The hotel industry is increasingly aware of the implementation of state-of-the-art technology in its laundries, in addition, the initial economic investment leads to a considerable decrease in operating costs and, incidentally, will deliver a better service to its customers. By Santiago Jaramillo H.
When talking about laundry service in the hospitality industry it is necessary to indicate that it must be synonymous with quality and good service, because it is from there where many of the processes are carried out that will ultimately influence what will be a good or bad impression of the hotel itself.
It is worth clarifying the importance of that first impression, since the textiles in a hotel (bedding, tablecloths, napkins, towels, etc.) are the items that are used first hand, and the good condition and asepsis provided by the laundry to them, will be a direct reflection of the face that you want to sell to customers.
In this sense, the correct washing and ironing of these items, and of course, in many cases that of the guests' garments, are precisely a mirror of the effective operation or not of the laundry area.
Moving on to the subject briefly monetary, providing the area with state-of-the-art technology will also help you save a lot of money, since most of the advances achieved by the laundry equipment industry are precisely focused on how to help reduce costs in terms of saving water, energy, labor and time, items of vital importance in the scaffolding of any organization.
Precisely to further expand this panorama, HOTEL MANAGEMENT contacted specialists in this industry to share with our readers the main novelties and trends that are being presented in terms of laundry equipment in the hotel sector.
Víctor Manuel Aguirre, general director of the Mexican company Centrax, when asked about this particular, commented that "in matters of washing the offer is changing from rigid base machines, which require a fixed structure to the floor, to high-speed extraction machines. What these do is reduce washing and humidity times, generating great gas savings at the time of drying or ironing. As for dryers, these tend to be much more efficient machines with temperature recovery systems and microprocessors for humidity control.
As far as flat ironing is concerned, it has changed from steam-based heating to gas-based heating, which makes it a more efficient equipment in temperature transfer, and now even large ironing machines, which we call a shoe or bucket, are heated with gas, which makes it easier for the entire laundry to be operated with gas without the need to have a steam boiler, that is, a pressure body is eliminated within the laundry area, which allows a reduction in the cost of operation and insurance because there is no risk of explosion, "he says.
Meanwhile, Carmen Burgos, representative of the company Burflo S.A. de C.V., highlights in this same sense that "currently Knight (brand they represent) offers chemical dosing equipment where the exact amount enters according to the formulations given by the supplier of the same, this helps not to waste the chemical and thus prevent washermen from having work accidents by using chemicals as strong as alkaline", Explains.
Moving on to the subject of the ideal equipment that a laundry in a hotel should have, it should be noted that good equipment is divided into four basic parts:
* Washing: it must be able to process different types of stains and garments, that is, large production capacities must be intended for sheets or towels, but also small machines for very stained pieces such as facial towels or napkins.
* Dryers: you must have these for plush clothes, having a capacity according to what you have in the washing to achieve a continuous production.
*Flat ironing machine: it is used for sheets or tablecloths, and delivers a better quality in the presentation of the garment; however, some hotels use permanent ironing, but the trend is to have better cottons and give a better presentation via ironing.
*Guest service: it can be given from the washing and drying of whites with domestic washing machines and ironing by hand, to the case of some hotels that also use a reduced service, which is only water washing and ironing, or depending on the category of the hotel you can have a complete dry cleaner that offers cleaning service of the guest's clothes, from wool, cotton, silk, to water washing, dry cleaning and ironing.
Meanwhile, the representative of Burflo affirms that it is also of the utmost importance to implement good practices in this area of the hotel, that is why it is necessary to "have a good maintenance of water, make a good selection of clothes, use chemical dosing equipment to be at the forefront and avoid dusts, since these affect the environment more than the lichens and, perhaps most importantly, keeping the equipment in an optimal state."
Environmental care
Another critical issue in the laundry sector, and especially in the hotel conglomerate, is the environmental, as it is there where many of the greatest efforts are being linked in terms of saving water, energy and the emanation of polluting vapors to the environment.
Precisely in this sense, the representative of Centrax assures that "reusing the water of the last rinses to use them in the first pre-washes is making a change in the industry that will lead to saving water. A traditional laundry consumed between 20 and 25 liters of water per kilo of washed clothes, now with the implementation of washing tunnels and automated systems, which have temperature and water recovery, we can be washing a kilo of clothes with 5 or 6 liters of water, that is, a quarter or fifth of what was previously used. "
Likewise, Aguirre highlights that in the drying process more efficient burning systems are being used, which allow shorter cycles, before they took on average an hour, currently they take between 30 and 40 minutes. Another point in favor of this process is definitely the high-speed extraction systems that make the garments arrive with a lower humidity index, reducing time and costs.
In ironing, on the other hand, direct gas burners result in higher temperatures inside the shoe, reducing the ironing time.
By way of synthesis, and speaking expressly of advances in research and development, the CEO of Centrax concludes that "currently the technology aims for all machines to talk to each other, and this above all is implemented in large facilities where the management of the laundry can be monitored from a computer or a computer in the office, allowing you to see what they are washing, what they are drying, what they are ironing or what the different equipment is bending."
In the case of hotel laundry, the trend is, according to Aguirre, to have teams with microprocessors that start washing clothes an hour before the operators arrive so that when they start their shift they can continue with the drying and ironing process, and thus make this activity more efficient. "When implementing these programmers or microprocessors, fewer personnel are required to operate the laundry, since the washing and drying is controlled in a way that is only loading, selecting the cycle and it is over, there is no longer the need to be feeding or measuring the time to change function," he highlights.
