"Bath towel", "shower towel", "hand towel", "face towel", "guest towel", "bidet towel": every supplier uses a different name and every guest expects something specific. Underneath the names there are four standard sizes in hospitality, and each has a place in the bathroom and a weight in the laundry. This guide puts them in order, with the weight that suits each and the quantities per bed space, so the order comes out right first time.
The four standard sizes and what each is for
| Size | Usual name | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 30 × 50 cm | Face or guest towel | Hands and face at the basin, bidet, make-up removal |
| 50 × 100 cm | Hand towel | Hands and hair; gym and sauna towel |
| 70 × 140 cm | Shower towel | Full drying after a shower; the bath towel in most hotels |
| 100 × 150 cm | Bath or pool towel | Full drying with wrap-around; sun lounger, pool, beach |
To these four add the 90 × 170 pool towel, in colour, dealt with separately below, and the 50 × 60 or 50 × 70 bath mat, which is not a towel even though it is washed with them.
What goes in each type of property
Hotel and holiday apartment
The standard set per bed space is three pieces: one bath (100 × 150 or 70 × 140), one hand (50 × 100) and one face (30 × 50). The usual doubt is the big one: 70 × 140 or 100 × 150. The 70 × 140 dries a person without trouble, weighs a third less and takes a third less space in the washer; the 100 × 150 wraps around and is the one guests perceive as "hotel". Many city hotels settle on 70 × 140 in standard rooms and 100 × 150 in superior ones; apartments, where the guest stays several nights and takes the towel to the pool, usually go straight to 100 × 150.
Spa, thermal resort and gym
In a spa the circuit calls for two towels per person: a 70 × 140 for the shower and a 50 × 100 for the wet area and sauna. In a gym, the 50 × 100 is the machine and short-shower towel; the 70 × 140 only if there is a changing room with full showers. In both, a high weight (600 g/m² or more) shows in the hand and in the review.
Care home and clinic
Here the laundry rules, not perception: 50 × 100 and 70 × 140 towels in a medium weight (450 to 520 g/m²), which dry fast and withstand the 60 °C disinfection cycle. The 100 × 150 is kept for assisted bathing, where wrapping the resident matters. And 30 × 50 towels in quantity, because it is the one most used and most lost.
Restaurant and kitchen
The customer washroom takes 30 × 50 or 50 × 100 depending on the level; in the kitchen terry towels are not used but cloths, which are another category of fabric.
Weight and size go together
Weight is the terry's mass per square metre, and with the size it gives the real weight of each towel. It is the figure that decides how much it absorbs, how long it takes to dry and what it costs to wash:
| Size | Area | 450 g/m² | 520 g/m² | 600 g/m² | 700 g/m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 × 50 | 0.15 m² | ≈ 70 g | ≈ 80 g | ≈ 90 g | ≈ 105 g |
| 50 × 100 | 0.50 m² | ≈ 225 g | ≈ 260 g | ≈ 300 g | ≈ 350 g |
| 70 × 140 | 0.98 m² | ≈ 440 g | ≈ 510 g | ≈ 590 g | ≈ 685 g |
| 100 × 150 | 1.50 m² | ≈ 675 g | ≈ 780 g | ≈ 900 g | ≈ 1,050 g |
Dry weights, approximate, excluding hems and borders. A complete three-piece set per bed space weighs about a kilo at 450 g/m² and almost a kilo and a half at 700. Multiply by bed spaces and by changeovers and you have the kilos going through the washer every week, which is what an outsourced laundry charges you for.
The practical rule: 450 g/m² in conventional terry for high rotation and fast drying; 520 to 600 g/m² in American terry when you want body in the hand without inflating dryer time; 700 g/m² in long-staple cotton for spas and superior rooms. This weight guide goes into detail, and this one works out what each towel costs per use.
How many per bed space
The rule of five: five towels of each size per bed space, three in rotation (one in use, one clean in the cupboard, one in the wash) and two in reserve for delays and losses. In a four-bed-space apartment that is 20 bath, 20 hand and 20 face towels, plus three bath mats per bathroom. In a hotel with daily laundry, some work with four per bed space; below that, the first laundry delay leaves a room without a towel.
The pool towel is a separate item
The pool and lounger towel is longer, 90 × 170, and comes in colour, not white, for two reasons: chlorine and sun punish optical white, and a coloured towel does not end up in the room by mistake. The dye matters: vat dyes such as Indanthrene blue withstand chlorine and light where an ordinary dye fades within a season. It also has a management effect: the coloured pool towel is counted and collected at the pool, and the room's white one stops going down to the lounger.
The bath mat is not a towel
It goes on the floor, takes the water at the shower exit and therefore weighs more: 650 g/m² or above in 50 × 60 or 50 × 70 cm, with reinforced seams. It is changed less often than the towels, three per bathroom, and is washed with them at 60 °C. Putting a 30 × 50 towel on the floor, as some properties do to save money, leaves the floor flooded and the towel ruined within a month.
How to write the order so there are no surprises
- Order by size in centimetres, not by name: "70 × 140", not "shower towel". The name changes from supplier to supplier; the size does not.
- State the weight and the type of terry, and ask for the technical sheet to confirm it.
- Count by bed spaces, not by rooms, and apply the rule of five.
- Add the bath mat per bathroom and the pool towel per lounger if there is one.
- Check the pack quantity for each size before adding up: in towels it is common for the face towel to come in packs of 10 or 20 and the bath towel in packs of 2 or 6, so the round figures from the calculation adjust to the pack.
With the size, the weight and the rule of five, the towel order stops being an estimate. What arrives is what the bathroom needs and what the laundry can move each week.