny and new, ensuring your levels of clean linen is not affected.
   
6. Have your soiled stock ready for collection. This keeps our drivers and deliveries on time for all of our customers. We’re a flexible team of professionals so if you need to change your times or want to change the pick-up location then we can accommodate this providing your dedicated contact is aware.
   
7. Who manages your linen levels? By making sure more than one team member is trained in managing your linen levels, means cover can be provided when staff members are away.
   

Ready to Streamline your linen?

More than 70% of our customers now use our premium Streamline service taking the hassle out of stock control and linen room management. Our Streamline service transforms your linen room significantly, reducing administration and paper work. It removes the need to count soiled stock, instead only submitting one clean room linen count once a week. Streamline is less labour intensive, offers consistent deliveries and invoices you to reflect occupancy levels and include a buffer stock so you have the flexibility to respond to unexpected rises in demand.

Our team of Streamline specialists work with you to monitor and analyse your weekly ALRC (actual linen room count) and ensure you don’t waste money on stock that will simply sit on a shelf taking up vital space. Streamline specialists will reduce the risk of you running out of stock and factor in other elements using their knowledge and understanding of your hotel, including seasonal and one-off influences.

At CLEAN we pride ourselves on exceptional levels of customer service and a linen supply you can rely on. The locations of our 7 laundries and the streamlined routes our drivers operate means if one of our sites sees a spike in demand during a peak operating period another of our sites can meet the additional demand seamlessly. This ensures our customers always have the right amount of linen when and where they need it.

Our fleet of 145 delivery vehicles operate 24 hours a day almost 365 days a year and our 1,400 employees process and deliver 4 million linen items to our valued customers each and every week.

Ready to find out more about Streamline? Contact us today for a FREE no obligation quote.