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Loving Your Linens Not all white sheets and towels are the same. Bellora Hospitality makes them better. Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Beth Kormanik

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Bellora Hospitality Linens

Don't underestimate the importance of the impact linen has in setting the tone for a hotel stay.

The people behind Wynn Las Vegas knew this when they selected Bellora Hospitality to provide its bedding and towels.

"As much as we want our guests to gamble, or go to our restaurants, they may never do either. They may never turn on the TV," a senior Wynn executive told Bellora CEO Michael Bernstein just before the hotel opened. "But the two things they will do is they will sleep and thus have contact with your sheets and bedding and use the shower and towels. There's a remarkable difference in impression when you give them a great sleep experience and a good bath experience."

Bellora Hospitality specializes in 4- and 5-star properties such as Wynn Las Vegas, Wynn Encore, Caesars, Hilton and Trump in Las Vegas, all Rock Resorts, Noble House and Provenance Hotels and the Bowery in New York and Doonbeg Golf Resort in Ireland. Its cruise line customers include Crystal Cruises and Holland America.

Bellora is owned by a large vertical mill, with production facilities and cut-and-sew in India and cut-and-sew operations in the U.S. In addition to its bed and bath products, Bellora's parent is a major manufacturer of decorative fabrics and finished products such as decorative pillows, shams, bed ruffles and curtains. Bellora also distributes towels, blankets, bath rugs and robes.

"We can put together a comprehensive package of interiors for a hotel and provide them a total package and service on a vertical basis," Bernstein said.

The company works with interior designers, hotel sourcing departments as well as purchasing companies working on behalf of hotels.

Bernstein emphasizes that bedding should not be an afterthought in a design scheme.

"People may be very selective about how all of their decor is done, then they'll go out and buy a low-end sheet," he said.

Consider a presidential suite. These palatial spaces get extra attention with sunken bathtubs, high end finishes and multiple televisions. Then they will have the same bath towel that goes in the hotel's opening price point rooms.

"They're trying to attract high rollers and best customers, but they're giving the same sheet as the lower end rooms," Bernstein said. "The minute you upgrade a room you're trying to attract a customer that spends more money. If you don't have across-the-board high quality linens in your hotel, you should at least improve the sheets and towels in the suites."

Quality can be expressed in a number of ways, including thread count. But higher thread count doesn't always mean better quality. What's very important is that the sheets that hotels buy are single-pick insertion, a process that takes longer but creates a better weave and stronger fabric. Bellora also uses compact yarn in both directions of the weave that adds strength, avoids pilling, and overall has a better touch.

Bellora offers sheets with thread counts that range from 200 to 700. The hotel market seems to have settled on a 300 Egyptian or Indian cotton product, Bernstein said, and it is offered by Bellora in a variety of weaves, including sateen and twill.

For color, white still rules the hospitality market. Even though Bellora's customers often require a plain white sheet, recently more are looking for specialty design and top quality. Even when customers order white sheets, they often come with insets, embroideries or other custom touches.

Bellora uses a bright white that will keep its color and luster throughout multiple washes. Its U.S.-based head of quality control also heads its manufacturing and advises hotel laundries on the proper way to handle the product.

"We believe our sheets should look much the same after 100 washes or five," he said. "If you don't spend the extra money for bright white, after you start washing it, the color will gray down and look dingy."

Another mark of quality is that Bellora stands behind its sheets with a guarantee that they will never pill. The company's unusually high specifications for pilling and tear strength ensure the product durability. Its products, particularly pillow cases and shams, will last years. Bellora also offers a five-year guarantee on its blankets, and Bernstein said the company has never had one returned.

A distinctive value proposition of Bellora is that the product it delivers to hotels is consistent from the same mill. That's different from the typical purchasing method of distributors, who may buy from a variety of mills from year to year.

Bellora works with hotels to develop appropriate PAR levels of inventory depending on whether the hotel does its own laundry and the length of their laundry cycles.

While the initial linen shipment to the hotel may come from India, Bellora will store the backup stock at one of its two U.S. warehouses -- one  in Las Vegas and the other in Roxboro, N.C. Bellora will store finished product based on its projections of a client's needs for the next six months, but it will also keep fabric on hand so it can cut and sew extra product in an emergency.

The company's commitment to store specialized product as well as commodity product makes it stand out among its competitors.

"We won't say, 'you didn't project that' and make you wait four months," Bernstein said. "It's been our philosophy that we will service our customer and keep stock for them."