By Cruz Lena
Providing a quality experience for your guests is very important in the hospitality industry. Restaurant and hotel managers try to make sure that the customer’s experience is as good as possible. Many people write about their experiences online on different review websites. These websites are used by thousands of people when travelling to a particular establishment. If your hotel or restaurant has a higher rating and lots of positive reviews, more people will visit it. Even social media websites such as Facebook have now introduced a rating system, so it’s vitally important for you to provide a good experience for your guests.
If you are running a restaurant, you should know that there are several different factors which will impact the customer’s experience. Obviously, the customer will rate their experience based on the quality of food. However, other factors play a role as well. For instance, when a customer is seated on the table, they will expect clean table cloths and napkins. They will also expect spotless cutlery and crockery on the tables. It won’t paint a very good impression of your restaurant if there are stains on the table cloths or napkins.
A number of linen products are required in restaurants. You will need chef aprons and clothing, table cloths, napkins, serviettes and other linen products for use in the restaurant. However, managing all this inventory is very difficult. Most restaurants that purchase and use their own linen products have to set up a separate department and allocate space in the establishment for storing the linen.
Usually, white linen is used in most restaurants. All dirty table cloths, serviettes and napkins must be dry cleaned at the end of the day. After a few months, the fabric starts to fray. When that happens, you will have to discard the linen items and buy new ones. Needless to say, a considerable amount of your establishment’s resources will be used in managing your own linen inventory.
However, rather than buying linen items, many restaurants simply rent them from linen service providers. Renting linen is a much better option than buying your own. Not only does save money in the long run, but it frees up crucial resources and allows you to focus on improving the core customer experience. You can use the additional space for a number of other things that can have a direct impact on the customer’s experience.
Renting linen helps you save a considerable amount of money. New restaurants and eateries generally find it difficult to invest a lot of money in buying and managing their own linen products. Rather than spend so much money in buying linen inventory and incurring monthly expenditures on maintenance, renting linen is a much better option. Many linen services providers also offer chef wear hire and other linen products, such as bed sheets, pillow covers and other custom linen products to hotels and guest houses. If you wish to rent linen products for your restaurant or hotel, the following guide will help:
Locate a Linen Services Provider
The first step is to locate a linen services provider in your city. You can check the Yellow Pages or a directory of local businesses in order to find a list of businesses that specialise in providing linen products to their customers. It’s important to rent linen from local companies that have offices in the city. The company will have to deliver the linen products every morning at your restaurant or hotel’s address, so it’s best to work with a linen services provider located close to your place of business.
Once you have made a shortlist, the next step is to start thinning down your options. You can check out the websites of different companies and read reviews from other businesses in order to see if they provide good quality linen products on time. Timely delivery is very important. Most linen services providers provide fresh linen early in the morning before you open your establishment’s doors to the public, and take away all dirty linen. In case the delivery is delayed, you might have to open your restaurant late. Because linen products are so important in any restaurant or hotel, in case the company misses delivery on a particular day, you might not be able to open your restaurant at all.
Preliminary Discussions
Once you have created a shortlist of the top linen services providers in the city, you can then start setting up meetings and discussing your requirements. How many tablecloths, napkins and serviettes do you need every day? The numbers of guests tend to vary throughout the course of the week. For instance, you might need more linen items during the weekend, as the influx of guests will likely be much higher during the weekend.
You can discuss your requirements with different linen services providers and also request samples. Many linen services providers also give you the option of having your company’s logo printed on all linen products. This could help paint a much better impression on your visitors, and also acts as a means of subliminal marketing.
You can then request quotes from different linen services providers in order to get an idea of the total costs of renting linen for your establishment. The good thing about renting linen is that you don’t have to worry about managing the linen. At the end of the day, you can just separate all the dirty linen from the clean linen.
The company will take away all dirty linen in the morning and deliver a fresh batch at the start of the day. In fact, most linen services providers don’t even tie you down to contracts. You can just tell them your daily requirements, thus allowing you to increase or decrease your linen stock levels as per your own requirements. Renting linen is extremely beneficial for small business owners who are looking to expand their business and who wish to reinvest their profits in improving the quality of service.
