A linen par level is the number of full linen sets a hotel keeps for every room. One par is enough sheets, towels, and other items to make up every guest room once.
Every hotel needs several pars in circulation at once. At any moment, some linen is on the beds, some is at the laundry, and some is clean on a shelf. Your pickup schedule and your loss rate decide how many you need.
Key Takeaways:
- One par is the total of each linen item needed to outfit every guest room once.
- Writing in Lodging Magazine, a hospitality educator recommends four or five par of bed and bath linens.
- Fewer pickups mean more pars, because linen waiting for a truck is out of service.
- Count your linen inventory on a fixed schedule so you catch loss before the closet runs short.
What is a linen par level?
William D. Frye in Lodging Magazine defines one par as the total number of each type of linen needed to outfit all guest rooms one time. He’s a hospitality educator and a former hotel general manager.
Frye recommends four or five par of bed and bath linens. In his model, one par is in the guest rooms, a second is at the laundry, and a third sits in the linen storerooms. The fourth waits in a locked storeroom as backup for torn or stained linen. An optional fifth is an emergency reserve that covers at least one more day.
Par is counted item by item, so a property never holds “four par” overall. It holds four par of king fitted sheets, four par of bath towels, and so on down the list.
How to calculate linen par level
Start with one par and multiply from there. The example below is illustrative, for an 80-room hotel with 50 king rooms and 30 rooms with two queen beds.
- List what your housekeeping staff puts in each room type. Say each king room takes one fitted sheet, one flat sheet, four pillowcases, two bath towels, two hand towels, and two washcloths. Each double-queen room takes the same per bed, plus four bath towels.
- Work out one par for each item. King fitted sheets: 50 rooms × 1 = 50. Queen fitted sheets: 30 rooms × 2 beds = 60. Bath towels: (50 × 2) + (30 × 4) = 220.
- Multiply by the number of pars you plan to hold. At four par, that’s 200 king fitted sheets, 240 queen fitted sheets, and 880 bath towels.
- Repeat for every item, including bath mats, duvet covers, mattress protectors, and pool towels.
How pickup frequency changes the par
Four par leaves one set at the laundry, so it holds only when linen comes back fast. When linen sits on a loading dock waiting for a truck, it’s out of service. OrangeBag’s guide to how commercial laundry is priced says more stops cost more to run, but they also cut how much linen you have to own.
For an illustrative model, assume every bed is stripped daily, so the hotel uses one par a day.
- Daily pickup with next-day return keeps linen away for about one day. Add one par on the beds, one on the shelf, and one in reserve: 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 4 par.
- Pickup three times a week can leave soiled linen waiting up to two days, plus a day at the laundry. One par on the beds, three away, one on the shelf, and one in reserve: 1 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 6 par.
Stayovers on a reduced change schedule use less, so a real count runs lower.
Hotel linen inventory: counting and tracking loss
Good inventory management starts with a fixed count day. Pick one day each month and count every location at the same time, including rooms, floor closets, the main storeroom, carts, and anything out at the laundry.
Track loss as a share of what you started with. For example, a count of 880 bath towels last month and 840 now, with no planned retirements, means 40 went missing. Those 40 towels are about 4.5% of stock lost in a month (40 ÷ 880).
Retired linen should leave stock on purpose and go into a log. OrangeBag’s guide to when commercial towels should be retired lists the signs to check. If you rent linen, the breakdown of what drives linen rental pricing covers loss and replacement charges.
Setting par for peak weeks
Sellout weekends run short when par is sized to average occupancy. Build it around your busiest stretch, or set up extra pickups for those weeks. Every extra par also needs shelf room, and an older post on organizing and storing linens covers labeling and rotation in the closet.
How OrangeBag plans your stock
OrangeBag’s hotel programs restock your towels to the levels you agree on, and inventory tracking comes with the program. Routes are sized to your busiest weeks, conferences and event weekends included.
You can rent linen or send your own, and it never cycles through another property’s pool. Your pricing is in writing before you sign, and that’s the place to settle who pays for lost or damaged linen.
FAQ
What is a linen par level?
It’s the number of complete linen sets a property keeps, measured against what it takes to make up every room once. One par of bath towels covers every room one time, and four par means four times that amount, spread across guest rooms, the laundry, storage shelves, and a reserve.
How many par levels does a hotel need?
In Lodging Magazine, William D. Frye recommends four or five par of bed and bath linens. The number of linens you need depends on pickup frequency, laundry turnaround, occupancy swings, and loss. A hotel with daily pickup can hold less than one with pickups a few times a week.
What is linen count?
Linen count is the physical tally of every linen item a property owns, taken at once across rooms, closets, carts, and the laundry. Compare it with your par target to see what’s missing. A monthly count on the same day catches loss while it’s still a reorder.
Want a par that holds up on your busiest weekend?
The right par depends as much on your laundry schedule as on your room count. OrangeBag can walk your property, look at occupancy and pickup days, and help size your stock, with the quote set out in writing.
Book a call or get a quote for your hotel linen program today.
