A bed at Verane takes about eleven minutes to make properly, which is roughly twice the industry figure, and the difference is almost entirely in the linen rather than the technique.
The linen
Woven at the mill at Sevrey, forty kilometres down the valley, in a weight that is heavier than most hotels use and slower to dry. It is washed at sixty degrees, without softener, and pressed damp on a roller iron — the last part being the reason it feels the way it does and the reason our laundry costs what it does.
The decision we have reversed twice
Whether to change linen daily. We began with daily, moved to every third night in 2015 on environmental grounds, moved back to daily in 2018 after guest feedback, and moved to on-request in 2021, where it has stayed. Roughly one guest in nine asks for a daily change. The card in the room says exactly what the options are and does not editorialise about the planet, because a hotel that lectures a guest about towels while running a heated pool has not thought hard enough.
Four people
The mill, the laundry, the housekeeper who makes it, and the housekeeper who checks it — not the same person, and never on the same day, which is the only reliable quality control we have found in twenty-five years of trying.
