Laundry & Dry Cleaning at DoubleTree by Hilton Ras Al Khaimah.

A fortnight of T-shirts, jeans and gym wear piles up fast. We weigh rather than count: sixty dirhams covers six kilos, ninety-nine covers twelve, and anything heavier adds twelve per kilo. It comes back folded the following day, sorted into tops, bottoms and sportswear.

Meeting officials or clients this week? Fifteen dirhams covers a kandura or a business shirt, fifty a two-piece suit and forty a sherwani. Anything we pick up before midday may be ready again that evening, starched or soft as you prefer.

When clothes are clean and only creased from the wardrobe, pay for the iron alone: nine dirhams per shirt, twelve per kandura or pair of trousers, seven per ghutra. All of it lands back at the hotel by the next day.

Rooms here come with hotel bedding, so this card is for people renting flats near Al Nakheel and the Free Zone. Expect eighteen dirhams per sheet, seven per pillowcase, six per towel and fifty for a duvet, with oversized duvets taking two days.

Office leathers lose their shine and mall-walking trainers turn grey. Fifty-five dirhams restores either; sandals cost forty-five, boots eighty-five, and a protective spray adds twenty. Plan on two to four days.

Airport trolleys scuff a briefcase, and a backpack that carried documents all week picks up marks. Either is forty-five dirhams, a duffel sixty-five and a medium suitcase one hundred and thirty, back within three to five days.

A kandura from the souq that sits too long, or trousers that need taking up before a meeting. Changing a kandura length or sleeve costs forty dirhams, as does a trouser hem, and our tailors need two to three days.

Meant for apartments along Al Jazah Road rather than hotel rooms. Synthetic rugs are charged at twenty dirhams per square metre and wool at twenty-six; curtains cost twenty, or twenty-five with blackout lining, and everything is ready in three days.

Some families stay in the city for a wedding in Ras Al Khaimah. A plain bridal gown costs from two hundred and fifty dirhams and a heavily beaded one from four hundred and fifty; a storage box is two hundred and ten. Expect one to two weeks.

Exhibitors at the Exhibition Centre down the road sometimes bring a character for their stand. Small, medium and large costumes cost two hundred, two hundred and thirty and two hundred and fifty dirhams, plus thirty for each head or glove set.

Children on a city break rarely sleep without their teddy. Washing one costs fifty-five dirhams if it is small, seventy if medium and one hundred and twenty if large, and the toy is home again within two or three days.

Furnished flats in Al Nakheel often come with removable sofa covers that tenants must return clean. Thirty-five dirhams covers a standard one, forty a large one, and cushion covers range from ten to twenty, all in two or three days.

Visitors flying in from colder countries tend to pack leather. A biker or bomber jacket costs one hundred and fifty dirhams, a coat or blazer one hundred and thirty, and small goods one hundred, with three to five days needed.