How much linen a short let needs
The linen question is not how many sheets fit the bed, it is how many complete sets you need in circulation so a changeover never waits on a wash. Here is how to work out par levels for your property, and why the answer is rarely fewer than three sets a bed.
A par level is the number of complete linen sets you keep in circulation for each bed, so that there is always a clean set ready no matter where the others are in the wash. It is a stock figure, not a bed count. Getting it right is the difference between a changeover that finishes on time and one that stalls because the only set is still damp in the machine.
Complete set means everything that goes on the bed and in the bathroom for one stay: the sheet, the duvet cover, the pillowcases, and the towels that turn over with them. Counting individual pillowcases is how hosts end up short. Count in sets, because that is the unit a changeover uses.
Why one set per bed fails
With one set a bed, every changeover has to strip, wash, dry and remake the same linen before the next guest arrives, on the clock. A single delayed checkout, a wet day that slows drying, or a same-day turnaround, and the property is not ready. One set assumes nothing ever runs late, which on a short let is not a plan, it is a hope.
The working minimum is three sets a bed, and the logic is simple. One set is on the bed. One set is in the wash or being laundered off site. One set is clean on the shelf, ready to go on now. That third set is what breaks the dependency on the wash cycle, so the changeover uses the ready set and the used one is laundered without a deadline hanging over it.
The numbers for your property
Start at three sets a bed and adjust up for how hard the property turns. A property with a day of slack between guests can run at three. A property doing back-to-back same-day changeovers, or several a week, benefits from a fourth set a bed, because two sets can be mid-laundry at once when turnovers stack up. Bathrooms follow the beds: towels turn over every stay, so hold them at the same par level.
Turnover speed and drying
The real constraint is drying, not washing. A machine washes in an hour, but line or tumble drying and pressing is what eats the window, and it is worse in winter. Holding enough sets takes drying off the critical path entirely, because you are never waiting on the linen you need. That is the point at which hiring stock, so a laundered set always arrives ready, starts to make more sense than owning and laundering your own.
With linen hire, a laundered set arrives for every changeover and the used one leaves, so par levels stop being your problem. Tell us about your property.
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