Recently, HomeAway.com conducted a focus group where we brought in travelers and talk about their travel experiences and specifically focused on accommodations. One of the most memorable amenities that the travelers noted about their stays in vacation rentals (cabins, condos, cottages, etc.) was, believe it or not, nice quality bed linens and towels.

Have you noticed that hotels have been playing up quality of their bed linens? It seems like a broad marketing approach that's working for them. And retailers are feeding from it as well. In every major department store and linen stores, you'll find a “hotel collection” of sheets. They're usually crisp colored, luxuriously soft and…expensive. While I'm not so sure that having the best linens is going to make or break your rentals, I do think having and advertising top-quality linens does make a difference to some guests.

When shopping for sheets there are so many choices and decisions to make. Most “hotel collections” I found were either Egyptian cotton or Sateen. While price will surely play a big part in which linens you choose to purchase, it's always nice to know what you're shopping for. Below you'll find some explanations of the various and often confusing descriptions of sheets.

Thread Count. Thread count is the number of threads used to weave one square inch of the fabric. It's often used as a gauge to measure the fabric quality. Higher thread counts mean a tighter weave, a softer and stronger fabric, and a finer quality. Typically 300-thread or above is what you would want to buy for your vacation rental.

Egyptian Cotton. Egyptian cotton is a general classification for strong, lustrous, long threaded 100-percent cotton. Egyptian cotton is known to be the highest quality, will have the least amount of pilling and will last for many years. While it will wash well and stand up to occasional bleaching, the downsides are that it tends to be very expensive, running about $200 and up per set, and it tends to wrinkle very easily.

Pima Cotton. Pima is essentially the American, budget version of Egyptian cotton. It is significantly less expensive than Egyptian cotton and won't last as long. But I wouldn't snub my nose at Pima cotton, they are still very nice, soft and more affordable version of the Egyptian cotton and Supima cotton and would work fine in your vacation rentals.

Percale. Percale is usually cotton or a cotton/polyester blend. The sheets are resistant to wrinkling and dry very quickly. But they're also thinner, tend to pill, don't hold up to bleaching and usually don't last very long. Some vacation rental owners actually prefer blended percale sheets because these they dry very quickly and since they are typically inexpensive, making it very affordable to replace sheets if they get stained or damaged.

I'd recommend buying light colored sheets for the beds in your second home that you can bleach if necessary.

While advertising Egyptian cotton sheets will likely brighten a few prospective renters' eyes, you might do just as well buying nice sheets and playing up descriptive words. The main point is to show your vacation home guests that you have nice bedding that will ensure them a restful night of sleep.

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