As a hotel owner, you have your choice of countless hospitality casegood manufacturers. You also have plenty of installation companies to choose from. Between the two, you’ll have your casegoods order covered from start to finish.
What’s rare, however, is to find a hotel casegoods furniture manufacturer that also handles FF&E (fixtures, furniture, & equipment) installation.
A unicorn in FF&E procurement, a combination casegoods manufacturer and installer can be a saving grace for a major hotel construction or renovation project.
Why Your FF&E Manufacturer Should Install Your Hotel Casegoods
In FF&E procurement, consolidating your hotel furniture’s manufacturing and installation through the same entity makes the most sense. By working with a single company on both elements of your project, your order is opened up to several key benefits that save you time and money, including:
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Efficiency
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Accuracy
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Storage
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Product protection
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Logistics
1. Efficiency
With any major project or business venture, there’s generally a long period of planning, part of which includes a risk assessment. During this phase, you’ll identify potential risks and determine the best course of action to avoid them.
One area that can be problematic for a hotel casegoods project is the number of vendors hired. Remember: the more people involved in a project, the more likely it is something will go wrong. Why involve more suppliers or service providers in a project than necessary?
In addition, consolidating manufacturing and installation to a single entity minimizes potential communication problems. When you deal with a single hospitality furniture vendor, you’ll only need to track down one point of contact should questions or concerns come up.
2. Accuracy
An experienced casegoods manufacturer that also acts as the installer will design and build each piece of your order with installation in mind.
What’s a clue that your manufacturer/installer does this? It’ll make multiple site visits prior to starting on the job and provide you with:
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Detailed shop drawings of your furniture
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Proposed room layouts
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Blocking schematics and utility drawings
Though casegoods manufacturers and installers are not general contractors, they should think like one.
3. Storage
Nothing throws a wrench in the works for your casegoods project like a delay. And nothing compounds a delay more than having to find a place to keep your order until you’re ready to receive it.
In most cases, one-stop shops for casegoods manufacturing and installation have storage capabilities (albeit for a limited time). When you work with a single furniture vendor, you’ll have fewer concerns about delays or lag time between the furniture’s arrival and installation.
Most importantly, if your vendor is aware the project is going to have phases, it can plan manufacturing based on your delivery schedule. This prevents any damage that can happen from handling the pieces multiple times, especially when they’re kept off-site.
4. Product Protection
Another benefit to working with a single vendor for manufacturing and installation is the lack of “finger-pointing.”
There's no investigating whether your hospitality casegoods vendor or the installer is to blame for defects in the furniture. It's all one company.
5. Shipping
When you work with a single vendor for your hotel furnishings, you don't have to get involved with the logistics of getting the items to your property. They’ll handle:
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Coordinating freight
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Choosing a carrier
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Setting the delivery date/time
In short, they’ll take getting your new furnishings to your property off your plate -- you won’t have to add a shipping company to your project and coordinate everyone’s schedules.
Streamlining FF&E Installation & Manufacturing to a Single Source
There’s something to be said for simplification -- especially in a hotel project, no matter the size.
Using the same vendor for both manufacturing and installation can help reduce or eliminate many of the problems -- and headaches -- often associated with FF&E procurement.
Ever Wonder How Hotel Casegoods Are Made?
Explore the manufacturing process and its timeline step-by-step here:
This blog was originally published in 2018 and was updated to reflect current industry standards.
