Thankfully, Kent has advice and in-
sight for spa directors looking to refine
their linen management process.
How much linen and terry
do I need?
“The first thing you have to do,” says
Kent, “is understand your PAR levels.”
PAR—short for Periodic Automatic Re-
plenishment—is the amount of linen
and terry needed to complete the
treatments booked on any given day.
Kent recommends maintaining
three PAR; in her experience, this is a
good number for most any spa. The
first PAR is the exact amount of linen
and terry in-place and in the rooms
that is necessary to complete that
day’s services. Therefore, three PAR is
three times that ‘daily use’ amount.
When a spa is operating with three
PAR, the first PAR is being used, while
the second PAR is folded and on
shelves, ready to be used tomorrow.
The third PAR, meanwhile, is currently
being laundered.
However, exactly how much linen
and terry constitutes one PAR unit will
vary from spa to spa. Since not all days
are equally busy, it’s best to calculate
an ‘average daily use.’ Kent rec-
ommends skewing this average to-
wards a slightly busier day, saying “you
have your minimum day and your
maximum day. Most of us talk about a
medium-high day as our PAR level.” To
find your spa’s PAR, count up the
amount of linen and terry needed to
make it through one moderately-busy
day. Don’t forget to add in extra terry
for use in locker rooms and wet areas,
too—women typically use more than
JUST STARTING OUT? For new spas, Ella Kent
recommends overestimating the amount of linen and
terry you’ll need. After six months, recalculate PAR now
that you have data on how many treatments, towels and
sheets you use in a typical day.
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men, according to Kent, and in her own
calculations has found that her spas
average six towels per spa guest.
Ultimately, exactly how much linen
and terry you have on hand (i.e. one
PAR) depends on your spa’s facilities
and bookings; however, maintaining
three PAR is a good rule of thumb for
all spas. Don’t fret, though, if you
don’t quite get there: the vicissitudes
of monthly budgets often make 2.5 or
2.8 PAR a fact of life. In the end, how
much linen and terry you have de-
pends on your spa’s budget: the goal
is to have just enough linen to be able
to comfortably run your spa, freeing
up excess money to go towards other
areas. That’s a difficult needle to
thread, though, and it naturally leads
into the next question:
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