So I went back and looked at the numbers.
I compared March, one of their stronger months earlier in the year, with August.
Here’s what I found:
| Measure | March | August | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rooms Sold | 6,078 | 4,381 | ↓ 28% |
| Laundry Processed | 57,319 lbs | 52,785 lbs | ↓ 8% |
| Pounds per Occupied Room | 9.43 | 12.05 | ↑ 27.8% |
| Cost per Occupied Room | $5.19 | $7.09 | ↑ 36.6% |
But then I found something even more interesting.
| Measure | March | August |
|---|---|---|
| Duvet Covers | 116 | 479 |
| Special Items | 126 | 332 |
Combined, those items increased from 242 to 811, more than 3X.
So while occupancy dropped 28%, laundry volume only dropped 8%.
That immediately changed the question.
Instead of asking:
“Why did laundry get more expensive?”
The better question became:
“Why are we processing so much more linen per occupied room?”
That’s an important distinction.
CPOR tells you what happened.
Pounds processed per occupied room can help you understand why it happened.
Sometimes controlling laundry costs isn’t simply about negotiating a lower price per pound.
It’s about understanding linen consumption, housekeeping practices, duvet-change frequency, special items, par levels, and ultimately where the linen is going.
This is also why I enjoy digging into the numbers with our customers.
When a customer asks a good question, our job isn’t to be defensive about the bill.
Our job is to help find the answer.
And sometimes the numbers tell a much bigger story than the invoice.