In previous posts we have covered several furniture asset management best practices including life cycle planning and working onsite. We have also touched on the premise that investing in high-quality furniture underpins good furniture asset management. When it comes to furniture there is a cost related to poor quality. Budget holders may be tempted to buy […]
Renovations, hotel furniture and sourcing domestically
As a specialist in furniture asset management for the hospitality industry, we like to keep track of news of renovations, updates and plans from brands, hotel owners and franchisees. Since the downturn of 2008 the industry continues to gain momentum and we have seen a strong year-on-year demand for furniture asset management services.
There are many reasons for this increase. If you’re one of our regular readers, then you will know that an increase in awareness of environmental impact has certainly driven sustainable objectives. Furniture asset management has become increasingly important to hotels as consumers and travelers become more ‘enviro-conscious’. There is also an undeniable fiscal impact, with furniture asset management frequently cutting budgets by up to 80 percent. Add to this blend the minimal downtime incurred by onsite work, and you quickly realize why so many organizations are turning to furniture asset management.
One area that is less frequently talked about, but is also a driver of furniture asset management, is a genuine demand for good furniture. And we mean good furniture. High quality, well-crafted items with strong joints and solid construction. No squeaks, gives and certainly no particleboard, chipboard or other low-quality ‘filling’ composite material. Finding such good quality furniture can be a challenge in a time when many individuals seem to have developed a ‘throw away’ attitude to furniture. The ‘rip and replace’ mentality was never a good decision. It was always an environmental and financial black hole for businesses and organizations. Travelers expect high-quality furniture and it’s imperative that the furniture we all invest in is comfortable, well made, built to last and fit for purpose.
Many brands choose to go a step further, and insist on buying from domestic suppliers. The USDA regulates the import of wood-based products, largely to prevent any disease, pest or environmental impact on the flora and fauna of the United States. But to us shipping new furniture from other parts of the globe adds unnecessary carbon footprint, costs and delays. We are strong proponents of buying furniture domestically from well-regarded suppliers, or at the very least knowing the source and the status of the wood assets we buy. This is about making a well-informed conscientious buying decision. We make no secret that we support and encourage buying domestic goods.
It’s also about understanding the wood that your existing furniture is made of. We have refinished softwoods and hardwoods of all different types. It is our job to know what a piece of furniture is made of and how to enhance the natural beauty of wood. Do you know what wood furniture you have and how it can best be preserved? And before you buy from that untested source, are you clear on the wood? Do you know whether or not that the Peruvian Walnut is endangered? Or if that African Blackwood has a ‘near threatened’ status? And if you buy composite materials including particleboard and chipboard instead, then it may have a very short ‘room life’ before it ends up as landfill.
Chances are your organization has already invested in high-quality wood furniture. Now you need to apply furniture asset management best practices to ensure that you are maximizing it. Please contact us today at marketing@thefinishingtouch.com to discuss your investment and how to protect it.
Operational Update: Best Western Fort Walton Beach Hotel
Here at The Refinishing Touch, our production crews are always looking for new and innovative ways to reuse quality existing furniture assets for the benefit of our clients. And with our project scope ranging from furniture refinishing, bringing pieces back to like-new condition and removing any signs of wear and tear, to re-upholstering assets, updating and modernizing headboards, chairs and other types of seating, our goal is to continually make our services better and more efficient.
One of our most recent renovation projects brought us to the Best Western Fort Walton Beach Hotel, in the sunshine state of Florida. The beautiful beachfront property features over 100 guestrooms, with a mini-refrigerator tucked away in a corner of each room. With summer tourism season fast approaching, the property called on The Refinishing Touch to remanufacture existing armoires, and transform the pieces into new side tables and top-of-the-line refrigerator cabinets – a project that would create zero landfill waste.
We started off with a bulky three-drawer television armoire, which we then cut into two separate pieces – one piece consisting of a three-drawer base, and the other a wooden frame to be fit for a fridge. From there, The Refinishing Touch refinished the wooden furniture assets, and added a stone solid surface to the base’s top, creating a sleek new dresser for the guestrooms. Then, the top portion of the former television armoire was restored into a new refrigerator cabinet, beautifully framing existing mini-fridges for each room.
The project prevented any wood from making its way into landfills, and demonstrated the environmentally-friendly and cost-saving potential furniture re-purposing offers. The Best Western Fort Walton Beach Hotel was able to simultaneously save on budget costs, time, carbon emissions and landfill waste by investing in our award-winning furniture asset management solutions – providing benefits to hotel management and guests alike.
For more information on how to re-purpose existing furniture at your own establishment, please email us today for a free quote. To book a stay and see our work firsthand, visit Best Western Fort Walton Beach Hotel’s website here.
Why refinishing hotel furniture makes ‘PIP’ easy
Hoteliers start your engines. The last few years have been tough for the hospitality industry, but hotels are finally setting off down the road to recovery. There’s good reason for owners to start feeling enthusiastic and optimistic about the opportunities ahead, but they still need to exercise caution. The road to recovery is not an easy one, nor is it straightforward. It’s winding, maddeningly unpredictable, and covered with obstacles and speed humps.
Take Product Improvement Plans (PIPs), for example. Hotels that are owned by a group or franchised are required to spend a significant portion of their budget on renovations, to bring the establishment in line with overall brand expectations. This could include replacing televisions in rooms with more up to date models, or updating worn or out-of-style hotel furniture.
During the darkest days of the recession, many hotels put elements of their PIPs on the backburner. And for the most part, hotel owners were okay with it –money was tight, and there was a general acceptance that certain improvements would have to wait. But suddenly PIPs are looking very important indeed. Brand owners are pushing their hotels hard to meet their plans and quickly get up to spec.
Which, for many establishments, is easier said than done. Things may be getting better, but the money still isn’t flowing like it used to.
But here at The Refinishing Touch we know that hotels can go a long way towards fulfilling their PIPs by making intelligent use of what they’ve already got. In our experience, it’s usually faster, and cheaper to refinish and repurpose existing furniture than order an entirely new set. This is something that The Refinishing Touch specialises in, and it’s something that we find ourselves doing more and more. Similarly, many companies ask us to repurpose furniture that is no longer needed – armoires for example – into new pieces that can help with their PIP.
Hospitality professionals need to start thinking very hard about their PIPs right now, because they represent one of the biggest obstacles on the road to recovery. But by planning ahead, and making use of existing resources such as hotel furniture, hotel owners should be able to steer round it and drive on to success.