What does an in-house laundry
really
cost?

I have worked with industrial laundries for more than a decade and the conversation nearly always opens the same way: “I am thinking of setting up an in-house laundry at my hotel. It will work out cheaper.” In most cases it will not. And the problem is not the price of the machine — it is everything that comes after it.

This article is a frank breakdown of the real costs of an in-house laundry for a mid-sized Portuguese hotel. I will use figures updated for 2026, based on the domestic market and on real quotes I have seen this year. No commercial optimism. By the end you will have a clear answer: it either makes sense for your operation or it does not.

The first surprise is that the equipment is not half the investment. It is at most two thirds. The rest — installation, adapting the space, ancillary systems — is what derails the budget.

For a 50-room hotel in the Algarve, with average annual occupancy of 65% and estimated throughput of 150 kg of linen a day, the typical investment looks like this:

Here is the real driver of the decision. CAPEX is paid once; OPEX is paid every month, and typically grows faster than general inflation. Let us break down each item for the same 150 kg/day operation.

Labour (and what it really costs)

The minimum pay for a laundry machine operator in Portugal in 2026 sits between €934 and €1,437 gross/month at the start of a career, according to the Meusalario.pt portal and the hospitality pay scale (SITESE/AHP, 2026). But what you pay the worker is not what the worker costs you.

You have to add:

• Employer social security (23.75% of gross) borne by the employer
• Holiday and Christmas allowances (~2 extra months/year = +16.7% on the average monthly cost)
• Meal allowance (€6/day × 22 days ≈ €132/month)
• Workplace accident insurance (~1.5% of gross)
• Occupational health and mandatory training

Conclusion: an operator on a base salary of €1,100 gross costs the company around €1,750 to €1,900/month, averaged over the year.

For 150 kg/day, peaking in August, you need at least 2 operators in high season (and 1 permanent in low season), with extended hours or weekend premiums. The annualised average cost comes to ~€3,200/month.

Electricity

A modern 30 kg industrial washer uses between 0.15 and 0.25 kWh per kg of linen. An electrically heated dryer uses far more — between 0.55 and 0.80 kWh/kg. Taking 150 kg/day, 30 days a month:

• Washing: 150 × 30 × 0.20 = 900 kWh/mês
• Drying (half the linen, the rest goes to the calender): 75 × 30 × 0.65 = 1,462 kWh/month
• Lighting, ventilation, ancillaries: ~250 kWh/month

Total: ~2,600 kWh/month. At an average low-voltage industrial tariff of €0.16/kWh in Portugal (2026, off-peak), that gives ~€420/month. In high season on peak tariff, it can rise to €550–650/month.

Water + wastewater

Modern industrial laundries use between 10 and 18 litres per kg processed. Older equipment can reach 30L/kg. For 150 kg/day:

• 150 × 30 × 14L = 63,000 L/month = 63 m³
• Average Algarve tariff (water + wastewater + waste): €3.80–4.50/m³
• Monthly cost: ~€240–285/month

Gas (calender, gas dryer)

If the calender runs on natural gas (more efficient than electric), budget for €300–500/month of propane/natural gas, depending on how intensively it is used.

Detergents and chemicals

In a professional industrial laundry, the total cost of chemicals (detergent, bleach, neutraliser, softener, finishing agent) typically falls between €0.15 and €0.30 per kg processed. For 150 kg/day, 30 days: ~€900/month at the midpoint.

Maintenance and parts

The sector rule of thumb: 3 to 5% of CAPEX per year on maintenance, parts and technical support. On €120,000 of CAPEX that is €3,600 to €6,000/year, or ~€400/month. For used equipment, multiply by 1.5 to 2.

Textiles (losses and accelerated wear)

A hotel sheet has a theoretical service life of 200–250 wash cycles. In an in-house laundry with badly dosed chemistry or unsuitable cycles, that life can fall to 80–120 cycles — half. That translates into ~€200 to €500/month of textiles “lost” before their time, in a hotel this size.

Accounting depreciation

CAPEX depreciates over 8–10 years. €120,000 ÷ 120 months = €1,000/month of depreciation. This cost does not leave the monthly cash flow, but it has to show up in the price per kilo so that you can reinvest when the machines reach the end of their life.

At 4,500 kg/month of throughput and OPEX of €7,360, the real cost per kilo is €1.64. And that assumes constant utilisation. In the reality of Algarve hospitality, August processes three times what February does, which means that for 7 months of the year your laundry is under-used — and the cost per kilo can easily double in the quiet months.

The costs above are the measurable ones. But there is a whole layer of “invisible” expense that only surfaces in the second or third year of operation:

1. Seasonality in the Algarve. In August your volume triples. Your in-house laundry does not. The result: you subcontract ad hoc at panic prices, or you compromise on quality. Both scenarios cost money.
2. Staff replacement. Laundry operators have high turnover. Each replacement costs between €800 and €2,000 across recruitment, training and lost productivity in the first weeks.
3. Downtime. A calender breakdown in the middle of August can force you into emergency outsourcing at €3.00–4.50/kg. Three days down = €1,500 of extra cost.
4. Opportunity cost of the space. 50 m² of laundry is 50 m² that is not a spa, an events room, or linen storage serving guests directly.
5. Management and supervision. The F&B or housekeeping manager spends, on average, 4 to 6 hours a week dealing with laundry problems. At that salary level, that is €200–400/month of management time.
6. Environmental compliance. Effluent treatment, HACCP/ISO certification, chemical waste management plans. Barely visible until the first inspection arrives.

The experienced hotelier understands that the laundry is not an isolated cost centre — it is the hotel’s invisible circulatory system. If it fails, everything else fails with it.

— André Anjo, Arelia

^* Calculated on €1.30/kg average for premium outsourcing in the Algarve, collection and delivery included. VAT included.
^† Year 1 adds the full CAPEX (€120,000) to the OPEX without the depreciation line: €6 360 × 12 = €76 320. Counting both would be paying for the equipment twice — depreciation is that same CAPEX spread over ten years, and it only applies from year 2 onwards, when the annual cost becomes the full OPEX (€88 320).

International analysis confirms the reading: American studies (Balfurd Linen Service, Love2Laundry) show that for hotels up to 150 rooms, outsourcing saves between 23% and 38% in total costs compared with running it in-house. The break-even point at which an in-house laundry makes financial sense sits, in most analyses, above 300–500 kg/day of steady throughput — something few hotels under 200 rooms reach.

To be fair: there are contexts where an in-house laundry is clearly the better option. They are:

• Hotels of 150+ rooms with steady occupancy and throughput > 300 kg/day all year round
• Remote resorts where there is no quality supplier within 40 km
• Operations with critical SLAs (five-star, top suites, events) needing turnaround under 12 hours
• Hotel chains that can share one central laundry across several nearby properties
• Properties with highly specific textiles (premium Egyptian cotton, technically treated linen) where outside quality is not consistent

For everything else — holiday rentals, boutique hotels, properties up to 100 rooms, guest houses, seasonal resorts — specialist outsourcing is, in 9 cases out of 10, the right financial decision. And today, with rental models for textiles, the upfront investment in linen drops out of the equation too.

If there is one idea to take from this article, it is this: an in-house laundry does not cost what it appears to cost. The price of a machine and a pack of detergent is a fraction of the problem. The real cost lies in labour, seasonality, maintenance and inflexibility.

Before signing an equipment quote, I would strongly recommend running a comparison on real data from your own operation. Use our ROI calculator for an estimate in 2 minutes — or get in touch for a tailored study based on your hotel’s real volumes.

Choosing between an in-house and an outsourced laundry is not an emotional decision. It is a decision about numbers — and the numbers are set out above.