Receive, Sort and Account

Receiving Laundry

Place the laundry bag that contains dirty clothes in the receiving area

Note the time when guest item is being receive

Check laundry list accordingly

• Name of the Guest

• Room Number

• Specific instructions/request

Check laundry items against the laundry list

• Count number of each item

• Make sure that the numbers of the laundry items correspond with the laundry list

• Write down any correction in the laundry list

• Ask your supervisor to sign the corrected document

Tag each laundry Item

Record guest laundry according to company procedures. You should write the following in the control record book:

• Name of the Guest

• Room No.

• Record express service with required delivery time

• Place guest date of departure (if needed)

• If the guest is expected to depart on the same day, charges should be made immediately and send a receipt to the Front Office

Report any discrepancies to your supervisor, e.g.

• Shortage of guest items to documentation

• Heavily stained or damaged items

Check each garment for damage such as: fading color, stains, missing buttons, tears

Shake out any loose items or soils wrapped up in the garment

All express items must immediately be handed over to the washer or dry cleaning operator

Put all dirty items to the various sorting baskets supplied for this purpose

Report to the Laundry Manager or to the person concerned any unusual condition, including valuable items left by the guest

How is linen sorted?

Linen is usually sorted as follows:

• Dry soiled linen is easier and quicker to sort than damp linen as linen that has been washed may become twisted in the wash

• All linens must be sorted by fibre type. Sheets and tablecloths may be constructed of 100% cotton, or a polyester/cotton blend or 100% linen fiber. Tablecloths may also be constructed of 100% polyester. Sorting by fibre type helps to expedite production by washing all same items together

• Linen must also be sorted by the degree of soiling. Kitchen cleaning cloths, for example, will be much greasier than those used by Housekeeping staff to clean the rooms. As such they will need to be washed separately with a much harsher wash formula

• Colored linens are sorted separately from white linens

• It is necessary to open out linen to ensure there is no waste within it that may get into the washing machine. Shaking, however, should be kept to a minimum so airborne bacteria will not be dispersed into the atmosphere

• Linen used in hotels is often referred to as "flatwork” as most of it is finished on a flatwork ironer.

Linen Sorting Categories

Items are sorted in to the following categories:

1. Sheeting

When sorting through sheets and pillow cases, it is not uncommon to find soiled tissues, or guest clothing (usually nightwear) removed in error by the room attendant when stripping the bed. On occasions pillows may be inadvertently wrapped up in sheets and children’s soft toys may also be found. It is important that these items be removed from the linen before washing, noted and returned to the client at the end of the day. In the case of nightwear being found, this should be laundered separately as a courtesy before being returned.

2. Pillowcases

These must be separated from sheets as they are washed separately .It is much easier to separate them when dry. If they are washed with sheets, they will get twisted in the final extraction and will be much more difficult to sort. This wastes time and slows down production.

3. Duvet covers

These need to be sorted from the sheets as they are also processed differently.

4. Towels

These will need to be sorted from sheets as they are washed on a different wash cycle because of fiber type and degree of soiling. In a hotel environment towels are usually more heavily soiled than sheeting. Items found mixed with towels may include soap and tissues and these all need to be removed prior to washing.

Whilst all sizes of toweling can be washed in the same wash cycle (bath towels, hand towels etc.) white towels should always be washed separately from colored towels.

5. Colored towels

Sometimes if there is a spa area, massage rooms or hairdresser within the hotel, colored towels are used. These may be heavily soaked in massage oils or hair dye and must be washed separately. Colored towels will always fade over a period of time.

6. Bathrobes

These will need to have the belts removed before washing otherwise they may get tangled in the wash causing damage to the belt loops on the robes. If there are pockets in the bathrobes, these will also need to be checked for guests' personal items or old tissues etc. Bathrobe belts will be placed into a mesh laundry bag before being placed in the machine.

7. Table linen

This must be sorted to remove food scraps, cigarette butts, cutlery and sometimes even pieces of crockery! Cutlery that circulates in a washing machine may cause extensive damage to the mechanics of the machine and may necessitate the machine being out of service for an extended period due to repairs. It may also cut and damage the linen that is being washed. This will add pressure to the laundry operation if a machine has to be placed out of service.

8. White table linen

Must be sorted from colored table linen to prevent dye runs

Sometimes in hotels that have a high volume of functions and events, colored paper napkins may be used alongside white linen napkins to create a certain ambiance .It is absolutely essential that these be removed prior to washing .One red paper napkin overlooked can cause a whole wash load of white linen to turn pink! This pink wash load will then need to be rewashed with stronger chemicals to remove the pink tint. This will add cost and time pressures to the processing of linen. The necessary rewash of these items will require large amounts of bleach at high temperatures. This wash formula may damage this linen.

When an excess of these items are found regularly in table linen, this must be reported to the client or restaurant manager for their action and follow up in order to eliminate this practice

9. Tea Towels

Those from the kitchen should be washed separately than those from the guest rooms and bar areas due to the grease content. It is recommended to have different colors for different areas of a hotel a) for identification and b) to reduce cross contamination. For example, a greasy tea towel used by kitchen staff will leave smears on polished glasses.

10. Cleaning Cloths and Mops

All hospitality operations require cleaning and so will have a supply of cleaning cloths and mops .These may require laundering daily. Kitchen cloths should always be laundered separately from those of Housekeeping due to having higher levels of grease and fat contained within. Where color coded mops are used for Housekeeping and Kitchen areas, these must also be washed separately.

Special Note Regarding Body Fluids

If bed and bath linen are found with large amounts of blood, faeces, vomit or urine, this linen should always be treated as potentially infectious linen. This linen should always be kept separate from other lightly soiled linen.

The room attendant or cleaner should wear rubber gloves when handling such linen. Solids should be flushed from the linen wherever possible prior to sending to the laundry. This linen should then be placed directly into a soluble bag which is a heavy duty polythene bag which is usually red in colour and tied with its own soluble tie. These bags can be placed directly into the washing machines and are designed to dissolve in water. Where blood is present the water temperature should be low as hot water will set the stain. This will then require additional special treatment before rewash. The red bags alert laundry staff of potentially infectious linen and reduce its handling. The bags are designed to dissolve from the outside on contact with water in the first flush of the wash cycle.

Common Stains on Linen

The most common stains found on table linen are:

• Red wine

• Coffee and tea

• Lipstick (on napkins)

• Food coloring and food residue

• Salad dressings and butter

How are Clothes and Uniforms Sorted

Once items have been received, checked for quantity and marked per each guest, they are then sorted in to categories for processing .It is important that all care labels on all garments be read when doing so.

Items are sorted for:

• Washing

• Dry cleaning

• Press only.

Items for washing are then sorted into:

• Whites

• Colors

• Dark colors

• Delicate items

Items for dry cleaning are then sorted into:

• Light colors

• Dark colors

• Lighter weight

• Heavier weight

Fabric care labels

Most garments worldwide have care labels which are sewn into the garment. In some countries, this is mandatory but in other countries the care instructions may be simply written on a paper tag attached to the garment when purchased. This tag is removed when worn never to be seen again.

As many hotel guests are from overseas countries, the origin of garments may never be known. This presents a problem to the dry cleaner to try to establish what type of fabric he is dealing with.

Washing guest items

Similar to the wash room, guest items should be weighed before being placed into the washing or dry cleaning machines so that machines can operate at maximum capacity through not under or overloading.

Count items lodged for laundering

Introduction

Guest laundry and dry cleaning items are counted when received at the sorting stage. Linen items that are received into the laundry are counted at the finishing stage. The finishing process involves ironing, folding and packaging.

Counting guest laundry items

When guest laundry bags are delivered to the laundry, the quantities of items in each bag are checked and compared to the quantities that the guest has itemized. On occasions, the guest may miss items or written the incorrect quantity. The hotel’s count must be taken as final and this is usually stated on the guest laundry docket.

These quantities are marked as checked and in many hotels the sorter will also write the colour of each shirt or trousers on the docket. This will help later after the laundry process in the matching of washed items back to each guest.

All guest items are checked for damage and for items left in pockets or pinned to the lapel. These items must be removed and stored for safe keeping before returning to the guest later in the day. If a biro is overlooked in a pocket, for example, this can damage the whole wash load of garments creating additional work to restore all the garments and may lead to financial claims against the hotel for damage and negligence.

Guest items are then marked by tags or tape and then sorted into the categories for washing or dry cleaning.

Counting staff uniforms

Staff uniforms are usually identified either by each staff member’s name or number or by department and size. This will vary from property to property and the method used will be influenced by the quantities of uniforms and the system of issue that the hotel employs.

Staff uniforms are counted by the laundry and sorted into different categories for washing or dry cleaning .These records are kept for internal cost analysis.

Where staff uniforms are processed in the hotel laundry, priority will always be given to the guest items due to the revenue it produces and the service ethic.

Counting linen items

Linen items are not usually counted when soiled. The exception to this would possibly be in a laundry where there are no scales for weighing linen prior to washing. In this case it is important to know the approximate weight of each item so that the washing machines are not overloaded e.g. if a pillow case weighs 200 grams and the washing machine takes 50 kgs. of linen, then 250 pillow cases would need to be counted to fill the machine:

• Most counting is done in the finishing area – i.e. at the flatwork ironer and towel folders

• Before processing each type of item on the flatwork ironer, the counter on the folding machine is turned back to zero

• As items are ironed and folded, the counters record quantities processed

• These quantities must then be manually recorded on an internal record sheet kept at the end of each machine

• Similarly on the towel folder the counter is used

• At the end of the working day, all records from both the towel folders and flatwork ironers are then either totaled and then posted to a computer so that production records are kept. This will help with cost analysis at a later stage.

In the case of an external laundry:

• If using an external laundry, the production records are posted to a computer which will then produce a delivery docket/invoice which is forwarded to the customer along with the clean processed linen

Any items that are not returned to the customer due to rewash should be duly noted

• These delivery dockets are attached to the trolleys for transportation to the customer

The customer should check that the delivery docket matches what is delivered and report shortages as soon as practicable.