MATERIALS , CONSTRUCTION , FINISH , COLOUR AND SIZE & QUALITY OF SHEETS AND PILLOW CASES

a) MATERIALS

• Cotton and polycot
• Cotton polyester blends
• Linen

b) CONSTRUCTION

• The resultant fabric is rough and looks dull when cotton fibres in a blend
• Plain weave is the most use for sheeting
• The night spread or crinkle sheet made in the seersucker
• Fabric for sheeting are graded by their thread coint and tensile strength

c) FINISH

• Finishing treatments (bleaching, mercerizing and saniforizing)
• Cotton-polyester sheets are normally modified during manufacturing to provide a permanent press or no-iron effect

d) COLOUR AND SIZE

• White
• Torn sheet size or cut sheet size

e) QUALITY

• Marked '1F/12S-81 x 104 in' (contains 1-dozen 1st quality and 12-dozen 2nd quality double sheets)

MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION AND FINISHES OF BLANKET

a) MATERIAL

• Woolen blankets are widely used in hotels
• Non-flammable
• Non-wool blankets lack resilience, not warm or fluffy, cost less and easily laundered
• 5 categories of fabric use in manufacturing:
• wool
• acrylic
• cotton polyester
• olefin

b) CONSTRUCTION

• Single-needle punched (used for low priced blankets)
• Fibre-woven (involves a double-needle procedure that push the fibre through the blanket and pull it back)
• Loom-woven(gives the most durable product and used for all premium blankets)
• Moulded ( constructed of nylon flocking moulded onto polyurethane foam)

c) FINISHES

• Blanket maybe finished in two ways

MATERIAL AND FINISHES OF BEDSPREADS

a) MATERIALS

• Complement the colours and other design elements in the guestroom
• Synthetic fabrics are dominating the bedspreads in hotels
• Most hotel prefer to have washable bedspread fabric

b) FINISHES

• Often sat or folded and stack away for later use
• The material should be crease-proof
• The fabric also be fire-retardant

MATERIAL, FINISHES, COLOUR AND SIZE OF PILLOWS

a) MATERIAL

• Natural or synthetic fillings
• Synthetic filling may consist of either polyester fibre or foam
• Foam is generally not used in hotel piilows
• The fabric usually made of 100 per cent cotton or polycot

b) FINISHES

• Considered are pillows that :
• hypo-allergenic
• mildew-proof
• moth-proof
• flame-retardant
• fluid-proof

c) COLOUR AND SIZE

• White ticking
• White-on-white pattern

SOFT FURNISHINGS

a) CURTAINS

• Not soil easily or collect dust
• Should washable and resistant to fading from sunlight
• Provide privacy without blocking sunlight during anytime

b) MATERIAL

• Abrasion from being drawn together and apart
• Being brush against
• Rubbing against the floor and the window frames and sills
• The abrasion resistance of the curtain depends upon its compenent fibres
• Silk is an expensive fabric and used to create a luxurious ambience

c) CONSTRUCTION

• Fabrics that are compactly woven are less likely to burn than those that are loosely woven
• Cushion covers (not soil easily or collect dust, should be washable)
• Upholstery (should be strong resistant to soiling, closely woven with non fluffy surface, resistant to snagging, should not cling to guest clothes

PLANNING THE LINEN AND UNIFORM ROOM

a) LOCATION

linen centre room

linen room that have on every floor

• has an easy flow from linen room to the laundry
• has at every floor of the hotel
• has a facilitate easy issue and receipt of linen from the gust floor and other departments
• good distance from main kitchen and other department
• have proper ventilation facilities

b) SPACE

• depend on the size of the hotel and activities to be carried out in the linen room
• minimum area requirement is 6 feet

c) ENTRANCE

•  minimum requirement is 4 feet wide
•  stable door is recommended to stop the entry of a unauthorized entry easily

d) WALLS AND FLOOR

•  the floor must be sturdy to bear the load of heavy trolley
•  tiles should be cheap and painted from material that easy to clean
•  tiles wall are best and recommended

e) LIGHTNING AND VENTILATION

•  kept away from light
•  decreased the amount of air and the air must be free of humidity
•  temperature required is 20 c

f) STORAGE

•  linen storage shelf should be design for maximum use of space
•  there should be a clearance of shelf from ground should be 6 feet
• depth of shelf should be 18-20 if they are shattered to wall
• depth of shelf should be 30-40 inches wide
• cover the shelf with curtain to avoid dust

g) SOILED LINEN AREA

•  should be large to accommodate all soiled linen
•  should have space to sort and count the linen and to move trolley
•  the floor store area of linen should be consist of a surface that do not stain damp linen

h) LINEN EXCHANGE COUNTER

•  do not have the grill
•  should be wide
•  counter should be close when there is no one in it

i) UNIFORM STORE AREA

•  uniform hang on a hanger
•  uniform been separated by designation and department
• located to store areas

j) LINEN SUPERVISOR DESK

•  the location should have a good view of entire room
•  have a telephone on the desk

k) GUEST LAUNDRY AREA

•  guest laundry must be stored, marked and recorded before sent to guest laundry area
•  the laundry must be stored according to room number
•  must have a table or mobile rail to hang the cloth
•  a sink and iron table is necessary for hotel with no OPL

l) INSPECTION AREA

•  consist of a large inspection table
•  100-room property require a table of about 10 feet*6 feet size
•  a folding table or one that may be dismantled is ideal
•  the colour of the tabletop should contrast with the colour of linen

ROOM LINEN EXCHANGE PROCEDURE

• Floor supervisor counts the soiled linen on the floor and enters the counts into the room linen control form
• The room linen control form prepared in two copies and sent with the soiled linen to the linen room
• The linen keeper again counts the soiled linen and stamps 'RECEIVED' on the form. One copy will be returned after tally and the rest will be retained
• The room linen supervisor issues fresh linen on a to one basis. If the linen room is short of fresh linen at the point of time, the supervisor enters the balance amount and issues them with the next lot

STORAGE OF LINEN

• While in storage, the linen must be kept free
•  Linen covered by curtains drawn across the shelves
• Articles that are not frequent in use stored covered with dust sheets.
• Fold fresh linen faces outwards while placing it on shelves
• Heavier linen should be placed on lower shelves
• All fresh linen should be under cover 
• Linen stock rotated in ordered on FIFO
• Smaller articles placed in bundles of 10
• Linen stored in cupboards with slatted sliding doors

BED LINEN

a) Sheets and pillow cases

• Should have pleasant feel
• good appearance should wear well

b) Blankets

• Should be warm
• fairly heavyweight
• hard-wearing

c) Bedspreads

• The readymade sizes are seldom satisfactory
• Should match the decor (appearance, colour, print)

d) Mattress protectors 

• Protect the mattress from spills and stains
• Provided a padded layer
• Made of quilted fabric
• Made of vinyl

e) Pillow

• Too soft nor too hard
• Good quality pillows may last up to 2 years

LINEN AND LAUNDRY OPERATION

THE LINEN AND UNIFORM ROOM

• A central depot for all hotel linen
• Cleans articles of linen are distributed throughout the establishment

Linen room

Uniform room

LINEN ROOM ORGANIZATION

There are 2 types of linen room which is :

a) Centralized linen room

Linen centre room in a hotel

• Linen from all floors are collected and sorted in one central area
• Control by the room supervisor
• All linen must have a receipts when it brings out from here

b) Decentralized linen room

• Each floors have its own linen room
• Floor supervisors responsible to maintain the par stock in every floor
  

  
  

  
  

Linen brings out from linen centre room kept in here

ACTIVITIES IN LINEN AND UNIFORM ROOM

• Collection of soiled linen
• Counting amd sorting of soiled linen
• Packing of soiled linen for the laundry
• Dispatch of soiled linen to the laundry
• Receipt of fresh linen from the laundry
• Checking and sorting of fresh linen
• Storage of fresh linen
• Distribution of fresh linen to the floor & other areas
• Stocktaking for linen and maintainance of records
• Stitching, repairing, and monogramming of all hotel linen & uniform
• Uniform selection 
• Uniform storage and issue
• Discarding of unusable linen