Tablecloths, napkins, tea towels: table linen in holiday lets

The tea towel is the dirtiest piece of linen in any property, and the one least often replaced. It dries dishes, hands, worktops, sometimes even the floor when nothing else is to hand, and spends the stay hanging up, damp. Leaving a tea towel from one guest to the next is the quickest route to a comment about cleanliness. This guide covers kitchen and table linen: what to provide, how often to change it, and how to wash it without contaminating the rest.

What to change, and how often

Everything is changed after every departure, even if it looks untouched. A tea towel folded in a drawer has spent the stay in a kitchen, it has picked up odours, even if it was never used.

Tea towels: two uses, two colours

The classic mistake is a single tea towel for everything. Separate uses by colour, it’s the only system that works without explanation:

• Dish tea towel, in linen or honeycomb cotton, low lint. It dries glasses and cutlery, nothing else.
• Worktop or hand towel, in terry or microfibre, a different colour. It wipes surfaces and hands.

Two to three tea towels per stay are enough, and six to eight in stock per property to keep up with the laundry rotation. Linen is the best choice for dishes: it doesn’t shed, dries quickly and ages well. Waffle cotton is a good budget compromise.

The detail that stands out: a clean tea towel, folded and hung on the oven handle or a rail, not rolled up in a drawer. It’s a visible sign of freshness as soon as you enter the kitchen.

Washing: the only rule that matters

Tea towels must never be washed with bath towels or bed linen. This is the most important rule in this guide, and the one most often broken.

The reason is mechanical: tea towels carry food grease, which doesn’t fully come out in the wash and is redeposited on other fibres. A terry towel washed with tea towels turns grey and loses its absorbency after just a few cycles, exactly as if it had been softened.

The tea towel routine:

1. Dedicated washOr at the very least with mops and cleaning cloths.
2. 60°COr even 90°C occasionally for heavily soiled whites.
3. No fabric softenerWhich reduces the absorbency of a tea towel just like a towel.
4. Dry thoroughly and quickly.A folded damp tea towel will smell by the next morning.

For a yellowed tea towel or one stained with old grease, soak for an hour in hot water with soda crystals before washing, to recover what the machine alone can’t shift. The rest of the laundry process is detailed in Washing rental linen: temperatures and process.

Tablecloths: offer with caution

A fabric tablecloth dresses a table and looks great in photos, but it stains at the first meal and needs ironing. Three options, in order of practicality:

• No tablecloth at all, bare table with washable placemats. This is the easiest option for quick turnarounds, and shows off a nice table.
• Coated or quality oilcloth tablecloth, which wipes clean and doesn’t go in the machine. The best balance of durability and effort for a family property.
• Fabric tablecloth, reserved for high-end lets, with two spares in reserve and the visible side always ironed.

If you provide fabric table napkins, allow one per guest, changed every stay, and wash them with table linen, not with tea towels: they touch the mouth.

Table stains: treat cold

Three stains cover most incidents on table linen, and all must be treated before machine washing, never after.

• Red wine: blot, don’t rub, rinse thoroughly with cold water, then soak. Hot water sets the tannin.
• Grease and oil: sprinkle with Sommières clay or talcum powder, leave to absorb for an hour, brush off, then wash with a degreaser.
• Coffee and tea: cold water immediately, then soak. Like wine, heat sets the stain.

The common rule: cold first, heat later, never the other way round. A stain washed at 60°C without pre-treatment is a permanent stain.