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The Old England Hotel saves a laundry load of cash!
22 April 2010
Saving costs is the name of the game in these recessionary times, and many hotels could do well to follow the lead of MacDonalds Old England Hotel in Bowness, which as a result of making changes to it’s linen laundering arrangements, are making substantial yearly savings. The hotel, which is located on the picturesque shores of Lake Windermere, has used PHS Laundryserv to supply and install an on premise laundry which is being used to launder the hotels towelling items to great success and great cost benefit!
PHS Laundryserv is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of commercial laundry equipment, so are well placed to offer hoteliers nationwide help and advice with the installation of an on premise laundry. It was this expertise that the Regional General Manager of the Old England Hotel, Kaye Harrison Mann, turned to when she started investigating the possibility of installing a laundry to replace or supplement the hotels existing outsourced linen laundering service.
With its 106 bedrooms, swimming pool and spa treatment rooms the hotel created a daily mountain of items, including up to 300 robes, that needed laundering. The hotel was using an outsourced linen service, however with the volume of flat work and especially towelling items that required washing it was proving a very costly outgoing.
Laundryserv carried out a site survey to determine the available options, and recommended installing a laundry to bring laundering of the towelling items in-house, but that all flat work continue to be processed via the linen service. This split system solution was recommended as flat work processing requires a far greater investment in equipment, space and staff training to achieve the professional finish needed for such items. A secondary advantage to a split system is that the in-house laundry offers a back up solution for sheets or tablecloths should there be a problem with deliveries or a last minute function booking.
The site survey revealed the perfect location for the laundry – a disused ground floor bedroom that was being used for storage. The room already had water and drainage connections, and Laundryserv brought a 3 phase electric supply into the room as part of the installation. Laundryserv installed two Primus 10kg washers and 2 Primus 13kg dryers into the room, leaving plenty of working space for staff to load and unload the machines.
Mrs Harrison Mann explains, “The laundry has proved to be extremely cost effective, creating very substantial savings on our yearly laundry bill. Laundryserv’s machines are easy to use, have short cycle times and once the washer or dryer is loaded and started, it only needs a member of staff to pop in for 5 minutes to change the loads over. We’re now processing all the hotels towelling items and without taking on any additional staff! In fact it’s proved so worthwhile, we’re looking to extend its remit so we’ll soon be processing an additional 3000 napkins a week, the easiest of the flat work, for both this hotel and two of our sister hotels.”
For further information on the feasibility of installing a laundry at your hotel, call PHS Laundryserv on 0800 7311 399.
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