There’s a moment most hosts hit in their first year: changeover day, the cleaner texts “we’re short on king sheets,” and the next guest checks in in three hours. You buy emergency Target sets at retail price, the new sets don’t match the photos, and your operating margin took a $90 hit you’ll feel for two months.
That moment is preventable. It’s a math problem, not an operations problem.
The 3-2-1 rule
Most experienced hosts converge on the same par level for linens:
- 3 sets per bed — sheets, pillowcases, duvet cover.
- 2 sets per bath — bath sheet, hand towel, washcloth, bath mat.
- 1 set per kitchen — tea towels, oven mitts, dish cloths.
The “3” is the only one that surprises new hosts. Why three?
| Set | State |
|---|---|
| Set 1 | On the bed (in use) |
| Set 2 | In the wash / in the dryer / folded for the next turn |
| Set 3 | Buffer — for stains, late-discovery damage, or a tight turn |
If you run two sets per bed and you have a same-day turnover, here’s the math:
- Set 1 comes off at 11 a.m.
- Set 2 goes on at 11:15.
- Set 1 is now your only buffer. It’s wet.
If the guest who just made the bed spills coffee at 11:30, you have nothing dry. With three sets, you do.
For 2-set hosts who run gap days only (no same-day turnovers), 2 is fine as long as the wash cycle fits in the gap. For anyone running summer occupancy or back-to-back weekends, 3 is the floor.
The bath par no one talks about
The “2 per bath” rule is for the full set: bath sheet, hand towel, washcloth, bath mat. Most hosts have plenty of bath sheets and run out of bath mats mid-turn because they treat them like a kitchen towel.
Bath mats absorb the most water in the property and dry the slowest. Two per bath is the minimum. Same logic as linens: one in use, one in laundry.
Hand towels are the same story in reverse — they’re cheap, they’re small, they’re easy to lose to staining or guest theft. Three or four per bath is reasonable. Cost basis is low.
Per-property worked example
A 3-bed, 2-bath property, 1 king + 2 queens:
| Item | Beds | Baths | Sets | Total units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| King sheet sets | 1 | — | 3 | 3 |
| Queen sheet sets | 2 | — | 3 | 6 |
| King pillowcases (pairs) | 1 | — | 3 | 3 pairs (6) |
| Queen pillowcases (pairs) | 2 | — | 3 | 6 pairs (12) |
| Bath sheets | — | 2 | 4 (2 per bath × 2 baths) | 8 |
| Hand towels | — | 2 | 8 | 16 |
| Washcloths | — | 2 | 8 | 16 |
| Bath mats | — | 2 | 4 | 4 |
Most operators under-buy king pillowcases (because the math feels small) and under-buy bath mats (because they’re not memorable). Both stockouts happen on changeover day, both are awful, both are the cheapest fixes you’ll ever make.
What about duvets?
Duvet covers count as part of the sheet set. The duvet insert is the long-life capital item — buy good ones, replace every 3–4 years, and treat them as 1 per bed plus 1 spare per property. The cover does the work; the insert just provides the loft.
Pillows themselves are the same — 1 set per bed plus 2 spares for the property. They’re a comfort item and a cost item, not a turnover item.
Why your cleaner cares
Linen par is a cleaner-facing number. Your cleaner doesn’t want to call you mid-turn to say “we’re short” — they want to walk into a closet that has obvious labels and obvious stock and finish the turn on the budgeted time.
Print your par sheet (the supply par-level sheet is the lead magnet for this) and tape it inside the linen closet door. Make the par the closet’s contract. Restock to par after every turn. Run an audit once a month.
Run the math
The linen par calculator takes your bedrooms and bathrooms (with king/queen mix) and outputs the full par list. The restock calculator takes your booking volume and turns par-level into a monthly replacement budget — because linens fade, stain, and disappear, and the time to plan for replacement is before you’re short, not the morning of the turn.