In-house laundry or outsourcing — what does each actually cost?

Seven lines, and most comparisons include two of them. Equipment: a commercial washer-extractor and tumble dryer pair, amortised, plus the flatwork ironer if you press sheets. Floor space: the room, in a building where every square metre has a revenue alternative. Staff: at least one person per shift, plus cover for their leave and sickness. Utilities: water, and electricity or gas, which in Bangkok's humidity means dryers running longer than the spec sheet suggests. Chemicals. Maintenance and the downtime when a machine fails on a Saturday. And linen replacement, which is the line people miss — domestic-grade wash cycles shorten sheet life measurably against a controlled commercial process.

Broadly, when volume is high enough and steady enough to keep machines and a person busy most of the day. A large property at consistent occupancy can absorb the fixed costs; a forty-room boutique hotel usually cannot, because the machines sit idle half the time and the staff member is paid regardless. The other factor is variance — a property with a sharp low season is buying capacity it does not use for months at a time. If your occupancy swings hard, a per-kilogram arrangement converts a fixed cost into a variable one, and that is frequently worth more than the per-kilo difference.

Immediate control, and we would rather say so plainly. If a batch comes back wrong, you are dependent on someone else's schedule to fix it, and the answer to a 6am shortage is a phone call rather than a machine you can start yourself. That is a real cost and it is why turnaround guarantees and same-day backup matter more in an outsourcing arrangement than any per-kilo figure. What you gain is that the failure is someone else's to absorb — a broken machine is our capital problem, not your Saturday.

Take three months of actual linen weight rather than an estimate, because most properties are surprised by their own number. Put the seven cost lines above against a quoted per-kilogram price for the same weight. Add the value of the floor space at whatever it would otherwise earn. Then, separately, ask what a week of machine downtime in high season would cost you — that is the risk line, and it belongs in the decision even though it does not belong in the monthly average.

Many properties do, and it is often the right answer. Keep a small in-house capability for same-day guest laundry and emergencies, and outsource the bulk flat linen, which is where the weight and the equipment cost sit. That keeps control over the small, urgent, guest-visible jobs while moving the volume that justifies industrial equipment to someone who already owns it. If you want to structure it that way, tell us at quoting stage and we will price the bulk portion only.