Landlords offering furnished housing are finding the tanning lotions leave indelible marks on their bedding, which is costing them thousands of pounds to replace.
One Cardiff landlord, John Winter, houses 400 students in furnished rooms – many of whom are women who love fake tan beauty products.
The landlord could not understand why his bedding was becoming so regularly soiled and needed replacement until he realised the students had a passion for fake sun tans.
Now, he has changed the bedding from pocket spring mattresses to memory foam. The latter come in washable mattress covers.
The problem is a massive headache for the landlord – last year 220 mattresses were ruined by fake tanning products, and this year another 147 have been replaced.
Beauticians who supply some of the tans have suggested the students wear pyjamas instead of sleeping naked may stop some of the soiling.
"John didn't have a clue what the strange orange marks were. They were roughly body shaped and you could see the wrist, ankle and shoulder areas,” said a spokesman for the landlord.
"There are a high percentage of females out of the 400 students we house, so the incidence was much higher, and you could see the fake tanning products in nearly every room."
The landlord explained that new mattress covers cost £35 each on top of the expense of replacing the pocket sprung mattresses.
Depending on the type of fake tan used by the student, even now some of the colouring seeps through the bedding and into the memory foam mattress.
“I can’t see the problem disappearing until the trend for fake tans ends,” said the landlord’s spokesman.
