I'll lose my concentration in negotiations.

It all depends on the hotel.
I always stay at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo which has one of the best laundry services anywhere. Stuff come backs perfect. They automatically fix broken buttons and call if they notice a small tear or hole in a garment (and usually fix it gratis).

If you're a member of the Imperial Club (no cost...just stay at least once/year), laundry is 50% off which makes it fairly reasonable (e.g. $2.00 for shirt...french cuffs neatly folded and clipped together).

"Much ado about nothing"......

For heavens sake, why all the bother???? Pardon me for seeming to be "common", but there is an obvious solution that has been mentioned:

Kmart...Walmart...Target...Macy's...any store for that matter... you can get undies very inexpensively, like 3 pair for $10 or less...use them once then throw them out if you don't want to wash them!!! You mentioned that you don't have time to go out and do this? Slip the concierge a nice tip, I'm sure they would be happy to oblige. And PLEASE stop putting underwear on the lampshades; clean or not, that's a gross thought.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by henryw:
[B] I know most ladies don't want to send them out for hygenic reasons.


What is that supposed to mean????

[This message has been edited by rrz518 (edited 06-09-2002).]

in any large US city you'll find tons of dry cleaners - in New York there often several in a one block radius. You can launder/dry clean cheaply at these places. In Europe its more difficult but they often have pick-up delivery service - so pick up the yellow pages and call.

It just has me SLIGHTLY concerned.....a supposedly professional, international business traveller doesn't have the wits to figure out basic laundry service and has to get the advice of the public?????

As I understand, they prefer to wash their own underwears as they do not want them to be handled by strangers. If not properly cleaned it may cause infection.

I wasn't asking for advice. I get by. I pay or buy more.
I was interested to know if there are enough frustrations out there which may influence the chians to improve the service or provide alternate solutions.

Some of the all-suite chains have self-serve laundry on the premises. I have used coin-op laundry at Embassy Suites and DoubleTree Guest Suites. (Does that brand even still exist now within the Hilton conglomeration? Not sure, but I did laundry there once.) When I was in a brand new Homewood Suites (another Hilton brand) a few months ago I remember them having laundry facilities. The downside to these hotels for many is that they typically aren't full service. They often don't have room service and sometimes not even a real restaurant. (The latter tends to cause the former.) I suspect as you go downscale from these chains to the extended-stay type suite places, they would also have self-serve laundry, as would the suite brands from Marriott.

I have run across an occasional normal hotel that has self-serve laundry, but the one I remember for sure was a Holiday Inn. It seems that most higher-end brands would not have such facilities, though, as it would be expected you can pay (or expense) their rip-off laundry prices.

[This message has been edited by CrazyOne (edited 06-11-2002).]