Hospitality · 3 min read
Airlaid or tissue? How to choose printed napkins for your restaurant or hotel
Airlaid, tissue, bamboo, cotton and cocktail napkins compared: which suits a fine-dine table, a café, a hotel breakfast or a bar, and how each takes a logo.
Jais Brandworks · Lower Parel, Mumbai ·
The napkin is the one thing on the table every guest picks up. It is also one of the cheapest places to put your logo, which is why it is often the first thing a restaurant or hotel brands. The hard part is choosing which kind.
Here is how the main options compare and where each one fits.
The short version
| Napkin | Feels like | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airlaid | Thick, soft, close to linen | Fine dining, hotels, banquets | Clean one or two colour logo |
| Tissue | Light paper, 2 or 3 ply | Casual dining, QSR, cafés | One or two colours |
| Bamboo | Soft, slightly textured | Cafés and delis with a natural look | One colour works best |
| Cotton | Real fabric, washable | Bistros, premium tables | Printed or woven logo |
| Cocktail | Small, folded, tissue | Bars, lounges, events | One or two colours |
Airlaid napkins
Airlaid is made from fluffed paper fibres bonded together, so it comes out thick, soft and strong. It feels close to a cloth napkin but is used once, so there is no laundry and no stained linen to replace.
It is what most hotels and better restaurants use when they want the table to feel premium without the cost and work of linen. It also holds up well to a full meal, where tissue can tear.
On print, airlaid takes a clean one or two colour logo. A simple mark in a corner looks best. Very fine lines and small text can soften slightly because the surface has some texture.
Tissue napkins
Tissue is the everyday napkin. It is light, it comes in 2-ply or 3-ply and it is the most economical way to have your logo on every table. For a busy casual restaurant, a café or a quick-service counter, it is usually the right call.
3-ply is noticeably softer and stronger than 2-ply. If your food is messy, like biryani, burgers or anything with gravy, go for 3-ply.
Bamboo and cotton
Bamboo napkins suit cafés and delis that want a natural, earthy look. They pair well with kraft packaging. Cotton napkins are real fabric and get washed and reused, so they make sense for a bistro or a premium table where the napkin is part of the setting.
Cocktail napkins
These are the small folded napkins that go under a drink or alongside bar snacks. In a bar they get seen constantly, in hands and in photos, so they are worth branding even if nothing else on the bar is. Pair them with printed coasters.
An airlaid cutlery pouch: napkin and cutlery in one piece. Brand shown is a sample.
Think about cutlery pouches too
If you lay tables in advance, a cutlery pouch holds the napkin and cutlery together in one branded piece. It is faster for your staff, it looks tidy and the cutlery stays clean until the guest sits down. Hotels and banquet halls use them a lot for buffets and room service.
Colour and size
Napkins come in white and in coloured stock. A coloured napkin in your brand colour with a white or dark logo can look very good, but check that the colour won’t transfer onto hands or clothes when wet. We tell you which stocks are safe for that.
For size, most dinner tables use a larger napkin folded into a quarter or an eighth. Cafés and counters use a smaller one. If you fold napkins a particular way, tell us, and we place the logo so it shows on the folded face instead of disappearing inside the fold.
How we help
Send us your logo and tell us what kind of place you run. We suggest a napkin, set up the artwork for free and send a mockup. If you want to feel the options first, ask for a plain sample of airlaid and tissue side by side. That usually settles it.
If you are setting up a whole table, our restaurant opening print checklist covers what else goes with the napkin, and the hotel branding checklist does the same for hotels.
