If you ask ten different short-term rental hosts, “What’re the best linens to buy for a rental?” you’ll probably get ten different answers. In this article, we provide our recommendations for style, color, and the best fabric to use when making short-term rental linen decisions. This guide should be helpful whether you’re just starting out or are an experienced host looking to make a linens refresh.
Do Duvet or Don’t?
Duvets are the best possible approach to hosting folks in a rental. Use a duvet cover to fully encapsulate a duvet. Then make sure to wash the duvet cover and pillowcases after every single guest.
It is not possible to easily launder heavy comforters and blankets. Therefore, when I stay at a hotel or Airbnb/VRBO, the very first thing I do is remove the decorative bed cover and shove it unceremoniously into a corner. As most folks know, interesting things happen on top of the bed as well as in between the sheets. Use pro tips like this video to get really fast at changing duvet covers to keep guest stays sanitary and make turnovers easy. A win-win.
Down with Down Linen
Down is one of the easiest and longest-lasting materials for rentals and is commonly used in hotels and hostels. Easily washed in hot water to kill germs and fluff up easily in a normal dryer, down duvets and pillows are long-lasting.
This all sounds great, but there are some very specific downsides to furnishing with down.
Some guests are allergic to feathers and will express this concern before reserving. But perhaps an even larger issue is the matter of ethical sourcing and being an environmentally-friendly host. Specifically, what does it take to make down pillows and duvets?
Down is harvested when a duck or goose is slaughtered for food. However, around 13% of the time, while the animal is still alive, their feathers are plucked over and over and over, up to 16 different times. Imagine someone ripping your hair out by the roots to fill a pillow, and then consider synthetic alternatives.
In recent years, synthetics have improved dramatically in longevity and quality. With frequent washing, they can be almost as good as the down in appearance, comfort, and ease of use.
Does Linen Color Make a Difference?
White or colored sheets – we get this question a lot. We believe in white sheets. Colorful sheets tend to be trendy, which means they’ll inevitably go out of style. Face creams and hair dyes can easily ruin colorful linens.
Almost all hotels and hostels rely on white linen – they can be interchanged easily should a top or bottom sheet get stained. Oh, and speaking of the certainty of stains, you have your best chance to remove them with white sheets. Bleach is your friend. Keep your whites really bright by adding a bluing agent (paid link) to the rinse cycle. You’ll thank me later when your white sheets stay bright even after many years of hosting.
If you really do need that splash of color to bring your room together, save it for the duvet cover (paid link). It has a slightly less chance of staining.
Why Does Linen Fabric Matter?
Fabric choice makes a really big difference in overall guest comfort and the long-term viability of a particular linen. Ideally, sheets should be breathable and resistant to wrinkles.
While inexpensive microfiber sheets might be really tempting, save that material for duvet covers, if you must. Microfibers trap every single stray hair and do not breathe well, so guests complain of stifling, fitful nights spent under uncomfortable sheets. Your ratings and reviews don’t want that kind of heat, trust me.
Cotton or cotton/polyester blends work best. They breathe nicely, wash easily in hot water, are more resistant to stains, and don’t wrinkle up when you look at them sideways like microfibers do.
The Pre-Wash Debate
New hosts often ask, “Do I really need to wash sheets and towels before putting them out for guests to use?” The clear answer is unequivocally, “Yes.” The factories that produce linens use harsh chemicals during their manufacture which can cause skin irritation. During production, textiles often drop onto the floor before packaging. These factory floors are not sanitary. This means hosts must absolutely pre-wash linens before first use.
Don’t Break the Bank
The most important thing to remember about linens is that they are consumable items.
This means that no matter what, you should be prepared to replace them at any point in your hosting lifecycle. Yes, even after your first guest.
I’ll never forget the time I proudly put a brand new duvet cover, fresh out of the wash onto a bed, fluffing it out and making it look just so. It was perfect for the next guest’s arrival.
During the post-stay cleaning, it became heart-breakingly clear that my new favorite duvet cover had been irreparably stained. Right in the middle of the cover, there was a pool of bright red nail polish, rendering it completely unusable. After just one guest.
With that example in mind, don’t spend too much money on any individual linen (paid link), whether sheet or duvet cover. You very well may need to replace it immediately.
Note: There are links to outside websites in this blog. Some of them are affiliate links which means we could receive payment from qualifying purchases.
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