Best Towels for Vacation Rentals

Towels are where a lot of properties quietly lose money. They are bought too light, washed badly, and replaced too often. Getting them right is mostly about two numbers and one habit.

Number one: grams per square metre

Gsm is the weight of the towel per square metre, and it predicts almost everything about how a towel feels and behaves.

WeightFeels likeRight for 300–400 gsmThin, fast-dryingGyms, pools, beach 450–600 gsmEveryday, mediumMid-range properties, high turnover 600–800 gsmSubstantial, plushLuxury hospitality 800+ gsmVery heavySpas with drying facilities. Slow to dry.

For a luxury property, 700 gsm is the sweet spot: heavy enough that a guest notices, light enough that it dries in a bathroom overnight.

Number two: staple length

Long-staple cotton — Turkish, Egyptian, Supima — has longer individual fibres, so fewer ends stick out. Fewer ends means less shedding in the first wash, less pilling later, and a towel that gets softer instead of scratchier.

A 700 gsm towel made from short-staple cotton will feel worse after ten washes than a 600 gsm long-staple one.

The weave detail worth knowing

Look for double-loop terry. It means both ends of each loop are anchored in the base cloth, so the pile does not pull out when a guest catches it on a ring or a zip. Towels that go bald in patches are single-loop.

Colour: white, almost always

White towels can be bleached, so a stain is a solvable problem rather than a lost towel. They can be replaced one at a time for years, because white always matches white. And they read as clean, which is the whole job.

If white is wrong for the property, choose one warm neutral and buy every towel in it — never a mix.

The habit that ruins towels

Fabric softener. It works by coating the fibre with a thin waxy layer. A coated fibre cannot absorb water. Properties that use softener are paying money to make their towels worse at the only thing towels do.

If towels feel stiff, the cause is usually detergent residue, not a lack of softener. Half a cup of white vinegar in the rinse cycle, once a month, strips the residue and the softness comes back.

The other two habits worth fixing:

• Do not overload the machine. Towels need room to move or the detergent never rinses out.
• Do not over-dry. High heat for a long time is what makes cotton brittle. Take them out very slightly damp.

Pool towels are a separate purchase

Sun cream stains permanently and chlorine degrades cotton. If your bath towels are also your pool towels, you are replacing your bath towels on the pool towel schedule.

Buy pool towels that are visibly different — striped, oversized, a different colour — and the problem solves itself without a single sign or a single conversation.

How many

Two bath towels per guest, per par. Two hand towels per bathroom, per par. One mat per bathroom, per par. See How Many Towels Per Guest? for the full table.