The first question a new hotel owner asks is "how many towels do I buy?" The second question is "why is the number so big?"

A 100-room hotel does not need 200 bath towels. It needs 600. The reason is something called a par level, and once you see it, the numbers make sense.

What a par level is

Par means the number of full sets you keep for each bed. One set is what a guest uses in a day: the bath towels, hand towels and mat for that room.

A towel is never in just one place. At any moment, one set is in the room, one set is in the laundry, and one set is clean on the shelf, ready for tomorrow. That is par 3.

Three boxes: one set in the room, one set in the laundry, one set on the shelf. Together this is par 3 — Three sets for every bed. If you buy one, you run out the day a towel is in the dryer.

If you buy only one set per bed, housekeeping has nothing to put in the room while the laundry is working. If you buy two, you run out as soon as a pick-up is late or a room turns over twice.

Which par level should you use?

It depends on how fast your laundry brings sets back. The slower it is, the more sets are away at one time.

Par by laundry setup: laundry in the hotel with same-day turnaround is par 2.5 to 3. Outside laundry with daily pick-up is par 3 to 4. Outside laundry every 2 days or more is par 4 to 5 — Rules of thumb, not a standard. Your laundry contract decides the real number.

These are rules of thumb. Your own numbers are better: ask your laundry how many days a set is away, and add one for the shelf.

Two more things push the number up:

High occupancy. If you run full most nights, you have no quiet days to catch up.

Linen wears out. Towels lose life with every wash. Buying a bit more than you need spreads the washes across more pieces, so each one lasts longer. Our cost per wash calculator shows how this works out.

How many pieces per room

A normal hotel room, with two guests, uses:

Bath towels: 2

Hand towels: 2

Face towels: 2 (some hotels skip these)

Bath mat: 1

Multiply each by your par level. A hotel on par 3 needs 6 bath towels per room, 6 hand towels, and 3 bath mats.

Pool, spa and beach towels are a separate line. Count them on their own, and plan 1 to 2 per guest. See our pool towels and spa towels.

A 100-room example

Take a 100-room hotel with two guests per room, par 3, and the middle price bands for hotel quality. These are our published FOB Cochin bands. FOB means we deliver the goods loaded on the ship, and you pay freight, duty and tax after that.

Worked example for 100 rooms: 600 bath towels for $1,320 to $1,680, 600 hand towels for $540 to $840, 500 bath mats for $900 to $1,400. Total $2,760 to $3,920 FOB — A 100-room hotel, bath linen only, at published FOB Cochin price bands.

Bath towels: 100 rooms x 2 x par 3 = 600 pieces. At 500 to 550 GSM, the band is $2.20 to $2.80 per piece, so $1,320 to $1,680.

Hand towels: 600 pieces. At 450 to 500 GSM, $0.90 to $1.40 each, so $540 to $840.

Bath mats: 100 rooms x par 3 = 300. Our minimum is 500 per item, so you would order 500. At $1.80 to $2.80 each, that is $900 to $1,400.

Total: about $2,760 to $3,920 FOB, or $28 to $39 per room. The extra 200 mats are not wasted. They are your spares for replacing worn ones.

Prices move with GSM, size and colour. A heavier 600 GSM bath towel costs more and also weighs more to ship, so check the freight before you choose. The price per kg page explains how towels are priced by weight.

What it adds up to after shipping

FOB is not the full cost. Add sea freight, import duty, local taxes and your clearing agent. For a few hundred pieces, the box may not fill a container, so you may ship part of one. Our container loading calculator tells you how many pieces fit in a 20ft or 40ft container.

Work out the full cost with our hotel linen budget calculator, which turns rooms and par level into quantities and a total.

Common mistakes

Counting one set per bed. This is the most common one. You will be short in the first week.

Ordering all one colour batch. Colour can differ slightly between batches. Order what you'll need for the next year in one go, or ask for a shade standard to be kept. See our bulk ordering guide.

Forgetting the spare. Add 5 to 10 percent for stains, loss and the first year of wear.

Choosing by price alone. A cheap towel that lasts half as long costs more per wash. See the hidden costs of cheap hotel linen.

Where to start

Tell us how many rooms you have, your laundry setup and your budget. We'll send a quantity list, a price range and the spec sheets. If you are opening a new property, our OS&E and FF&E linen service covers the full opening order.

Send us your room count and we'll come back with a plan for your hotel.