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View Case Study: B & B's Update Laundries; Cut Water Usage in Half and Double Production - Inside Spin Vol. 4, No. 4

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Bed & Breakfast Market Case Study

B&B's Update Laundries; Cut Water Usage in Half & Double Production

December 2004 | Download case study as a PDF

Located in the coastal, Cape Cod community of Provincetown,Mass. – where resources are fragile and water is precious – the four-diamond Crowne Pointe Historic Inn & Spa embraces water-saving technologies to keep profit margins robust. So, when co-owners David Sanford and Thomas Walter opened the Inn's new Shui Spa, they knew better than to install a traditional, home-style top-load washer to clean sheets and towels. Instead, they opted for a high-efficiency commercial washer-extractor.

Choosing Not to Choose a Topload

By choosing the 20-pound capacity, front-load Continental Aurora over a top-load washer, David estimates the spa saves 40 percent on detergents and softeners; 30 percent on gas; and 20 gallons of water per load—more than 200 gallons per day.

“The town closely monitors water usage and charges ridiculous prices per gallon,” says David. “You use 50 percent less water with an Aurora when compared with a home-style top-load washer,” he says. “I can't see any property not using a commercial washer, even with just 10 rooms.”

At the seven-suite Watersedge Bed and Breakfast, on the shores of Lake Como in Lake Geneva,Wis., owners Dominic and Marge Trumfio agree. But, here, it's not the water prices that are out of line. Rather, it’s the costs associated with getting rid of it. “Every morsel of used water goes into a holding tank and has to be pumped out once a week,” says Marge. With each service the Watersedge incurs around a $100 charge.

carvers bed and breakfast on the lake The same holds true at Carvers On The Lake Bed and Breakfast, in Green Lake,Wis., where owners Mike and Mary Marks fork out $85 for the removal of every 6,000 gallons of wastewater.

Like the Crowne Pointe, water and utility savings motivated both B&Bs to replace their old top-load washers with Energy Star-qualified Auroras. In doing so, they also boosted laundry productivity, reduced labor and cut gas and chemical consumption. “Because the Aurora uses half the water, it also uses less salt to soften the water and less fuel to heat the water,” says Mike.

Boosting Laundry Production; Cutting Water and Gas

Three years ago, Carvers added four new guesthouse suites with whirlpools. Shortly thereafter, the nineroom B&B replaced its old top-load washer with an Aurora. Despite the new whirlpool tubs, Carvers isn't consuming more water. “The whirlpools are using about the same amount of water that the Aurora is saving,” says Mike. Plus, the Aurora has cut labor and time.

Before the install, it took Carvers' housekeepers 90 minutes to wash and dry a load of six oversized bath towels, adds Mary. Now it takes less than an hour to complete a load nearly twice the size. “We're using less water per load,” she says, “but doing more per load. Now our housekeepers are doing laundry in half the time.”

Compared with most toploads, the Aurora takes on bigger loads and removes more water during extract, according to Fritz Baenen of OPL Services, a Continental distributor in Green Bay. “The frontload Aurora is a soft-mount machine, which makes it easy to install in unconventional locations, including historic homes and inns,” he says. “But it also extracts water at speeds reaching 300 G-force. The high extract removes more water and can cut resulting dry time by up to 50 percent.”

watersedge bed and breakfast At the 100-year-old Watersedge – a hideaway B&B with 400 feet of lake frontage – it took 60-70 minutes to dry a load of towels, says Marge. Now, thanks to higher extract, a load dries in 40 minutes. Despite the B&B's growing clientele, Marge cut the number of loads per day from 30 to 15, thanks to her new washer-extractor.

Similarly, since its opening five years ago, business at the Crowne Pointe has surged 20 percent annually. Among the most cost-effective methods for keeping pace with the inn's booming business, mounting laundry and swelling water consumption, is energy-efficient and productive on-premise laundries.

Along with the spa laundry, the Crowne Pointe has two others, one of which is equipped with several topload washers used to provide wash-dry-fold service to clients. But, those machines are on the way out, says David, who prefers the efficiency of the spa's industrial washer-extractor. “I just placed an order last week to replace the existing toploads with a triple-load Continental washer-extractor,” he says.

By making that change, the Crowne Pointe will improve laundry production and cut detergent usage, labor time and utilities, he says. Also key, David adds, is choosing a washer with automatic chemical injection capabilities.

Auto Injection Eliminates Waste & Ensures Quality

watersedge bed and breakfast laundry room The spa's washer, which handles up to 400 pounds of towels and sheets daily, is programmed to automatically inject the appropriate chemical—detergent, bleach or softener—during the right cycle and at the appropriate water temperature. The machine's microprocessor control allows the Crowne Pointe to control the wash process based on the type of load—towels or sheets—with one touch of a button, eliminating waste, mess and room for error. The automatic chemical injection, says David, ensures that even massage sheets coated with oil come out clean.

“The mere fact that the washer has automatic injection has saved us a huge amount of money,” says David, who estimates a 40 percent cut in chemical usage. “The housekeepers always thought more was better, when it wasn't. We had complaints from customers that our sheets smelled like perfume, because of too much softener,” he adds.

David points out that different combinations of five chemicals are required to properly clean different items. “The key to getting them cleaner is the computerized chemical dispensing system,” he says.

A Positive Impact

carvers bed and breakfast laundry room By updating their on-premise laundries with Continental industrial washer-extractors designed to cut overhead, the Crowne Pointe, Carvers and Watersedge have cut chemical usage by 40 percent and water consumption by 50 percent per load. More unexpected was the new machine's ability to double production, thanks to high extract speeds that cut dry time and a slightly larger basket capacity to accommodate heavier loads.

The savings are so significant at the Crowne Pointe that David is pulling the properties' remaining toploads to make room for high-efficiency, industrial machines. And after just three years, Mike reports that Carvers has realized a complete return on its Aurora investment.