Hotel beds have always been the epitome of comfort, and one feature that turns a simple bed into a real slumber experience is its sheets – crisp, cool and clean, and of the highest quality. Now, imagine receiving a delivery of hotel quality linen and towels directly to your front door. LuxeLinen is a linen concierge service based in Cape Town which delivers a freshly laundered set of linen and towels direct to your home, every week.

There’s a reason we live in Cape Town, it’s the lifestyle!

In our high-pressure world we want as much time as possible for the things we love, such as spending time with family or friends, exercising on the mountain or lazing at the beach. We use home meal kits to reduce our grocery shopping and cooking time, ride hailing services keep us on the move without our own car, and on-demand cleaning and gardening services are commonplace.  So why spend unnecessary time washing, drying and ironing your linen on washday?

As a supplier of linen to Cape Town hotels and AirBnBs, quality is of the utmost importance to the LuxeLinen team. The linen and towels are high threadcount, 100% cotton and as luxurious as anything you’ll find in 4 and 5* hotels. Each linen package includes all the essentials for a fresh start to your week: duvet cover, fitted sheet, 2 pillowcases, 2 bath towels, a hand towel and bathmat. Delivery is contactless and there’s an optional add-on of 3-layer reusable face masks.

LuxeLinen is an extension of parent company fanute’s successful hospitality service, which delivers over 8 000 bed sets per month to Cape Town hosts.  Owner Charl de Beer is confident that many in Cape Town will be keen to utilise the service: “Whether you’re a busy professional who doesn’t want to spend time on laundry, an on-the-go parent, or if you just want that hotel turn-down feeling at home, LuxeLinen is the perfect solution,” says Charl.

In the current hyper-aware world of cleanliness and sanitisation, LuxeLinen offers a superior clean compared with domestic washing machines.  “We can guarantee disinfection using an industrial combination of chemicals and temperature which domestic laundry cannot, because domestic laundry machines are simply not equipped to maintain the required water temperatures for long enough,” says Charl. This has benefits for those who are ill or recovering, who suffer from allergies, or who have sensitive skin easily affected by detergent residue. And of course there is COVID-19, a virus that is quite simple to destroy in an industrial laundry environment.

LuxeLinen is the latest first-to-market service to be offered by fanute. “We originally started fanute because we wanted to deliver innovative laundry and textile solutions that would help to streamline the lives of our customers and offer significant and demonstrable sustainability benefits,” says Charl.

“We started with a linen rental service targeted specifically to the growing Cape Town short-term lettings market, offering fast turnaround deliveries of freshly laundered hotel-quality linen to our hospitality clients. As Cape Town approached Day Zero, we then invested in near-waterless laundry systems that reduce the amount of water and energy used in every wash by 80%, and in 2019 we combined textile rental with on-site laundry processing to provide a sustainable garment rental solution for Agri-processing companies.  Now that we’ve seen a need for luxury, hotel-quality linen in the residential sector, we’re bringing these solutions to market, fully enabled by technology, to make the washday a thing of the past.”

The service costs R85 per bed per week and includes delivery. Currently, LuxeLinen is only available in the Cape Town CBD and City Bowl, and the high-density Atlantic Seaboard, but will be expanding as customer interest grows.

How does LuxeLinen work?

• Download and register on our App, or email info@fanute.co.za
• Provide your property and bed linen details
• Receive a weekly, contactless delivery of premium quality pre-packed linen and towel sets
• Deliveries are based on regular time slots each week depending on your location
• Pay monthly using Snapscan or EFT

For more information, contact Charl de Beer at LuxeLinen on 071 681 1165 or at charl@fanute.co.za or visit https://fanute.co.za/luxe-linen/

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Here are LuxeLinen, a division of fanute’s, top tips for preparing your bedroom, and yourself, for a good night’s sleep.

Clear the way: Anything that’s not sleep related must go! Clear away the decorative pillows and any clothes that have gathered on your bed during the day and smooth the surface of your duvet. Fluff up your pillows and turn down the corner of the duvet for easy entry.

Decompress: Start winding down from the day to get yourself in the right headspace for good, solid sleep. Maybe take a bath or shower, play some relaxing music softly in the background, and, afterwards, slip into your slippers. Or do some light yoga, deep breathing or stretching. Whatever you need to do to start relaxing.

Get rid of the light: Darkness is essential for a proper night’s sleep as too much light will stop the body from producing melatonin, the hormone that’s in charge of our sleep cycles. Prepare your room by switching off the harsh main lights, and closing your curtains, blinds or shutters to block out any light seeping in from outside. You can turn on your bedside light or, to really set the mood, light a candle or two.

Scent the room: If you have an oil burner or diffuser, now’s the time to break it out. Choose a calming scent such as lavender (helps to deepen and slow down the breath), bergamot (helps to relieve anxiety) or frankincense (quiets the mind).

Banish the tech: Ideally, one should stop using any devices an hour before sleeping – the light from the screens of our cellphones, TVs and laptops can stimulate the brain and disrupt melatonin production, which in turn affects our sleep.

Hydrate: Prepare a cup of tea that’s caffeine free or a cool glass of water to enjoy after you slip into bed. Drinks that are known for their positive effect on sleep include chamomile tea, milk or almond milk and, oddly, cherry juice!

Then there’s nothing left to do but get into bed and enjoy the peaceful sanctuary that you’ve created!

Naturally, LuxeLinen also believes that the best way to have the best sleep is to ensure that you have the best quality linen on your bed! In keeping with 4 and 5* hotel standards, LuxeLinen’s sheets and duvets are 300 threadcount and 100% cotton for the ultimate in softness and comfort.

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While buying masks may seem simple, different styles and poorly made masks can result in a mask that doesn’t fit properly, leaves gaps around the nose and sides, and can irritate the ears.

Ideally, you’re looking for a cloth face mask that fits snugly against the side of the face, but is still comfortable. The mask must be secured with either ties or ear loops, and should also allow for breathing without restriction. You must be able to launder and dry the mask without damaging it.

The mask should ideally have 3 layers – two fabric layers sandwiching a filter in the centre. Make sure that the mask is large enough to cover your nose as well as your mouth, and if it has loops rather than ties, it’s important to check that they’re tight enough to keep your mask from slipping off your nose. You can also find masks that have a metal piece on the bridge of the nose that fastens the mask onto your face, and makes wearing glasses a lot easier!

If you’d rather avoid the hassle of finding the perfect masks for your workforce, let fanute help you. With our face-mask rental programme, we both buy and manufacture reusable cloth masks using government and WHO recommended technical designs. Our owned and operated industrial laundries use industry standard technologies and chemicals to kill 99.99% of germs, including Covid-19.

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However, rather than using disposable masks, many have invested in cloth masks, and it’s recommended that these be washed daily, or after every use – whether your mask has visible stains or not, and whether you live in a densely populated city or a sparse area with few Covid cases. Why is this so important and how should you go about washing it?

You are advised to regularly wash your hands for 20 seconds to destroy any of the Covid-19 virus that you might have been exposed to throughout the day. Just as your hands can be carriers of the virus, bringing the virus to your face or into your home or car, so too is your mask. The mask can pick up the virus and then, when you take it off at the end of the day, can spread it to the surfaces in your home or office or to you when you touch your face after touching the mask. That’s why it’s safest to remove your mask by the ear loops, not touching the body of the mask at all, and place directly into either the wash or into a plastic bag to be washed later.

Luckily, it’s not that difficult to wash your mask – the CDC recommends washing your mask in the washing machine, using your everyday washing powder. It’s recommended to use the warmest appropriate water setting, so 60°C or higher would be preferable. If you don’t have a washing machine, John Hopkins Medicine suggests you scrub the mask thoroughly in warm water with regular hand soap.

As the economy opens up, businesses are now required to provide their employees with masks, which your employees will have to wash every day. However, if you would like to avoid the hassle of ensuring each employee has their own clean mask every day, why not use fanute’s services? fanute has expanded its linen rental operations to include masks. Every day, the fanute team will deliver freshly-laundered masks and collect the dirty ones, providing mask that offer you peace of mind.

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Not enough hours in the day: Less hours of sunlight mean it’s much harder to fit in a load of laundry before or after work. It also means that there’s less time during the day to get it dry, not that it’s that easy anyway because it’s…

Almost impossible to dry naturally: The rain has been extremely welcome, but long periods of rain and cloud make it tricky to get your sheets 100% dry outside. Many end up hanging up their linen inside, or keeping their clothes in the washing machine until the weather brightens up, which can lead to…

That smell of damp: Clothes and linen smell damp and musty because there’s excess moisture in the material that hasn’t been able to evaporate. When you bring damp clothes inside to dry, they’re often not able to get completely dry unless properly spaced on a railing and left until completely dry. Packing items away into a closet or draw makes it impossible for the clothes to dry, which means that the smell of damp lingers. Also, if you’re tempted to dry your clothes on a heater, beware – that can raise the moisture levels in your home and encourage mould, or it could even start a fire.

Electricity Costs: Those lucky enough to have a tumble dryer might think that they’ve skipped the hassle of trying to get linen dry, but with the convenience comes the increased electricity bill- especially as electricity costs continue to increase. And what if, heaven forbied, loadshedding starts again?

Then there’s the ironing: While the tumble dryer might get your laundry nice and dry, it’ll also keep your ironing pile large and cumbersome.

Of course, if you want to get some laundry off your plate, you could always rent linen from us. fanute will deliver freshly-laundered linen, towels and masks weekly which means one less thing you have to worry about. The linen is of a fantastic quality and has been cleaned using our near-waterless Hydrofinity system, which means that we use much less water than a regular washing machine – so by renting our linen, you’re doing your bit for the environment.

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Sheets with a higher thread count are said to be stronger and less prone to shrinkage. In order to use more threads in the making of the linen, the threads need to be thinner and the more threads that are used should mean that the linen is softer, smoother and denser, as well as more durable as it is made with finer material. Many will say that the higher the thread count, the better the quality of the sheet, but that is not necessarily true. If the quality of the actual thread that’s used is not good quality, and if the manufacture and weave is poor, the linen that’s the end result will not be good quality – it might be rough and wear down easily because of the poor quality material used.

In fact, absurdly high thread counts over 800 and even 1000 exist. Some linen manufacturers use tricks to inflate the thread count such as twisting multiple yarns together to create a multiple-ply yarn – this might lead to a rough texture that doesn’t have a soft, smooth finish.

While thread counts do play a part in a great piece of linen, they aren’t the be all and end all. The sweet spot for thread count is said to be between 300 and 500. The linen that fanute rents to both its residential and hospitality customers is high quality 300 thread count linen that’s 100% cotton. We use a high quality sheet not only because we want the best for our clients but because we care about sustainability. The higher the thread count, the less wear and tear which means longer lasting linen for us, and a great night’s sleep for you.

The post What is a thread count and does it make a difference? appeared first on fanute.

A few years ago, I had some family staying at our home. While watching a movie, one of my nephews stood up in the middle of the room and began puking. I will save you the details, but know it was not a pleasant sight. 

A few minutes later, his brother joined in. We all stood around in shock; they had obviously come down with the stomach flu. 

No one likes getting sick, but I must confess that I am a really big wimp when I do catch the dreaded bug. Eager to defend my home, I grabbed my bottle of cleaner and several rags, ready to clean up. In the next two hours, I began sanitizing every surface in the house. The two boys remained in the guest bedroom, and I warded off the germs from spreading any further. 

After a couple of days, we anxiously waited for the icky feeling in our stomachs to arise, but it never did. Our cleaning had defeated the flu! Whether you are sick from a common cold or a nasty stomach flu, you should always clean your home in these seven ways to keep your home healthy and your body strong.

CHANGE THE SHEETS

When I am sick, my bed becomes home to both me and my germs. Grab the sheets, blankets, and pillowcases and toss them all in the washer. Even clean up bedding that doesn’t have germs to get all of the laundry done at the same time and ensure that no germs make it out alive. Let them soak for an extra 15 minutes; this will help the water loosen any residue. If your pillows are due for replacing, use this sickness as an opportunity to get new ones.

THROW OUT THE TOOTHBRUSHES

Toss the brushes and buy yourself some new ones. You can get inexpensive ones at the dollar store, but the toothbrushes are the first things that need to go; don’t even bother trying to clean them.

SANITIZE DOOR KNOBS

Door knobs are opened and closed all day long by the sick and healthy people in a home. Wipe them down with a cleaning product that contains bleach to disinfect them completely. Wiping off knobs will keep the germs from spreading to others in the home who are not sick.

SCRUB THE BATHROOM

The bathroom is my second home when I have the flu and is the first room I clean during recovery. It helps to clean it several times while you are sick to ensure that those germs aren’t making their way out.

WASH CLOTHING

Do all of the laundry in the house, but don’t forget any clothes you were wearing while sick. It always helps me to do a “sick” load of laundry full of towels, cleaning rags, rugs, clothes, and sheets. Clean up laundry to make sure every load is full and water is not being wasted.

CLEAN REFRIGERATOR AND MICROWAVE HANDLES

The refrigerator and microwave handles are often forgotten, but if you are like me, they are opened up more than any doorknobs in the rest of the house. Scrub them down, and don’t forget to wash containers inside the refrigerator, too.

CLEAN VACUUM FILTER

I typically vacuum the entire house after recovering from the flu, but I forget about the filter. After vacuuming the floors and rugs in your house, make sure you remove the filter and clean it, too. You don’t want any germs trapped inside the filter of your vacuum.

Most viruses can only spread by entering your body through your mouth, nose, or eyes. You might keep your hands clean, but as soon as you touch a dirty surface, you have the germs on your hands. Rubbing your eyes, wiping your nose, or eating a snack are ways germs can enter your body. The best way to prevent the spread is to completely get rid of them on all surfaces. Once the flu has coursed through your body, get your house cleaned up to keep your body feeling healthy.

Source: BusyBee Cleaning Service
Image Courtesy of Loren Kerns (Flickr)

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TRSA, the Textile Rental Services Association which is based in the United States, conducted a consumer survey amongst 700 respondents. Their findings showed that while 77% believed that price, location and amenities were more important than linen and sheets used in the room, 72% expected the quality of sheets to match the grading and type of property.

Berendsen UK conducted similar research, surveying 1000 hotel guests. Of the people interviewed, 99% said that good quality towels and linen was important and that 71% always checked the cleanliness and quality of the items. Importantly, 96% said that they would be less likely to return if the towels and linen were stained or of a poor quality, and 95% said that they would tell others about their bad experience.

While a lot of properties outsource the laundering of their linen, guests will hold the property directly responsible for inferior linen and towels. That’s why it makes sense to rent high quality linen such as that from fanute – the linen rental service’s crisp, clean linen and towels are 300 thread count and made of pure cotton.

The post The importance of great quality linen and towels for guests appeared first on fanute.

Colour Co-ordinating: Make sure that you’re using crisp, white linen with a high quality threadcount (take a look at fanute’s linen offering here). White is the traditional choice for hotel linen because it represents the utmost cleanliness. And on that note, make sure that all of your linens are 100% clean.

Bases: If you haven’t already, remove the old linen and give the mattress and mattress protector a good dust off and vacuum to make sure there’s no debris or dust. Place the fitted bottom sheet over the mattress protector and make sure it’s all tucked in on the corners.

Next Step: Lay down the flat sheet and smooth out so that there aren’t any wrinkles. Next up, place the duvet on top of the flat sheet, again smoothing it down so that there aren’t any wrinkles. Fold the exposed flat sheet back over on top of the duvet, about a ¼ of the way.

Corner: Now, tuck in all of the corners nice and tightly, so that when your guests get into the bed they’ll be nice and snug, with no gaps letting in air. Lift up the mattress to tuck in the corners at a 45° angle.

Pillows: Lastly, add your pillows, making sure they’re nice and fluffed up. Top with whatever accent pillows you have on the bed, giving them a prod to add some differentiation.

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