Hotel laundry rooms for guests?

[Jordan Berry]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been thinking about getting into laundromats for a while now and I’m on the fence. The two nearby that make the most sense aren’t interested in selling and others don’t seem to be great prospects (too large for my first laundromat, too many broken machines, too much to fix out of the gate) to where I’m comfortable in making the dive.

However, my wife and I had an extended stay in a hotel earlier this year and we used their laundry machines quite a bit. All they had was a washer and a dryer that took quarters only. The machines were old, and the dryer would sometimes take two cycles to get everything done.

So I’ve been wondering over the past couple of days would it be possible to go to different hotels in my area and see if I could replace their current laundry machines for guests with new machines? I’d essentially be creating a laundromat in the aggregate, 6-10 machines at various hotels in the area, all within a short drive of where I live.

The upside for me is pretty easy to figure out: No lease to pay, no water bills or other associated costs to take care of, probably limited to no chance of vandalism and overall safe locations. I’m not sure how many people who stay in hotels actually use the laundry machines provided for guests but I’m assuming hotels wouldn’t have them if they didn’t make sense.

What I’m struggling with is a pitch to these hotels to see if I can get machines in there. What would be the upside for them? Obviously they wouldn’t be required to take care of machine maintenance, but is that really a headache for them? I’d be the one to come through and collect the quarters (and ideally, I’d have machines that accept cards/Apple Pay, too) but again, is that something that is really a pain point for a hotel?

Any insight would be appreciated.

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