MEMPHIS, TN—Home2 Suites, Hilton Worldwide’s mid-tier extended-stay brand, celebrated its first anniversary this spring, opening its 10th property last month with an additional 70 properties in the development pipeline. As with any new brand, developers are given a comprehensive new construction prototype guide that spells out to the smallest detail what facilities need to be included and how they need to be positioned.
Not surprisingly, given how critical a regular supply of fresh linen is to the successful operation of the property, the prototype guide includes specs for the back-of-house laundry.
“When we designed the Home2 Suites brand, we put the back-of-house laundry right behind the front desk. This way, when an associate—say the night auditor, the breakfast attendant or a suite keeper, our term for housekeeper—has some downtime, he or she can help in the laundry,” explained Dawn Koenig, VP of brand performance support for Home2 Suites as well as its sister extended-stay brand, the upscale Homewood Suites by Hilton.
Situating the on-site laundry this way helps keep Home2 Suites’ staffing model a bit leaner than at other extended-stay brands, including Homewood Suites. Overall, extended-stay brands launder less linen than transient brands. “The higher your extended-stay occupancy—defined as either five to seven nights or longer—the more efficiencies you have with a guest service like laundry. At Home2 Suites, we have what we call a ‘light touch’ and a ‘full clean.’ On full-clean days, we change out all the linen, if you’re an extended-stay guest,” Koenig said.
Home2 Suites laundries require two washers and two dryers. Should the key count at a property approach 150 or more, the brand might require the developer to add a third washer and dryer. A dryer enclosure area is required as is an appropriate amount of linen storage space.
“Everything is spelled out in the prototypical drawings. There are certain finishes that are required back-of-house in addition to things like a two-compartment sink and smoke detectors,” she noted.
Typically, the laundry is well integrated into the back-of-house area, which also includes the employees’ break area, according to Koenig.
Considering that Home2 Suites hotels don’t have a full-service restaurant, nor do they do heavy catering, f&b-related linen is restricted to the complimentary breakfast, which is a brand standard. And complimentary breakfast linen is fairly modest.
Home2 Suites doesn’t specify which brand washer or dryer a developer must use. Rather, Hilton Worldwide’s Hilton Supply Management unit has several vendors that have been approved or that have a proven track record with the company. If developers opt to go outside the list of approved vendors, they’re more or less on their own.
“If repairs are necessary or if the developer is having trouble with the vendor selected—and the vendor is not on the approved list—it’s hard for us to step in to mediate because there’s no prior relationship there,” Koenig explained.
The use of water-conserving and energy-efficient equipment along with environmentally friendly detergent and other chemicals are all objectives Hilton Worldwide strongly supports. But the company doesn’t mandate their use since the hotels are franchises, rather than owned assets.
Koenig pointed out, however, that the two largest vendors of detergent and chemicals on the Hilton Supply Management approved vendor list are Procter & Gamble and Ecolab, and that both have highly-regarded sustainability programs. In addition, many Home2 Suites developers are interested in pursuing LEED certification for their properties, certification that requires a high degree of sustainable practices.
Education is key
“While Hilton Worldwide doesn’t mandate the use of water-conserving and energy-efficient equipment, we definitely want to educate people about the value of such machines. We want to make sure we’re keeping this information flowing out to developers and franchisees,” Koenig added.
Hotels are required to have what’s called a “par” of linen on hand. That’s typically two-and-a-half turns, which translates to 250 sheets for a 100-room property. If the hotels maintain that standard, it allows them to refresh every suite, even if the property has had a really busy night. This means that if the suite keepers have to remove every sheet on every bed on the property, there will still be a sufficient number of sheets to go ahead and make up the suites without having to launder any.
“If the hotel is not maintaining that par standard, that’s when it starts to get a bit sticky,” Koenig cautioned.
“Having a really comfortable bed with fresh and clean linen is such a critical part of the guest stay in a hotel. It’s really what hotels are selling,” she concluded. “And that premise is even more compelling in an extended-stay hotel. If the guest is with us for just a night, the bed experience may not matter as much as it does when the guest is there for weeks or months.”