When it makes sense for a London hotel to outsource, and when an in-house laundry earns its keep.
For London hotels under about 100 rooms, commercial laundry is almost always the right answer — the capital cost of industrial washing equipment, the square footage required, the staffing complexity, and the compliance overhead rarely justify in-house operation. In-house starts to make sense above ~150 rooms with predictable volume, and is standard in large international-brand hotels.
| Dimension | Commercial laundry (outsourced) | In-house hotel laundry |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront capital | Zero. | £150,000–£500,000+ for industrial washers, dryers, ironers, folders. |
| Ongoing cost | Per-item / per-kilo / per-room billed monthly. Scales with occupancy. | Fixed: staff salaries, utilities, maintenance, detergents, replacement parts. |
| Floor space required | None — handled off-site. | Dedicated laundry room with ventilation, drainage, power (3-phase typical). |
| Compliance burden | Supplier holds BS EN 14065 RABC certification. | Hotel must maintain own certification, audits, staff training. |
| Staffing | None required. | Laundry attendants (typically 2–4 per shift for mid-size hotels), plus supervisor. |
| Variable cost behaviour | Drops with low occupancy. | Fixed cost base — low occupancy means higher per-room laundry cost. |
| Service continuity risk | Supplier outage is possible — mitigate with backup stock agreement. | Internal equipment failure is expensive and disruptive. |
| Capacity flexibility | Scales up and down easily. | Capped by installed equipment capacity. |
For London hotels under ~100 rooms, commercial laundry is the clear right answer. For 150+ room hotels with stable occupancy and back-of-house space, in-house can pay back — but the break-even calculation needs to include staff, compliance, and equipment depreciation honestly, not just consumables.
Roughly 150 rooms with stable occupancy is the threshold where in-house laundry starts to make sense in London. Below that, commercial laundry is usually cheaper once you account for equipment, staffing, compliance and space.
The most common failure modes are equipment downtime (single-point failure on a critical washer can stop service), compliance lapses (BS EN 14065 certification requires active RABC management), and staffing gaps during holidays or sickness.
Yes. Some hotels handle room linen in-house and outsource banqueting linen to a commercial laundry, or vice versa. Hybrid models are practical when in-house capacity is fixed and demand is variable.
Share your property details — we'll quote both models so you can compare on real numbers for your specific operation.
