Group-f provides hotels with professional laundry services

Hotels choose professional laundry services

In the hotel sector, it's all about the experience. Guests expect comfort, cleanliness, and service that's precise down to the last detail. Behind that experience lies well-organised operational efficiency. More and more hotels are therefore opting for specialised partners to professionally manage their support services. With Laundry & Facilities, Group-f helps hotels to also efficiently organise their textile management.

Group-f is a Belgian, family-run service provider that supports hotels, holiday parks, and businesses with specialised services such as cleaning, facility services, and professional textile maintenance. Within the hotel sector, the company collaborates with over 200 hotels, cleaning more than 5 million rooms annually with well-trained housekeeping teams. The goal is to provide maximum support to hoteliers so that they can fully focus on their core task: creating a strong guest experience.

To further enhance their comprehensive service offering, the market leader in hotel cleaning has developed additional services. One of these is Group-f Laundry & Facilities, a specialised division that supports hotels in the professional cleaning and management of textiles, from hotel uniforms and guest laundry to dry cleaning and linen maintenance. For many hotels, outsourcing this is a logical choice. It gives them access to specialised expertise, modern equipment, and flexible staffing, without having to invest in their own infrastructure or additional organisation.

Efficiency and cost control

“We always start with an analysis of the hotel's needs,” says Frank Rottiers, Account Manager Laundry & Facilities at Group-f. “Every hotel works differently. Some have a lot of uniforms, others want a fast service for guest laundry or support with the management and maintenance of their linen, and often it's a combination of different needs. Based on this, we put together a service package. For guest laundry, for example, Group-f provides daily logistics, with textiles being collected in the morning and returned the same day. This allows a hotel to offer its guests a fast and reliable laundry service. For hotel uniforms, two to three collections per week are usually organised, depending on the volume. In addition, Group-f also supports hotels with the professional maintenance and management of their linen, ensuring that these textile flows are also monitored efficiently and to a high standard.”.

For many hotels, laundry is not a core activity, yet it requires a great deal of organisation. “Professional laundries, like our laundry division, have specialised machinery, bespoke detergents and experienced staff,” says Rottiers. “This allows us to process large volumes more efficiently, and the cost per item is often lower than if a hotel were to organise this internally.” Furthermore, an external partner takes a lot of operational worries off their hands. Hotels do not need to invest in infrastructure or additional staff, while still being able to rely on a high level of quality. In the long term, Group-f wants to further expand this service provision, with the ambition of being able to offer hotels full-service solutions per room.

Repairs in our own workshop

In hospitality, hygiene and presentation are an absolute must. That's why Group-f implements thorough quality controls throughout the entire process. Upon arrival, textiles are first sorted by type, colour, and level of soiling, ensuring each item receives the correct treatment. Multiple checks follow during the process to guarantee that each piece is delivered perfectly clean.

“A big difference compared to classic laundries is that we also carry out small repairs in our own workshop,” Rottiers continues. “Think of loose buttons, small tears or worn seams. Instead of sending the textiles back to the hotel, we repair them immediately.” This way, the textiles last longer and hotels have lower costs as textiles don't need to be replaced.

Less operational pressure, better guest experience

For the hotel team, a well-organised laundry service makes a world of difference. When uniforms are always clean and available on time, staff can carry out their jobs more comfortably, and the hotel projects more professionalism. “Hotel staff are constantly in contact with guests. Well-maintained clothing contributes to the hotel's image,” says Rottiers. “By fully organising and monitoring the laundry, we take a significant operational burden off housekeeping and operations.”

Although guests don't usually see the laundry directly, it plays an important role in their experience. For example, hotels can offer a quick laundry service for their guests, while the behind-the-scenes service is professionally organised.

Flexible service, sustainably organised

Peak times are characteristic of the hospitality sector, for example during events or periods with high occupancy rates. Group-f’s services are aligned with this. “We work with fixed pick-up and delivery times, but can provide additional pick-ups or an express service if necessary,” explains Rottiers. “When hotels indicate in good time that a busy period is approaching, we adjust our schedule and deploy extra capacity, both for larger hotels and for smaller hotels that want to scale up flexibly.”

In addition, Group-f continually invests in sustainable solutions, such as modern machines that use less water and energy, automatic dosing systems for detergents, and initiatives around water recovery and social employment. “Sustainability is now embedded in every step of the process, from more efficient water use and energy-saving machines to social engagement. This is how we combine quality with responsibility,” Rottiers concludes.