Hotels are struggling to give guests clean sheets and towels and delaying check-ins as the staycation boom, staff shortages and Brexit disruption causes a perfect storm.
Managers have reported needing to take linen home to be washed, as laundries struggle to keep pace with demand.
Intercontinental Hotel Group, owner of Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels, is among the chains warning they are having to trim services to deal with the pressure on staffing and logistics.
Kenneth Macpherson, chief executive of IHG Europe, Middle East and Africa, said daily bed linen changes had been limited at some hotels for guests staying multiple nights.
'The laundry supply chain cuts across staffing challenges, distribution and logistics,' he told the Financial Times.
Many hospitality firms scaled back operations and furloughed staff at the height of the pandemic, and are now having problems as workers found jobs elsewhere or moved back to home countries.
Kate Nicholls, chief of the UK Hospitality industry body, said the problems were 'across the sector'.
'We have had general managers taking laundry home in order to get towels turned around because the commercial laundry providers haven't been able to guarantee the delivery... this is a common issue across the whole of the food supply chain and the logistics supply chain behind hospitality,' she told BBC Radio 5 Live.
Daniel Browne, owner of Blossom & Browne's Sycamore, which washes linen for many London hotels, said it had been 'bloody horrific'. 'We are living on a knife edge, everyone is under pressure,' he told the FT.
The grim picture emerged amid fears the UK faces two years of labour shortages.
A 'perfect storm' from Brexit and the pandemic has left businesses battling shortages of lorry drivers, waiters, chefs and construction workers, according to the Confederation of British Industry, which represents 190,000 companies.
Director general Tony Danker warned that the 'acute' skills shortages will extend into yet more industries and may not resolve themselves until 2023.
Managers have reported needing to take linen home to be washed, as laundries struggle to keep pace with demand
Britain faces two years of labour shortages, a leading business group said, after a 'perfect storm' from Brexit and the pandemic has left businesses battling scarcity of lorry drivers (file image)
