Choosing bed linen for a hotel is not the same as buying sheets for a home. The fabric has to survive industrial laundering several times a week, the sizes have to match your mattresses exactly, and you need enough sets in circulation so no room ever waits for linen. This guide walks through the decisions in the order you actually have to make them: fabric, weight, sizes, how many sets per bed, and what to ask a supplier before you sign anything.
We are Brodank, a workshop in Comarnic, Prahova, cutting and sewing hotel textiles since 1991. We have equipped more than 100 hotels and guesthouses in Romania. The advice below is what we tell buyers who call us, whether or not they end up ordering from us.
Start with the fabric, not the price
Fabric decides how the linen feels to the guest and how it behaves in the laundry, so it is the decision to settle first. For hotel use, 100% cotton is the standard, and the question is how that cotton is woven.
Percale
A plain weave, one thread over one thread. It feels crisp and matte, breathes well, and holds up to repeated hot washing. It is the safe choice for most rooms in a three- or four-star property. Guests who dislike a hot bed usually prefer percale.
Cotton sateen
A weave with longer floating threads on the face, which gives a soft handle and a slight sheen. It looks more expensive on the bed and photographs well. It is a common choice for suites and for boutique properties where the room rate supports it.
Damask
A jacquard weave where the pattern is built into the cloth rather than printed on it. The pattern does not wash out, because it is structural. Damask is the usual pick when a property wants its own woven motif or a discreet stripe running through the range.
We work in all three. If you are weighing them up in detail, we have a longer comparison in percale, sateen or damask, and the full specification for each is on our hotel bed linen page.
Understand weight and thread count properly
You will be quoted two numbers, and only one of them is reliable.
Weight in grams per square metre tells you how much cotton is actually in the cloth. It is a physical measurement that cannot be inflated by marketing, and it is the number to compare between two offers. Heavier cloth generally means more washes before the fabric thins out, and it also means a heavier laundry load and a longer drying time. Ask for the gsm of every fabric you are quoted, in writing.
Thread count is counted differently by different mills, and a high figure achieved by twisting several thin yarns together does not give you a stronger sheet. Treat it as a rough indication of fineness, never as a quality score on its own. Our range uses different weights depending on the product, and we will tell you the exact figure for the cloth you are being quoted.
Get the sizes right before anything else
Sizes are worth checking twice, because the cloth is cut to them and a mistake is expensive to correct afterwards. Measure your actual mattresses, all of them, including depth. A 30 cm mattress and a 22 cm mattress take completely different fitted sheets even when the top surface is identical. If you have added toppers, measure again with the topper on.
Write down, for every room type:
- Mattress width, length and depth � measured yourself, not copied from the purchase invoice
- How many beds of each type in the property
- Whether twin beds are ever pushed together, which changes the sheet size you need
- Duvet dimensions, which are not always the same as the bed
- Pillow dimensions, including any decorative sizes
- Whether you want a valance, a runner or a bed throw in the same specification
We cut to order. Any size, any shape, any colour. If your mattresses are an odd depth, or you inherited beds in three different sizes from a previous refurbishment, that is a normal job for us rather than a problem, because we are cutting the cloth anyway.
Decide how many sets each bed needs
A bed needs more than one set of linen because at any moment some linen is on the bed, some is in the wash, and some is on the shelf ready for the next changeover. If you order one set per bed you will be washing overnight, every night, with no margin for a stain or a tear.
The number depends on how often you launder, whether the laundry is in house or external, and how long an external service takes to return goods. Below is the general logic hoteliers use as a starting point.
| Situation | Sets per bed, typical starting point | Why |
|---|---|---|
| In-house laundry, daily turnaround | 3 | One on the bed, one in the wash, one on the shelf |
| External laundry, fast return | 4 | Add a set to cover the time goods spend off site |
| External laundry, slower return or seasonal peaks | 5 | Extra buffer so a delayed collection never empties the shelf |
| Suites and signature rooms | Add one extra set | Fewer beds, so the extra stock costs little and protects the room type you sell highest |
Add a small allowance on top for losses and damage, and remember that linen is retired gradually rather than all at once. We go through the calculation with worked examples in how many linen sets per bed.
Set a realistic budget
Hotel linen is a per-bed cost multiplied by the number of sets, so the arithmetic matters more than the headline price. Our starting prices, in Romanian lei, excluding VAT:
These are entry points. The final figure depends on fabric, weight, size and personalisation. Work out your total by taking the per-set price, multiplying by sets per bed, then by the number of beds, and adding pillows, duvets and protectors, which are counted per bed rather than per set. Towels and bathrobes sit on a separate line in the budget: towels start at 12 lei, again excluding VAT, while bathrobes are priced on request. You can see the whole range and its starting prices across our product range.
Think about personalisation early
If you want your logo on the linen, decide before the fabric is chosen, because the method has to suit the cloth. There are three routes:
- Embroidery � a stitched logo, usually on the turn-down of the top sheet or the duvet cover. Durable and visible.
- Woven jacquard � the motif is woven into the cloth itself, so it cannot wash off. This one has to be planned at the start.
- Printing � suitable where a flat graphic is wanted.
Personalisation also affects reordering: once the logo, colour and sizes are written down, a repeat order can be made to the same details as the linen already on the beds.
Questions to ask any supplier
Put these questions to every supplier you ask for a quotation. The answers, side by side, will tell you more than the prices will.
- What is the fibre content? If the answer is not a clear percentage, ask again.
- What is the weight in grams per square metre for each fabric quoted?
- Do you manufacture, or do you buy in and resell? A reseller cannot change a size for you.
- Can you make non-standard sizes, and what does that cost?
- Will the cloth withstand repeated industrial washing?
- How is the logo applied, and does it survive the wash cycle?
- Can I reorder the identical specification in a year, so new stock matches old?
- Can I see or handle a sample before committing to the full order?
- What is the price excluding VAT, per unit, for the exact size I need?
On our side: we cut and sew our textiles in our own workshop rather than reselling imported goods, our fabrics are chosen to withstand repeated industrial laundering, and we work from a written specification, so a repeat order starts from the same details. More about the workshop is on our about page.
Do not plan bed linen in isolation
The bed is one part of what the guest touches. Towels, bathrobes, mattress protectors and curtain accessories are usually specified at the same time, so that colours match and one supplier covers all of it. If you are working through the bathroom at the same time, the weight question comes up again there, and our guide to towel gsm covers it. Different property types have different priorities, and we set those out by sector under HoReCa solutions.
The next step
Once you have your mattress measurements, your room count, your fabric preference and your sets-per-bed number, you have everything a supplier needs to quote you accurately. Send those four things and a supplier can quote you properly instead of guessing.
We sell business to business, by quotation rather than through a shopping basket, and we deliver throughout Romania. If you are considering a Romanian manufacturer, there is background in buying hotel textiles from a Romanian manufacturer. Enquiries from outside Romania are discussed case by case.
Send your specification to request a quote, or call us on +40 742 33 33 22.