Hotel Laundry Operation and Laundry Flow chart

The laundry department has a basic cycle of operation with the below steps:-

1. Collecting Soiled Linen

Housekeeping attendant should strip linens from beds and areas and put them on to the linen chute. Staff should never use any guest linen for any cleaning purpose.

The laundry attendant should go for frequent rounds to collect the soiled linen from the linen chute.

Supervisors should make sure that the soiled linens doesn’t accumulate on floor pantry which may cause further soil or damage as there are chances that people may walk on them.

2. Transport Soiled Linen to Laundry department

The linens from the Laundry chutes carried to the laundry department by trolley. The laundry attendant should make sure that the laundry items are not dragged on the floor this may further damage or soil the laundry.

3. Sorting of Linen and Uniforms

The laundry sorting area of the hotel should be large enough to buffer one day worth of laundry and these sorting of laundry should not cause interfere with other laundry activities. Note: SOP for sorting of uniforms and linens. Sort linen and uniforms according to their stains, size, type, color etc.

4. Washing and Dry cleaning

After the linens and uniforms are sorted properly the laundry staff collects the batches of laundry and load them to the washers. It is also a good process to always weigh the laundry items before loading them to the washers, this will ensure that the washers are not overloaded and help to run them in the optimum operation condition.

If required the soiled linens are treated to remove stains before the washing process. To reduce operational cost nowadays hotels uses chemicals ( bleaches, detergents, softeners etc.) while washing process to remove stains instead of treating laundry items separately before washing.

5. Drying

After the washing cycle is completed the washed items are dried on the dryer. The drying times and temperature vary considerable according to the type type of linen / cloths.

Also always the drying should be followed by a gradual cool down process to prevent the hot linens from being damaged or wrinkled by rapid cooling and healing process.

6. Folding of Linen and Uniforms.

Even though a lot of flooding of linens are now automated, the hotels still do a lot of folding by hand. While folding the linens the laundry attendants should also look for any damages occurred to them while the laundry process.

The folded items are then stored and stacked properly according to batches. The finished laundry items should latest rest for 24hrs.

Chemicals used in laundry

Chemical	Usage
Clax Supremo Plus	Concentrated mainwash detergent
Clax Hypo	Chlorine bleach
Clax Optimo	Peracid bleach
Clax xtra soft	Fabric softener
Clax 200	Concentrated surfactant booster
Clax CID	Liquid neutraliser
Clax profi forte	Strengthener
AC 101	Removes ink stain from the fabric garment.
AC 102	Removes oil and tar stain from the fabric garment.
AC 103	Removes rust stain from the fabric garment.
AC 104	Removes blood,protein stain from the fabric garment.
AC 106	Removes dye stain from the fabric garment.

Written by Vishnu Narayanan

Source:- Industrial Exposure Training