Powered Linen Carts Archives

Hotel Bedding Trends Are Consumer-Driven

Hotel Bedding Trends are Consumer Driven

Our powered hospitality carts make hotel supply movement more efficient, but how much attention are you paying to what’s actually being loaded on them? Increasingly health-conscious guests are demanding high levels of cleanliness and top hotels are ensuring that their properties meet and exceed consumer standards.

As hotels strive to recreate the experience of sleeping at home, they’re conscious of the fact that not all retail products are practical for their beds. Experts weigh in on the optimum ways to adopt current bedding trends.

Linens

If you want to add color to the rooms, stick with paint and accessories. Classic white sheets are still accepted as a sign of cleanliness by hotel guests.

But consumer expectations don’t stop with sheets. Blankets, comforters and anything else that goes on top of a mattress should be washable. Kim Deetjen of TruEx Collins Interiors explains that many hotels are triple-sheeting beds with a protective top sheet over a duvet.

Pillows

According to Pacific Coast Feather Company’s Brett Rife, a choice of soft or firm pillows is no longer limited to luxury hotels. Full-service and midscale hotels are recognizing that offering a selection of pillows is part of personalized service.

Memory foam pillows are enjoying a surge in popularity, but this is one trend that hotels are avoiding. Foam doesn’t have the durability to sustain the numerous washings required for hotel bedding.

Beds

Bedskirts and box-spring covers complete a polished look, but they’re high-maintenance. Platform beds and upholstered foundations provide an option that’s stylish and attractive but requires less work.

Powered Hotel Supply Movement Solutions from DJ Products

Our powered hotel movement supply carts help improve housekeeping productivity while reducing workplace injuries. Visit our website to learn more from one of our sales engineers.

What’s Impacting Your Hotel Revenue in 2018?

Has Your Hotel Room Reached its Full Potential?

Is your hotel seeing the amount of revenue growth you were anticipating in 2018? Our hotel supply movement carts are valuable for improving room turnaround times, but there are other important factors that affect occupancy and average daily rate (ADR) increases.

What steps can you take to raise the bottom line? Here are four current trends you can leverage to positively impact your hotel’s profitability.

Resort Fees

While resort fees have long been a standard practice in destinations such as Las Vegas, hotels in urban markets have only recently begun introducing them at their facilities. Resort fees aren’t subject to occupancy tax, which makes them a good way to gain additional revenue without raising room rates.

Labor Costs

The rising costs of benefits, particularly healthcare insurance, are in turn making labor increasingly expensive. Forecasts and budgets have to be drawn up carefully to accommodate these ongoing changes.

Operators are also taking a closer look at labor-intensive amenities that may cost more than they’re worth. For example, some hotels now provide turndown service on request as opposed to an automatic feature.

Guest Experience

Hotels often remodel during upswings in anticipation of the next downward turn in the cycle. When properties are all comparable in terms of updated decor and facilities, customer service and the overall guest experience become the best ways to set yourself apart from the competition.

Business Travel

As companies across the board look for ways to become more profitable, business travel becomes an expense to cut back or eliminate altogether.

Boost Productivity with Hotel Supply Movement Carts from DJ Products

We offer a wide range of hotel supply movement carts that let your staff perform housekeeping tasks safer and more efficiently. Visit our website for more information.

New Hotel Design Trends Mimic Popular Luxury Airbnb Looks

With luxury Airbnb lodgings stepping up their game to cash-in on social media buzz, hotels are likewise upping the ante when it comes to in-room amenities. Hotel supply movement carts are now toting high thread count sheets, spare throw pillows, and luxe robes and slippers. And the additions aren’t ending with items easily swapped. Some hotels and chains are undergoing in-room renovations, including customer-favored design trends such as…

Colorful Minimalism

Leaving fussy, over-styled furnishings in the past, clean lines and bright neutral furnishings and walls are on-trend, paired with small punches of color in the form of throw pillows and décor.

Multifunctional Furniture

Taking a cue from pint-sized but luxury lodgings, multifunctional furniture such as coffee table/desk combos, multi-use cubbies and stools can be a key feature of small hotel spaces, allowing for a feeling of openness and space, while still meeting the furnishing needs of guests.

Statement Headboards

Sleek, simply styled headboards in bold, bright colors and patterns add a fun (bed)room centerpiece.

Stylish Shibori

Tie-dye’s stylish cousin, Shibori, adds a unique and stylish pop, and are easy to include in the form of throw pillows and blankets.

Lively Lighting

Rather than boring overhead lighting that blends, luxury accommodations look to lively and colorful lighting features or shimmering chandeliers to a touch of whimsy.

Patterned Staircases

Added with premium or adhesive tile, patterned stairs boast a huge style impact, bringing fun and flair to once boring or utilitarian staircases.

Patterned Patios (or Balconies)

Transform balconies or patios with summery tile patterns, letting easy-care flooring shine center stage beneath the sleek lines of minimalistic outdoor chairs and tables.

Ready to step-up your game? Outfit new room designs with the help of powered hotel supply movement carts from DJ Products today.

Hotel Housekeeping Embraces High Tech Software to Prevent Bottlenecks in Service

Trouble between the front office and housekeeping staff of your hotel? Smart-tech and powered linen carts are driving a revolution, increasing the quality of communication between these two, often rival, staff subsets.

Beating Bottlenecks & Banishing Battles

Smart property management software, or ‘smart PMS,’ paired with powered linen carts, are revolutionizing the hotel industry, allowing for real-time, dynamic status updates that equal unprecedented hotel cost management.

Automatically alerting housekeeping staff via smartphone or mobile device of guest checkouts, smart PMS is reducing tension between housekeeping and front office staff, preventing the need for housekeeping to loiter while awaiting guest checkout, boosting efficiency and room prep times.

The Battle on the Frontline

As guests continue to look to ‘experience’ as a barometer, housekeeping is increasingly on the front line of exceptional service, relied upon to provide spotless rooms that are ready on-time, alongside providing a rapid response to hotel guest requests.

Improve operations with less resources and ensure a higher quality experience for guests by providing them a timely and tidy hotel stay. The future of housekeeping, like many industries, lies in mobile apps and automated technology.

The Future of Housekeeping Management

Leaving inefficient clipboards of printed reports and antiquated walkie-talkies in the rearview, smart PMS and well-organized, well-stocked, self-powered housekeeping carts are giving participating hotels an edge. They also prevent time-wasting trips to the front office and supply closets.

Alerting both housekeeping and front office staff to status changes, cleanings/inspections can be immediately addressed, and front desk staff alerted in real-time on the availability of rooms for early check-in, preventing interruptions in workflow.

Business lagging? Keep things shipshape and moving for employees, guests, and your business with the help of powered linen carts from DJ Products today.

Hotels and Bed Bugs – The Problem That Won’t Go Away

Take Care When Handling Linens in Your Hotel in Case of Bed bug Infestation. Let Us Help You Minimize Contact!

If you operate a hotel, bed bugs are going to rear their ugly heads at some point. Cleanliness is your best prevention and legal protection. Since bed bugs mostly infest fabrics, hoteliers should consider powered hotel linen carts to keep up with laundry duties and give housekeeping more time to check around mattress edges to catch the problem early.

Travelers expect hotel staff to take bed bug reports seriously. Fast action goes a long way to keep people from blaming management for a problem that was probably brought in by the previous occupant of the room.

Know how to get rid of bed bugs so your staff can effectively treat infested linens, and so you can advise unhappy guests about what they can do to clean their own laundry when they get home.

– Wash linens, mattress covers, and other washable upholstery in the room on the hottest temperature for both the washer and dryer.

– Seal linens in a plastic bag and freeze them for a day to kill bed bugs and eggs.

– Hire an exterminator if you have blood spots or evidence of bed bugs nesting inside a mattress or box spring.

Stay On Top of Things with Powered Hotel Linen Carts

A little automation technology can keep your housekeeping staff full of energy and empowered to complete their duties quickly and efficiently. Our powered hotel linen carts can travel from 0–3 mph with ergonomic steering.

Bed bugs don’t have to be a devastating problem. Upgrade those heavy pushcarts with a battery-powered cart puller or a fully motorized linen cart so staff can complete daily tasks and respond to complaints quickly.

Explore the variety of hospitality carts from DJ Products and let us know if you have any questions!

Top Hotel Trends for 2018 – Reinvention of the Traditional Hotel

Reinvention of the Traditional Hotel

Rapidly changing technology, new startups, and how much consumers are embracing technology in their everyday lives are all adding up to big changes in the hospitality industry. Innovative hotel and hospitality supply movement products like powered hospitality cart pullers can save money and improve hotel profits by saving time, maximizing manpower, and preventing injuries to service workers. The following are some trends that hotel industry analysts are predicting for 2018.

Independent hotels have good opportunities

An article by TravelMarketReport says independent hotels are faring well in the current economic climate and are perhaps in a better position than large hotel chains that compete with the likes of Airbnb and VRBO. The more connected hotels are to their local community, the better the guest experience they can deliver.

Hotels work closely with local arts and other institutions

TravelMarketReport states that the more successful hotels are seeking to find new guest experiences by working closely with local museums, academic institutions, and other local attractions.

Little things always matter in the hospitality industry

Marc Jongerius, managing partner of flexible accommodations company Zoku, advises hoteliers that if Airbnb is taking their business, they need to take a closer look at their business. Travel patterns change and hotels must be adaptable to remain profitable.

Take care of your staff and your guest

The hospitality industry is very much a people business. It’s important that every person from the hotel manager to the housekeeper be working together to provide every customer with an optimal guest experience. Hotel and hospitality supply movement equipment from DJ Products is designed specifically for businesses like yours.

Contact us today to speak with one of our sales engineers about how our products can prevent worker injuries and maximize manpower.

Tips to Improve Productivity at Your Hotel Locations

Hotel Managers Are Focused on Improving Productivity and Saving Money

In the hotel industry, time is a valuable commodity for your guests, which makes it even more valuable for you. How do you maximize staff productivity to make each man-hour count?

Hotel industry cart solutions are a great way to improve efficiency. Here are five more tips to help you boost productivity at your hotel locations.

1. Promote Open Communication

It’s difficult for your staff to work together if everyone isn’t on the same page. Incorporate both real-time and virtual methods of communication, such as regular staff meetings and email messaging or even private social media groups.

2. Automate the Accounts Payable Process

One seemingly minor mistake on an invoice can lead to lost labor hours as your staff works to correct the error. An automated accounts payable system will quickly pay for itself.

3. Save the Trees

Endless paper pushing is another black hole of productivity. Today’s technology makes it easy to store documents electronically.

4. Offer Employee Incentives

Employees aren’t as invested in improved productivity as owners and management are. Offering cash or other modest incentives can build a healthy sense of competition that helps your staff internalize productivity goals.

5. Modify or Reduce Workloads

Determine the most time-consuming jobs performed by your staff and find ways to simplify them while maintaining quality.

Hotel Industry Cart Solutions from DJ Products

Our electric hotel industry carts and pullers let your staff work quickly and efficiently without sacrificing safety. Visit our website and use the convenient online chat feature to learn more about hotel industry cart solutions from our friendly sales engineers.

Tips to Increasing Your Hotel Stay Bookings

Increase Your Hotel Stay Bookings with These Tips.

For hotels, customer acquisition costs matter as much as how many beds are filled. Direct bookings avoid commissions of up to 25% charged by online travel agents, making these guests most desirable and profitable. How do you compete with those well-advertised travel sites, though?

To increase occupancy, especially for direct bookings, it’s all about making your hotel visible online and then capitalizing on the traffic. As Hotel News Resource explains in fuller detail, there are three key tips for increasing hotel bookings:

Take charge of SEO and social media: Pay-per-click ads can pay off if you know how much a lead is worth to you. Hotel brands can also gain traffic organically by blogging about events, posting lovely photos on Instagram, and using social media for hoteliers.
Respond to online reviews: Hotel guests, unfortunately, love to complain loudly about bad experiences. Reach out on various review sites to let other prospective guests know you care.
Make online booking easy and exciting: Use the latest web design trends to make your booking process user-friendly, and promote limited-time offers to lock down customers.

Great Guest Experiences Bring Loyalty and Word-of-Mouth

Customers value perks like early check-in, a clean lobby and hallways, and responsive customer service. At DJ Products, our powered hospitality industry carts empower your staff to do their jobs quickly, efficiently, and comfortably. The benefits include fewer worker injuries, better team morale, and faster housekeeping.

Powered hospitality industry carts like our motorized housekeeping cart may be just what your hotel brand needs to improve service, win loyalty, inspire great reviews, and generate more bookings. Contact DJ products today for more info!

Hotel News: Bed Bugs Flock to Certain Sheet Colors

Bedbugs Infest Hotels Across the Nation

Are you in the hospitality business?

As bed bug infestations have spread to all 50 states in America, scientists have debunked the myth that the presence of bed bugs means a lack of cleanliness. CNN is now reporting studies showing that a seemingly innocent factor of sheet color can be an attraction for these pests.

Do Bed Bugs Have Favorite Colors?

A research team conducted an interesting experiment in which bed bugs were placed in Petri dishes containing tiny bug-sized “tents” made from different colors of paper. Left to their own devices, most of the bed bugs flocked to the red and black tents, ignoring the white, yellow and green ones.

Team member Roberto Pereira, an urban entomology research scientist at the University of Florida, gave the following possible reasons as to why bed bugs prefer the darker colors:

• Colors such as black and red offer greater cover against spiders and other predators.

• Bed bugs tend to stick together, and they may mistake the colors for friendly colonies.

• Bright colors create more light exposure, which puts bed bugs at risk for excessive loss of moisture.

Dawn Gouge, associate professor of urban entomology at the University of Arizona, did not participate in the study but gave additional tips to prevent bugs when traveling:

• Use hard-sided luggage and never place it on a bed or a couch.

• When possible, pack and unpack in a protected outdoor area like a garage.

Transport Laundry with Ease Using Powered Linen Carts from DJ Products

Our powered linen carts make it easier for employees to keep sheets freshly laundered. Visit our website to learn more from our friendly sales engineers.

Tag: Powered Linen Carts