Ideas The World Needs That I’ll Never Do #6: Fair-Priced Hotel Laundry
When I travel, I like to pack small. I’ve had too many mishaps with luggage, and checking a bag costs about as much as a Michelin-star dinner these days. Plus, I have a family — including 2 teenagers — which means I can expect to be challenging basic physics as I attempt to stuff a dozen oversized suitcases into some tiny European micro-hatchback. So…I choose to pack light.
Of course, when you’re packing light, you end up with unpleasant decisions that start a few days into your trip — most of which revolve around the acquired fragrance of that t-shirt I’ve worn for 3+ days in tropical weather. See, I sweat. A lot. I sweat when I travel, I sweat when we go somewhere warm, and I even sweat in the cold. Heck, I burned through a surprising amount of t-shirts in Iceland in March!
There is a unique form of stress that accompanies this gradual decent into foulness. It generally takes the form of that plastic bag and 3-ply printed sheet that every hotel sticks into their guest closets. I call it their Fuck-Off Form, but they call it the hotel laundry service. I call it my name because the prices hotels charge for laundry are so outrageous…you’d think they don’t want to do your laundry. Which, now that I think about it, they probably don’t.
Here’s just one example I found on Google. In all honesty, these prices are low. I’ve seen $15 to launder a pair of underwear, $20 for a t-shirt. I’ve found dozens of items where the cost of laundering something exceeds what I actually paid when I bought it. Need express service (i.e. less than 2 days)? It’s 50–100% more. These prices make the minibar look cheap.
My solution to overpriced laundry has been to attempt to find a local drop-off or fluff-and-fold operation nearby. I’d say about 50% of the time, I can find a place that can turn my laundry in about a day, and they typically charge about $10, or about 8% of the $120–150 it would cost to launder the same amount at the hotel. But I have to lug my family’s laundry around the neighborhood, disrupt my vacation and work around the laundry’s hours.
About a decade ago, hotels used to charge a ton for Internet service. At the time, I had an idea of setting up wireless access points across the street from hotels and charging $5/day instead of $20. But…most hotels have begrudgingly accepted that they need to offer wifi for free. So I’d like to revise that idea to…laundry.
I would like someone to provide an app that allows me to order reasonably-priced laundry services to/from my hotel room. I’d gladly pay well above laundromat rates — how about $20–30 for a load of laundry, more if rushed — and I think many other travelers would too. Now that I think about it, these same services could provide everything the traveler needs — cheaper minibar items, forgotten toiletries, dry cleaning — all the services that hotels gouge guests on.
This idea just doesn’t seem that hard. I know that there are laundry service apps for busy people — including Rinse, iClean, Washrunner and more, but they all seem to be designed for residential markets. I suppose I could try to use them, but would they be able to access my room or pick up my laundry from the concierge? Not clear.
I’m guessing that generating enough demand from a given hotel might be hard, so you’d want to cover an entire neighborhood. Ideally you’d partner with the hotel, but if they consider laundry a revenue source, you’d need the guest to demand the service.
Interestingly, I’ve found many hotels recently have outsourced even room service — I can’t tell you how many mid-level hotels have told me to order from DoorDash or UberEats in the last year — so perhaps laundry is next?
I just want an easy, affordable way to not have to wear Tuesday’s sweat-stained dress shirt again. :)
