Hotels seeing red over orange sheets: Regenex’s ‘fake tan tax’ debate hits national media

But that’s what happened this week as Scriba client Regenex’s figures on the £1.8m cost of fake tan and heavy make-up to the UK hotel industry caught the nation’s imagination.

You read the story first in Laundry and Cleaning News International and Laundry and Cleaning Today.

The Mail on Sunday, Daily Star, Sunday Express and influential finance website This Is Money picked up on the woes of hospitality providers throwing away 224 tonnes of tan-streaked towels and bedding every year.

Next, this was the hot topic of conversation between hosts Ed Balls and Susannah Reid on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, which gets on average 610,000 viewers. 

The show even mocked up a tan-stained bed in the studio as they asked the question: “Should fake tanners have to pay more for a hotel room?”

Ed commented: “In my experience it does leave a brown tinge,” while Susannah suggested hotels should just put the linen in the wash. 

Love Island star Liberty Poole and TOWIE’s Harry Derbidge were in the studio to join the debate.

Liberty felt hospitality providers should provide a good service – and put up with the odd mark on their bedding and towels. However, Harry said he would have the courtesy not to jump into a hotel bed when freshly-coated in fake tan.

The issue has also been debated on BBC radio this week, with the idea of brown sheets mooted as one solution by Radio Sussex presenter Allison Ferns.

Regenex technical director Paul Hamilton said: “We’re used to making headlines now and then in the laundry, cleaning and even sustainability media, but this has been another level of interest.

“Though the coverage had a jokey feel, it’s clear we’re talking about a serious environmental issue. My phone hasn’t stopped ringing.

“If this attention helps more laundries get to know that Regenex can help them successfully clean tan-marked linen, that’s good news all round – including for the industry’s carbon footprint.”