Laundry services and experiences while travelling

[Joolz49]

When travelling for more than just a few days, one of the most important items on the checklist along CarPark View, Room Upgrade, Executive Lounge Freebies, is the Laundry.

I would put Laundry as the number one amenity, It is often a make or break for me.

I hate Hotel Laundries which charge by the piece.

Self service Laundry onsite is a plus as is an easily accessible offsite laundromat. And sometimes even a pickup/drop off service. Increasingly short stay apartments have been my go to because of this one amenity. No amount of chain hotel status (which may toss you a free laundry item or three) will beat that.

What laundry services do you use and what have been your experiences while travelling.

For those doing trip reports, I would appreciate a laundry report as well... thanks

Also should I create a "Laundry Trip Report" and maybe move this there?

I agree - we enjoy cruising but the bane of my life is ships without a laundry... Holland America sometimes have them, but RC never do. Ship laundry services are even dearer than hotels, so we refuse to use them. Using up some COVID cruise credits soon, so I'll be packing pegs and a small umbrella style hanger and using the line in the bathroom.

 

[Pushka]

I agree - we enjoy cruising but the bane of my life is ships without a laundry... Holland America sometimes have them, but RC never do. Ship laundry services are even dearer than hotels, so we refuse to use them. Using up some COVID cruise credits soon, so I'll be packing pegs and a small umbrella style hanger and using the line in the bathroom.

Viking has washers and dryers. Four on each deck and everything is free including safe soap. There's even a TV in the laundry room. And their laundry prices aren't bad either.

 

[Quickstatus]

RC never do.

Why would cruise ship not have self service laundry?

 

[Joolz49]

Why would cruise ship not have self service laundry?

Captive audience - they can then charge high prices for their laundry service - and do.

 

[bashworth]

Generally only travel with easy to wash clothes (never things like denim jeans).
I take 3 plastic clothes hangers to dry shirts and a multi size rubber plug.
My wife takes detergent sheets, whereas I usually use the room shampoo as a detergent.
Western Countries I usually find a laundrette without too much trouble. . . Google Maps is my friend.
Developing countries I can normally get a bag of washing done for $3-4 dollars.
Best cruise line for washing has been Oceanic with 3 free washing machines and large tumble driers on each deck.
We have travelled for up to 13 weeks without paying any outrageous laundry fees.

 

[Quickstatus]

San Francisco

Lots within a short walk of Union square. Need to avoid the landmines though

 

[Pushka]

Why would cruise ship not have self service laundry?

Many don't. Celebrity doesn't.

 

[jastel]

It seems we all do similar things to wash clothes but just some do it more often than others.

How about a Laundry Problems list?

Machines eat the coins and dont work

Cant get correct coins or soap.

Push wrong machine number on control panel and pay for somebody elses washing.

Always use top loaders if possible, a front loader in Germany stopped mid wash and took me 2+ hours to get my clothes back as the door wouldnt open and it was full of water. Luckily wasnt in any particular hurry that day.

You put the soap in the wrong slot and its still there after the wash.

You cheap out and use the hotel shampoo and get bubbles everywhere.

Clothes come out covered in somebody else's tissues or other cough.

One laundry had a recent fire in the drier, washing was allowed while tradies fixed it. My mate was on a bench near the back when half the inside ceiling roof fell down on him, covered in soot but not hurt.

You are 1 minute late getting back and your load has finished but someone dumps it on the table if you are lucky...or the floor if you are not.

The local homeless guy/weirdo decides you need hear about all his problems.

 

[Pushka]

It seems we all do similar things to wash clothes but just some do it more often than others.

How about a Laundry Problems list?

Machines eat the coins and dont work

Cant get correct coins or soap.

Push wrong machine number on control panel and pay for somebody elses washing.

Always use top loaders if possible, a front loader in Germany stopped mid wash and took me 2+ hours to get my clothes back as the door wouldnt open and it was full of water. Luckily wasnt in any particular hurry that day.

You put the soap in the wrong slot and its still there after the wash.

You cheap out and use the hotel shampoo and get bubbles everywhere.

Clothes come out covered in somebody else's tissues or other cough.

One laundry had a recent fire in the drier, washing was allowed while tradies fixed it. My mate was on a bench near the back when half the inside ceiling roof fell down on him, covered in soot but not hurt.

You are 1 minute late getting back and your load has finished but someone dumps it on the table if you are lucky...or the floor if you are not.

The local homeless guy/weirdo decides you need hear about all his problems.

Front loaders can be extremely problematic. Once had one do about five hours of washing as the door wouldn't release. I'd take out someone's clothes if they weren't back. And expect others to. We have a mesh bag that everything goes into so it's an easy pull out. Shirts get hand washed or laundry.

 

[I love to travel]

It seems we all do similar things to wash clothes but just some do it more often than others.

How about a Laundry Problems list?

Machines eat the coins and dont work

Cant get correct coins or soap.

Push wrong machine number on control panel and pay for somebody elses washing.

Always use top loaders if possible, a front loader in Germany stopped mid wash and took me 2+ hours to get my clothes back as the door wouldnt open and it was full of water. Luckily wasnt in any particular hurry that day.

You put the soap in the wrong slot and its still there after the wash.

You cheap out and use the hotel shampoo and get bubbles everywhere.

Clothes come out covered in somebody else's tissues or other cough.

One laundry had a recent fire in the drier, washing was allowed while tradies fixed it. My mate was on a bench near the back when half the inside ceiling roof fell down on him, covered in soot but not hurt.

You are 1 minute late getting back and your load has finished but someone dumps it on the table if you are lucky...or the floor if you are not.

The local homeless guy/weirdo decides you need hear about all his problems.

Or you can't follow the instructions in a foreign language

 

[leilajake]

Cruises are like that. Some have self serve laundries which are fabulous. Our next cruise has four washers and dryers on six decks, the soap etc is automatic and free. Some cabins get free laundry, we are in one of those at Christmas time. I always look for a washer in AirBNB as well. I'll take photos of the ship laundry, I plan to use it . On embarkation day in fact.

Cruise and hotel laundry prices are crazy!! Almost cheaper to go and buy the item new and throw out the old!! When travelling thru Europe (Italy, France, Spain & Portugal) last year with friends every week or so we would find a Laundrette/Dry cleaners and they would usually for a LARGE bag crammed full for about 10Euro and that was wash/dried/folded. Best of all it was normally same day service too if you got it in before 10am. And seriously some items were so well folded that we swear they were ironed!. We usually used Facebook/Google to check their reviews but all were amazing. Some even offered drop off and pick up for an extra few dollars.

 

[RooFlyer]

Have been travelling in Europe for a bit over 2 weeks now - mainly single nights at any one place.

Have been using the Scrubba bag up to now.

TBH, its not much different from washing in the sink. You can only get max of 2 shirts and a couple of pairs of undies at a time and even with one shirt, it tends to 'ball' and so the dimpled scrubbing surface isn't very effective.

I didn't attempt to do long trousers in the Scrubba, although you could leave dirty jeans to soak in the bag for a while to compensate for the lack of agitation.

It is less messy than washing in the sink, but unless the sink is small and the bathroom 'precious', much of a muchness.

Last night, I just did shirts and undies in the bathroom sink as I left the Scrubba in my bag in the car and couldn't be bothered going and getting it.

I will pack again on a long trip but for me, in hotels its not a must-have. The manufacturer does seem to emphasise outdoorsy type of use and I can see that it would be really good down by the creek.

 

[Pushka]

Have been travelling in Europe for a bit over 2 weeks now - mainly single nights at any one place.

Have been using the Scrubba bag up to now.

TBH, its not much different from washing in the sink. You can only get max of 2 shirts and a couple of pairs of undies at a time and even with one shirt, it tends to 'ball' and so the dimpled scrubbing surface isn't very effective.

I didn't attempt to do long trousers in the Scrubba, although you could leave dirty jeans to soak in the bag for a while to compensate for the lack of agitation.

It is less messy than washing in the sink, but unless the sink is small and the bathroom 'precious', much of a muchness.

Last night, I just did shirts and undies in the bathroom sink as I left the Scrubba in my bag in the car and couldn't be bothered going and getting it.

I will pack again on a long trip but for me, in hotels its not a must-have. The manufacturer does seem to emphasise outdoorsy type of use and I can see that it would be really good down by the creek.

I've used it twice now and maybe it's just easier to use the sink as well. I did use the ships washer and dryer just now and well, that's the best. Then I read there's a mysterious undies knicker (see what I did there) running amok on the deck 6 laundry.

 

[Katie]

I used a local service in Seattle called WeWash24. Pick up from downtown Seattle and return in 24hrs.

My only problem was collecting the laundry from the hotel front desk (Hotel 1000). The laundry was delivered around lunch time (I had SMS or email alerts about it). I went to reception twice that evening, they couldn't find it. I went back down the next day, still can't find it. We were checking out that day and going to Portland ... I told the staff we'd used an outside service multiple times.

Eventually Mr Katie suggested I show them the type of bag I had our dirty laundry in. I didn't have another of those bags, but it was from a shop where I'd bought some thermals and randomly they'd given me a sticker along with my purchases. So, I went to reception with the sticker, still no dice. Got a phone call from reception a short time later, the person I'd shown the sticker to had been into the storage room, and found our clean laundry, in that shopping bag, sitting there. Sigh.

 

[dajop]

In Brussels a couple of weeks ago, found three laundromats near to the hotel, all <5 mins walk. As they were so close, was able to weave it in with morning activities ... I returned to the hotel for breakfast during the wash cycle and then again for shower/shave during the drying cycle. Only complaint was the backwards technology, go to many laundromats in Australia, they accept card payments, email receipts and often have free wi-fi and online monitoring of machine status. None of this in these three.

 

[SYD]

We just left an AirBnB in SAN that included commercial but industrial strength sized front load washer and seperate smart dryer. Completed each smallish load in about 1 hr without shrinkage!

 

[Pushka]

If using sinks rather than scrubba you just need to hope there is a functional sink plug.

 

[Quickstatus]

Eventually Mr Katie suggested I show them the type of bag I had our dirty laundry in.

The Laundryheap people ask customers to use a disposable bag for the outbound. On return the clothes are in a Laundryheap bag.

 

[bashworth]

If using sinks rather than scrubba you just need to hope there is a functional sink plug.

A multifit sink plug lives in my toilet bag. Only $3.50 (from Bunnings) and paid me back many times over.

 

[Quickstatus]

functional sink plug

multifit sink plug l

I would never have considered a sink plug to be an essential travel item.
Informative

You mean one of these?