How to Professionally Whiten Hotel Towels

From basic budget hotels to five star luxury resorts, a universal feature of guest rooms is pure white fluffy towels. Hotel towels are used and laundered more often than average home bathroom towels, so how do they remain so clean and soft? A few professional laundering techniques are used in the hotel industry that you can employ to keep your white towels at home as nice as those at the finest resorts. Avoid using bleach, and your towels will look newer for longer. Use some inexpensive household products as a budget-friendly yet effective alternative.

Things You'll Need

• White towels
• White vinegar
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Baking soda
• Laundry detergent

Instructions

1. Separate whites from all other colors of laundry. Wash white towels only with other whites for optimum brightness.

2. Examine the towels for obvious marks or stains, and pre-treat them by spraying the stains with hydrogen peroxide about an hour before washing.

3. Add the usual amount of laundry detergent to the washing machine, and also add about half a cup of baking soda.

4. Put a load of white towels (and other whites) into the washing machine, but do not overfill it. The laundry needs agitation to get thoroughly clean, but this effect is lessened when the items do not have enough room to move around in the machine.

5. When the washing machine gets to the rinse cycle, add half a cup of white vinegar to the load.

6. Machine dry your towels, and then immediately fold them. Let the folded towels sit overnight, and the terrycloth will settle neatly and be wrinkle-free.

Tips & Warnings

• For an eco-friendly home-laundry alternative to machine drying, line dry your white towels. The sun dries the towels without the need for consumption of electricity and has a bleaching effect for additional whitening.

• Do not mix vinegar and hydrogen peroxide directly for stain fighting; the fumes created can be harmful if inhaled.

References

• Article on Hotel Laundry Management