About bed runners
If you have checked into a Hotel in the recent few years, you have probably noticed the strange rectangular piece of fabric draped across the end of your bed and wondered, what is this? What is its purpose? This decorative fabric accessory that drapes across the bottom of a quilt cover is a Bed Runner - also referred as a Bed Scarf. Just as men and women accessorize their clothing with scarves, dressing a bed in one, adds flair to an otherwise dull-looking set of sheets.
Not so long ago, hotels covered their beds in bedspreads (or its close relation the coverlet), in prints, patterns, solids, chenille, quilts and other fabrics. Those old-school quilted bedspreads - in addition to being ugly - were rarely washed. Thankfully most hotels stopped using full bed spreads or coverlets, replacing them with solid-colored sheets, usually pure white, and topped those with a duvet and bed runner. Incidentally, not many housekeepers know that a bedspread is designed to meet the floor, whereas coverlets typically fall a couple of inches below the mattress.
A bed runner is a small, long piece of decorated cloth used to enhance the appearance of an otherwise plain bed. While some prefer the look solely for aesthetic reasons and would choose it even if it were more expensive than traditional decorative bedding, the primary reason to use one in the hospitality industry is to reduce costs while keeping the room attractive. Instead of spending huge amounts on redecorating, rooms can be freshened up with a new coat of paint and a bed runner that complements the colour. An expensive bedspread with a hard to remove noticeable stain can no longer be used; whereas, a more affordable bed runner can simply be discarded and replaced.
Plain white linen not only costs less initially, it's easy and cheaper to launder than decorative linen. Delicate or decorative fabrics often can't be bleached, and are easily damaged by mechanical washing machines - they simply don't last as long. However, white blankets, comforters, and bedspreads are easy to clean and sanitize, don't fade, and still look good even after many washing cycles.
Unlike a fully decorated bed, plain white linen doesn't look that attractive. So bed runners, which are small and only used for decoration, will enhance the appearance of the room while not requiring frequent laundering (only when obvious spots appear), and , being small, are easy and cheaply manufactured. When they do need to be laundered, several of them can fit into a load, and that load can be run on a gentle cycle - the sheer volume of bedclothes that must be laundered would prevent large bedspreads from this care, but the relatively smaller volume allows an occasional load of runners to take more time and perhaps a more expensive detergent process to clean without causing delays in resetting rooms.
Further, some hotel guests prefer clean white linen - which is easier to inspect and note stains or previous usage - to patterned linen for personal hygiene reasons. Bed runners add touches of decoration while still exhibiting cleanliness for picky travelers.
Some guests assume that it is there to protect the bed from dirty items like your luggage or your shoes. Your luggage might be dirty because it touched the floor, so if you want to place it on the bed and to open it, this piece of cloth will prevent the bed sheets getting dirty. It is the same thing with shoes. Suppose you want to lie down for a few minutes and you're already dressed. You can lay your feet on that piece of cloth and not in the sheets.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
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