Linen Par Falls Short Before a Wedding Block
Ganga Darshan is a 180-room hotel in Varanasi running at 92% occupancy for the next four nights. The house has 310 beds. Housekeeping policy is three par - one set in use, one in laundry, one on the shelf - plus a 10% safety stock, calculated on bed sheets. Only 860 bed sheets are in circulation because 40 were condemned last month. The outsourced laundry returned 1,200 pieces this morning, of which 96 were rejected at the dock for stains, greyness and torn hems; the contract allows a 2% rejection tolerance and replacement is costed at ₹450 per piece. Two floor supervisors are on leave and only 12 of the sanctioned 16 room attendants reported. A wedding block of 60 rooms checks in at 1 p.m. and a state tourism official arrives at 6 p.m. The general manager wants all rooms released by noon and the laundry vendor's invoice cleared today.
1. Calculate the bed-sheet par stock the policy requires, compare it with what is actually usable, and decide whether the hotel can operate tonight without buying linen.
Read the worked answer
Par calculation: required = beds × par × (1 + safety). 310 × 3 = 930; 930 × 1.10 = 1,023 bed sheets.
Usable stock: 860 in circulation, less the 96 rejected pieces that are not fit for guest use = 764 usable, which is 2.46 par - well below policy.
Shortfall against policy: 1,023 − 764 = 259 sheets (25%).
Can it run tonight? Yes, physically. Roughly 166 rooms are occupied, so at most 310 sheets are in use tonight; 764 covers that with 454 spare in laundry and store. So the hotel will not run out of beds tonight - but the buffer that absorbs a laundry delay tomorrow has gone. If the vendor misses one morning collection, the third night fails.
Judgement: do not panic-buy 259 sheets at retail. Buy or borrow 120–150 sheets within 48 hours (about two-thirds of the gap), which restores roughly 2.8–2.9 par and covers the wedding block, and place the balance on the next scheduled purchase order. Buy locally from a verified mill or borrow from a sister property on a returnable basis, and mark every borrowed piece so it goes back.
2. Rank the housekeeping actions for the next 48 hours and explain what you would tell the wedding organiser and the general manager.
Read the worked answer
Priority order - protect the guest-facing promise first.
- Reject and quarantine the 96 rejected pieces at the dock today. Sign nothing until they are physically removed from the linen room; if they enter circulation they will reappear on beds.
- Reallocate the 12 attendants. With four attendants short, drop the low-visibility tasks (corridor mopping after 9 a.m., back-of-house sweeping) and keep room cleaning, bathroom sanitising and bed-making on schedule. Ask the F&B and banquets team for two people to strip linen and run errands.
- Release rooms in blocks, not at random. Clean and inspect the 60 wedding rooms first because they have a fixed 1 p.m. arrival and one organiser; the official's suite is next at 4 p.m.; the remaining free-sale rooms last.
- Protect the laundry cycle. Fix a 6 a.m. collection and 6 p.m. return with the vendor for the next four days, and hold a full day's spare in store, not on floors.
- Tell the truth early. Inform the wedding organiser that rooms will be released by 12:30 p.m. in two blocks and give a named contact; never promise 60 rooms at once when staffing is short. Tell the GM that the linen par is 2.46 against a 3.0 policy - one page, with the numbers and the purchase request.
3. Work out the vendor claim and decide the commercial response: continue with this vendor, penalise, or switch.
Read the worked answer
Claim: 96 rejected pieces × ₹450 = ₹43,200 replacement cost. The rejection rate is 96 ÷ 1,200 = 8%, four times the 2% contractual tolerance (24 pieces). At minimum, deduct ₹43,200 from today's invoice and issue a written non-conformance note. Also claim re-wash cost for any piece that can be saved rather than replaced, and do not clear the full invoice today as the GM asked.
Commercial response - penalise first, switch only on evidence.
- Continue with the vendor under a 30-day improvement notice with weekly rejection reporting; a single vendor failure is a warning, not a reason to lose a reliable collection route.
- Start a second vendor on 20% of volume immediately. Dual sourcing costs a little per piece but removes single-point failure, which is exactly the risk that has just bitten the hotel.
- Fix the process on the hotel side too: count and inspect at the dock before signing, tag linen in batches so losses are traceable, and reconcile circulation monthly (860 against a 1,023 par should have been flagged weeks ago, not on the eve of a wedding).
- Put a penalty clause in the next contract: invoice deduction of 1.5× replacement cost for rejections above 2%.