NEW YORK? The dirt on hotel laundry management is that there?s no cookie-cutter approach to handling on-premises systems. A number of contributors determine how guest, front- and back-of-house and specialty items are cleaned. These range from size of property, location, market niche and even the origin of guest traffic. For example, you?d be hard-pressed to find super-sized washers and dryers taking up valuable real estate space in Manhattan hotels; most of the laundry loads are shipped to outside vendors. A sampling of properties that do on-premises laundry shows a trend toward creative systems management, computerization and cost efficiencies. Some combine out-sourcing with in-house work or consider dry cleaning a portion of the overall process. In one case, the concept of an on-premises laundry was transferred off-site in order to handle the 36 million pounds of laundry done each year. The honor of managing that huge load belongs to John Stephens. As director of laundry, valet and costumes at Paris-Las Vegas, he not only has oversight of that 2,916-room property, but portions of the laundry process for the adjacent Bally?s and the Flamingo in Laughlin, NV, all of which sit under the Park Place Entertainment corporate umbrella. With almost two decades managing cleaning processes, Stephens runs the operation with a precision that testifies to his five years of staff service at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He handles both an on-premises facility at Paris-Las Vegas and the 32,000-square-foot, one-story facility located eight miles away that handles the bulk of the wash. ?Park Place Entertainment had been outsourcing its laundry, and about a year ago it incorporated it into that facility, which it owns. There was a tremendous savings in making that move,? said Stephens, although he did not disclose the amount. Cost efficiency and speed are key components that drive laundry operations. At the off-site facility, an average of 105,000 pounds of laundry is handled by 177 employees, processing approximately 109 pounds per operator hour. ?My goal is to reach 135 to 140 pounds per operator hour,? said Stephens. The facility does ?everything that needs to be washed? for the three properties: meeting space items, back-of-the house uniforms and linen, food & beverage and rooms linen, even the guest robes that are provided in the suites. There are 14 400-pound washers and three 200-pounders along with five flatwork ironers, 12 small-piece folders, dryers, conveyors and shuttles. ?When we opened Paris-Las Vegas in September, we were operating 22 hours a day, seven days a week. We?ve been able to cut that back to 16 hours a day,? Stephens said. Stephens pointed to training, including time and motion studies, that ?let our employees know what we expect of them,? as helping speed the process. He?s also been able to cut costs. All of the equipment is computerized and allows for hands-off programming for wash-specific chemical formulations, e.g., punch in formula one on the washer and it?s good for sheets, formula two is good for towels, etc. The microprocessors also track operations. ?I can pull from the computer exactly what was washed in each machine, how long it took, the ideal poundage loads, I can know exactly what my cost is going to be based on that poundage. It helps cost efficiencies when ordering chemicals and other materials,? said Stephens. ?At Paris, we run a little over 17.85 pounds per room for linen; at Bally?s, a little over 14 pounds per room; Laughlin is 11 pounds per room. We are running better than average on cost and have reduced that cost over the last year, includinglinen replacement, down about 5 cents. The breakdown by pound is 18 cents (25 cents with replacement cost built in) and that includes everything? water chemicals, utilities? the whole nine yards.? At the 1,550-square-foot, on-premise site, 12 staff members and five runners handle all guest laundry and dry cleaning, usually in a framework of