Hotel owners take pride in reading good reviews about their properties. Since the invention of the internet, folks have been writing reviews on hotels and some of these reviews are actually authentic as some of us have actually answered surveys and questionnaires about past accommodations. No one wants to give a bad review, but those reviews can literally decrease sales or even put a place out of business if the bad reviews are consistent. What makes a customer give a favorable review about a hotel or motel that they have recently visited?

Each client has different services that they deem important when staying in a prospective hotel. These determinations will depend on the age, gender, class and expectations of each individual. For example, children have their own set of criteria which differ from their adult counterparts. When my son was five years old, we took a winter skiing trip and booked a five-star hotel to stay in for a few nights. As we were driving closer to our destination I jokingly pointed to an extremely rundown motel and told my children that that was the motel we would be staying at.

“Yay,” said my five-year old, “there’s a soda machine.” Children will consider the game room, pool and vending machines of the utmost importance for the enjoyment of their stay. Their parents, however, will have various other criteria; among these are, the pillows, air conditioning, cleanliness of the restroom, the shower pressure, hot water availability and of course the towels.

In 2022 and 2023, the Hilton Hotel chain undertook a survey to find out what was the most important criteria for guests to assess the quality of the room they were staying in. While there were many qualifications that were important, towels ranked number one. Towels were the most asked for items when calling down to the front desk. Other requested items were toothbrushes and toothpaste, extra tissues and cups, but towels won the contest as the most requested of them all.

It’s not the greatest feeling when you step into the restroom of your suite and see a small card on the counter asking you to conserve the towels to save energy. At home, some folks will use the same towel again and again but when you are spending good money for a hotel room most folks appreciate the luxury of clean and dry towels. Also, this request gives the visitor an uneasy feeling as to maybe the towels were left from the last customers especially if they were left folded on the bathroom towel bars. Now, anyone can appreciate that the previous customer is eco-friendly and wants to conserve water by hanging their used towels on the towel rack to be used again. However, I want to know that every single towel and washcloth from the previous customers will go into the laundry even if the towels are still on the towel rack.

How can anyone be sure that the previous customer (who is serious about conserving water) will not neatly fold up their used towel and put it back on the towel rack with the chambermaid not realizing that it was used? The general rule in hotels is that if the towel is used it should be left on the floor of the restroom to be put in the laundry. However, just like there are some sneaky people who will take a towel or two home with them, there can be some other “green” guys or neat freaks whose used towels are not on the bathroom floor space but refolded on the towel bar.

Hotel Towels for Different Purposes

Are you aware that many hotels have three different types of towels? Each type of towel has its unique function and hotel administrations ask folks to please respect the differences. Towels for the room are usually white in color and come in different sizes, hand, bath and washcloth. Larger towels for the pool and usually colored and are made of a stronger and thicker material to bear up against chlorine and sunscreen. The third type of hotel towels are the ones that should stay in the spa and hold up for massages and different types or creams and oils used in massages.

People might think it’s no big deal to exchange these items, but housekeeping personnel realize it and complain that it makes their job more difficult since different types of towels are washed separately. You might think you must bring a towel to the pool or spa, but you should not, there are plenty of those at your destination. Your child will be cold and wet if you use a thinner bath towel to warm them up after a swim.

How do Hotel Towels Hold up in the Clothes Dryer?

Different vendors’ towels respond differently to dryer performance. Guests at budget hotels complain of scratchy towels and this does not necessarily have to do with the industrial clothes dryer’s performance. Inferior towels are thin and don’t hold up as well when washed and dried. Hotels such as the Hilton chain will test the quality and perseverance of different towel companies’ products. Recently, Hilton washed, dried and studied towels from forty different companies. The towels tested were washed over one hundred and twenty times and Hilton then purchased millions of new towel sets based on their research which increased customer enthusiasm significantly.

Guests don’t realize it but over half the towels are replaced annually for hotel inventory. Hotel towels can be used between fifty and one hundred times before being disposed of. Abuse of the hotel towels are not necessarily done by the guests but by the way they are mass laundered. Laundry services must use strong disinfectant cleaners and bleach, especially post Covid, causing towels to lose their white color. Very high-water temperatures and hard water are some of the reasons for the disintegration of the towels. The way they are washed and dried cannot be compared to personal machines and methods. Guests are turned off when they find that their white towels have a gray hue even if they smell clean and no guest wants to use a shredded towel or one with a hole.

Thinner towels take up less room in a washing machine and dry faster, but they are not appreciated by hotel guests. How many towels does an average adult need to dry themselves off after a hot shower? It should only be one but if the towels are thin that will not work and sometimes the hotel is not too generous with the supply of towels. A quality hotel towel is made of one hundred percent Pima or Egyptian cotton and a towel thickness rating (GSM) of at least five hundred. These quality towels take up more room in the washer and more drying time in the dryer.

The Future of Hotel Towels

Even though thin towels or blends of cotton and polyester will conserve energy and water, guests of high-end hotels will not be satisfied with these. Towel suppliers are developing new blends of materials such as beech wood and bamboo which are more energy efficient than their cotton counterparts. Cotton is decomposable so in that way it is a vote for the green energy group, but synthetics will last longer so hotel towel manufacturers are innovating and testing different types of biodegradable synthetics that will boost energy efficiency and at the same time keep the hotel guests satisfied.

What happens to those towels that are no longer worthy of hotel guests? Hotels such as Hilton have donated thousands of towels to animal shelters and these towels are used for bedding for thousands of animals nationwide. By not throwing away those unusable towels and turning them into cleaning rags or donating to shelters for the homeless, administrators can rest assured that their discarded linen is being put to good use.

An Innovative Way to Solve the Towel Problem

On a cold winter day even if the water in the shower is super-hot coming out of the shower can present a challenge especially for seniors. Coarse, thin and undersized towels can make drying difficult and dangerous. One wrong move can have a senior on the tiled floor of a bathroom which can bring additional expense to a hotel owner in terms of a possible lawsuit. Guest terry robes do help this issue but even putting on a robe while wet can present an obstacle to an older or handicapped person.

Remember when the hotel bathroom had heating lamps when you came out of the shower? This was soothing coming out of a hot shower to a not so warm bathroom. This concept has been stretched by companies introducing body dryers in guest bathrooms. As the warm air flows it relaxes the occupant and dry’s them off at the same time eliminating the need for a bath towel.

Many public facilities have eliminated paper towels for hand drying and turned to electric drying devices instead. These can be frustrating at times since they take so long and the pressure is not enough. There are machines that do have enough pressure, and some facilities have had them installed but for a steep price. For hotel owners installing high pressure dryers can bring positive input from guests who are frustrated with the quality of hotel towels. Besides the hot air coming from the ceiling, it could come from the walls and the floor.

Final Words

Folks enjoy the ambiance and service of hotels for various reasons. It could be an overnight business trip or a family vacation but whatever the reason people want to feel pampered no matter where they end up booking. Vacationists will book their hotel based on location, but we cannot underestimate the importance of the various amenities and conveniences that a traveler expects. On a hot evening a hotel guest will expect a cool room with air conditioning that is working properly. Bed linen should be crisp and clean with pillows that you sink into yet keep you slightly elevated. Of course, towels are one of the most important comforts that everyone expects. Coming out of the shower or bath, a guest wants to be wrapped in a soft, clean smelling towel that will be thick enough to dry them off properly. Additionally, they want enough towels to go around and not to have to call the desk late at night or early in the morning to request additions. Hotel administrators must change their towel inventory quite often and want to keep the green energy crowd happy and at the same time keep their demanding customers satisfied. By redistributing old towels to charitable places such as orphanages and animal shelters they are making both their loyal guests and the less fortunate content.