Free guide

Linen and towels for a holiday let

Set a spare-set level you can keep up, then decide who actually washes and dries it.

The short answer

Keep enough complete sets that a bed can be made when one set is in the wash. A common working range is two to three full sets per bed. Two is tight on back-to-back stays. Three is the more comfortable range when laundry cannot return the same day. Count this for your own changeover pattern, and treat the range as a starting point rather than a rule.

Count sets, not a pile of sheets

A complete set is the sheet or fitted sheet, the duvet cover, every pillowcase on that bed, and a mattress protector. A spare pillowcase does not make a spare set. Store sets so a cleaner can grab one without building it from a mixed shelf.

Label by bed if the sizes differ. A king duvet cover in a double room wastes the turn while someone hunts for the right one. Keep protectors in the same place as the linen, because a stained protector with a clean sheet on top is not guest-ready.

One set on the bed.
One clean set in the cupboard.
A third set if washday is after the next arrival.
Retire a set that is torn, thin or permanently marked, and replace it before the busy weeks.

Towels and the extras people forget

A typical guest set is one bath towel and one hand towel per person, plus a bath mat for each bathroom. Keep a full spare of that, not one lonely towel for the whole house. Tea towels are separate: at least two in the kitchen and two spare.

If you welcome dogs or have a hot tub, decide the extra towels in advance and put them on the list. Otherwise they come out of the guest sets and you run short. Floor mats and shower mats need the same spare logic as towels. They are often the item that is still wet at check-in.

Laundry service or the machine at the house

A laundry service buys you time and a more even finish, and it fails when the collection day does not match your changeovers. Ask, in plain terms, which days they collect and deliver, what happens on a bank holiday, and whether stained items come back or get rejected. You still need a spare set on site for the day the van is late.

Washing on site costs less in invoices and more in hours, machines, and drying. In a UK summer a line can work. In a wet week it does not. A tumble dryer, or a service, is what makes same-day linen realistic. Do not plan a same-day turn that depends on towels drying on a radiator before 16:00 unless you have seen it happen there.

If several properties turn on the same day, the laundry load is the day's real constraint. An iCal feed in Changeover Master puts those departures on one diary, so you can see the pile before the morning rather than discovering it at the first house. A damaged or short set can be reported from the cleaner's link, under missing or low supplies, or as damage. You can start a free trial if you want that week in one place.

Stains, spares and who decides

Tell the cleaner what to do with a marked sheet: bag it separately, do not remake the bed with it, and leave a note. A well-meaning soak in the bath is how a same-day turn loses an hour. Heavy stains, burns and torn linen are a replacement, not a longer wash.

Keep a small repair kit only for loose buttons and a quick mend you are happy to own. Anything that leaves the bed unsafe or unpleasant is out of use that day.

Worked example · illustrative

Back-to-back weekends

The situation

A three-bed cottage turns every Saturday. The laundry collects on Monday and returns on Thursday. There are two sets per bed.

What you do

Saturday's dirty linen cannot be back for the next Saturday if a set is already in the wash from the week before. They move to three sets per bed, keep one complete set bagged in the airing cupboard, and stop counting odd pillowcases as stock.