TowelHub Blog

Not long ago, a sauna meant a wooden bench and maybe one other guest. Now a Friday evening can mean twenty people, a host with a ladle, and a playlist. Every one of them needs something dry to sit on. The laundry room feels it first, and spa towels run out faster than the budget allowed for. This guide looks at what changed and how a facility can stock for it.

Social Saunas Are Raising Sauna Towel Demand

Social Saunas Defined

A social sauna is a hosted session with a set start time. Guests who may not know each other heat up together, often to music or a guided routine and sometimes with a ritual such as Aufguss. 

The same report puts growth for the spa and wellness center segment at 7.45% a year. Operators who buy wholesale spa towels for these rooms now size an order against a crowd, not a single visitor.

Linen Use Per Session

Start from the guest's side of the bench. Sauna towels do two jobs on every visit. One goes under the guest, and the other dries them off afterward. A cold plunge can bring a third. Take a room for 20 that runs four sessions on a Friday night. That makes 80 guests and at least 160 pieces, not counting the spa bathrobes some of them will pull on later.

Wellness center towels end up on benches and shoulders alike before they hit the hamper. Order bulk sauna towels from last season's numbers and the count will probably fall short.

Guest Turnover Drives Sauna Towel Usage

Aufguss Rituals And Linen

Aufguss is the clearest case. The sauna master pours water over hot stones, then works a towel through the air to push the heat around the room. Bathhouse says one round runs about 15 minutes. Bulk spa towels bought for a quiet room won't stretch across a schedule like that.

Martijn Vanhoorelbeke, a four-time Belgian Aufguss champion who led trainings there, says of the craft, "This is an art. You train in technique for this." When a round ends, the whole bench heads for the plunge and the showers, and bath towels go with them.

Hotels And Gyms Compared

A hotel pool deck is a different animal. Guests drift in over an afternoon, and hotel towels leave the stack one at a time. Gyms run slowly too. Members help themselves from a bin whenever they like, and the pile of gym towels shrinks at a steady trickle.

But a social sauna behaves like neither. Twenty guests stand up together when the 7 p.m. round ends, and sauna towel turnover arrives in waves that a daily average hides.

Supply Planning For Busy Saunas

Setting Par Levels

A sauna has no rooms to count, so par should follow the peak round. Take its headcount, multiply by pieces per guest, then by four, and set the result beside what is actually on the shelf. Anyone ordering spa towels wholesale from last year's figures should do this first. Saturday night is a poor time to find out the count was off.

Choosing A Supplier

A cost per unit of product says little about what kind of business you are dealing with when it comes to choosing a spa towel vendor. Find a spa towel supplier who will ask you how busy your business can get on the busiest night of operation prior to giving you a price. 

Request two different weights. One weight should be light enough so that the towels can be turned over quickly. This breakdown of 600 GSM illustrates at what point additional weight no longer provides value.

For spa facility towel product pages, you need to provide both fiber composition information and care limitations. Having access to these two pieces of data will help the customer make better decisions when purchasing sauna towels wholesale.

Fabric And Laundry Choices For Saunas

Weight And Weave

Hotel towels have always been a great example of this principle. The same can be said for sauna towels. The machines that produce hotel towels typically run longer than those that produce sauna towels. 

This means that if a facility wants to maximize its use of the machine, it will want to use a towel that is manufactured to be lighter. However, if a facility wants to be able to provide a guest with a towel that feels luxurious and is thick enough to hold up against some wear and tear, then a heavier towel would be better. 

Wellness towels are mid-range and will adequately dry you off after swimming, but they won’t clog up your washing machine or lose thickness during the laundry process. 

Spa towels that have been woven as waffles or flats allow for quick release of moisture from them. This is why quick-dry spa towels are so useful for back-to-back rounds.

Wash And Dry Cycles

Dry times are what truly limit how many times a single stock will be able to run. All items that remain moist prior to opening the store cannot return to the display racks. You should avoid using fabric softeners because they create a layer over the fibers, which slows down the rate of water evaporation. In addition, make sure you follow the care label instructions for each type of fiber used. 

A facility that does its laundry on-site will be able to get back some of the lighter wellness center towels the same day. Facilities that use outside services for laundry have to wait for their pickup times; therefore, you should find out from your supplier of sauna towels what kind of performance you can expect from the fabric in a commercial dryer..

A Practical Ordering Plan

Steps To Follow

Four steps turn those numbers into an order.

1. Log sauna towel usage during the fullest session this week.
2. Multiply by the sessions in a night, then by the par that fits the laundry setup.
3. Price bulk sauna towels in two weights and keep one reserve day of clean stock.
4. Recount after the first full month and adjust.

Testing Before Buying

The thickness of a towel does not indicate how well it will absorb water; therefore, you should check this prior to making any large purchase. It would be wise to begin by ordering a small quantity of towels (the size of each towel can depend on the size of the room) from the spa towel line. 

The fact that the wellness towel is still soft after being washed three times is a strong indication, whereas the first wash does not prove anything. Place the test towel next to your current bath towels and compare how long it takes for them to dry and how well they hold up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do You Need A Towel In A Sauna?

Yes. The towel is used to protect the bench from sweat and to keep your skin off of the hot wood. The second towel is used to dry off after using the sauna. A gym’s honor system is generally more lax than a hosted session where you are given a towel upon entry. 

What are some factors that determine how many towels a busy sauna needs?

Begin with the most complete round. A 12-seat room that has three rounds produces approximately 72 pieces of linen (two per customer), and whatever amount of linen is required by the laundry to meet its requirements is multiplied by this figure. Round up, as wholesale sauna towels are purchased in large quantities. 

What Is The Best Towel For A Sauna?

A flat woven or mid-weight cotton fabric will work for most spaces. Spa towels that dry quickly will free up your dryer faster than other types of towels, and you'll be able to put them away before you need them again. A sauna towel manufacturer can provide information about what type of fibers were used to create the towels and how to wash them. 

How Often Should Sauna Towels Be Washed?

After each time you use a towel, whether you sit on it, wipe your face with it, or wrap your wet hair with it, place the towel into the laundry basket. Do not put the towel back onto the shelf. Spa towels must be completely dry when removed from the dryer prior to stacking.

Is Buying Spa Towels Wholesale Cheaper?

Yes, per-unit cost will be lower than retail; however, the difference increases as the number of units purchased increases. The cost savings are maintained if the specifications for each batch remain constant. This is why wholesale spa towels are such an attractive option for businesses that use shared laundry facilities. 

Bottom Lines

Social saunas aren't going away, and the linen behind them needs as much planning as the heat and the music. Count the biggest session and set par from that number. 

Choose spa towels that clear the dryer before the next group arrives, and let the real count settle the weight mix. Bulk spa towels bought against that number leave less to fix mid-season.

TowelHub stocks wholesale towels for spas. Browse the full wholesale range, compare weights against your own session count, and place the first order before the next busy weekend.