Hotel Bath Towels – Soft and Absorbent
Hotel guests love the soft, plush feeling of hotel bath towels. While some guests may take them home, this is considered bad etiquette as it deprives future guests of the same luxury.
Hotels wash massive quantities of towels, and they must follow a strict regime to optimize their quality and longevity. Purchasing the right towel sets for your establishment requires an understanding of important purchasing factors like GSM and construction.
Softness
Nothing is quite as luxurious as wrapping yourself in a soft, fluffy towel after a long shower. Hotel guests demand premium textiles that are incredibly soft against the skin, while also being strong and absorbent. While there are many different towel fabrics on the market, hotels continue to favor 100% cotton towels. Specifically, they look for high-quality cotton such as extra long staple or ring spun cotton. This type of cotton has longer fibers, creating a stronger and more absorbent towel.
Hotels also utilize gentle laundry techniques and use commercial dryers and presses to maximize the softness of their towels. They wash their towels often, ensuring they stay fresh and lofty between uses. They also avoid using fabric softeners, which can coat the fibers and prevent them from absorbing water.
Another secret to hotel-quality towels is their high gsm or grams per square meter rating. Towels with a higher gsm are thicker, plushier, and more absorbent. They also tend to be made of combed and low-twist yarns, which create a smoother, softer finish.
Another important factor is how quick the hotel’s towels dry. Towels that remain wet too long can become dingy, smelly, and unpleasant to the touch. Towels should be washed in hot water 104 to 122° F (40 to 50° C). They should then be dried on a low heat setting or air-dried, using a dryer sheet or tennis balls to fluff up the fibers.
Absorbency
The absorbency of hotel bath towels is key to ensuring guests feel luxuriously comfortable and confident. The best cotton bath towels are made with a high GSM count, meaning they are dense and soft to the touch but dry quickly. They also have a low lint factor, which is crucial for guest comfort and the longevity of the towel.
The cotton used to make a hotel bath towel is usually two-ply and a higher GSM count than a domestic one. Premium cotton, such as Pima or Egyptian, is a great choice for hotels because it’s soft and durable. A cotton/polyester blend hotel bath towel is also popular because it’s affordable and durable, but it may not be as soft as a premium cotton towel.
Hotel owners know that towels are a key part of the guest experience, so they want to choose linens that will last. This means incorporating a rotation strategy that distributes the wear and tear among the towels and keeps them fresh for every guest. They should also use professional laundering services that specialize in hotel linens, as these experts will know how to clean the towels efficiently while preserving their quality and softness.
While many home-owners stock their bathroom linens with cheap, generic bath towels, they can easily upgrade to the plushness and luxury that hotel-grade linens offer. Whether running a hotel, bed and breakfast, vacation rental, or simply looking to impress friends and family, anyone can benefit from the use of a premium bath towel.
Durability
Hotel towels need to be able to stand up to frequent washing, which means that they need to be durable. Purchasing premium towels that are built to last saves hotels money by cutting down on the cost of regular replacements. This helps ensure that guests always have access to clean, fresh-smelling towels.
The fabric that hotel bath towels are made from can have a significant impact on their durability. Although bamboo, microfiber, and polyester blends are increasingly popular, hotels tend to prefer cotton because it is super strong, absorbent, and soft. In addition, higher-end cottons like Egyptian and Turkish cotton have a cozier feel than standard cotton.
Another factor that affects the durability of a hotel towel is its gsm (gram per square meter). A higher gsm indicates that the cotton is more dense, which means that it is thicker and stronger. This makes the towels more resistant to wear and tear, and it also reduces lint build-up.
To extend the lifespan of hotel towels, it is important to use a commercial-grade laundry machine and high-quality detergent. It is also recommended to avoid using fabric softeners, as they can damage the fibers and reduce absorbency. It is also important to keep the towels out of direct sunlight, as this can Disposable Cotton Tissue Suppliers fade and damage them. It is also important to separate the towels from other laundry items to prevent lint transfer.
Styles
A good hotel bath towel should go largely unnoticed. After all, guests are simply using it to dry off after showering or taking a dip in the pool or jacuzzi. But a low-quality towel can stand out like a sore thumb. It may feel rough against the skin or be prone to clumping and pilling, leaving a bad impression on the overall guest experience.
Towel quality can depend on the fabric and weave used to make them. Some of the most popular choices include ring-spun cotton (which uses a blend of long and short twisted fibers to create strong and fluffy towels) and combed cotton (in which the yarn is brushed to remove short, broken fibers and increase softness). Many hotels also choose to use dual core cotton, which has a layer of synthetic staple fibers covered in cotton for added strength.
However, the biggest factor that affects the softness of a hotel-style bath towel is how it is laundered and stored. Repeated washing and drying in large industrial laundry machines can cause cotton towels to become compressed, which leads to loss of fluffiness and softness. This is why it’s important to purchase high-quality hotel bath towels that are durable enough to hold up to frequent washing and drying. Also, make sure to store them in a clean, dry linen closet, to minimize moisture and mildew.