It is that time of year again. You may be thinking last minute vacations, back to school shopping or the NFL pre-season. But for those of us in the hotel industry, it is that time of year to start thinking about off-season projects. With any project, proper planning prevents poor performance. Getting big ticket items like your case goods squared away and on order now will help avoid delays, confusion and extra costs. No one wants to get close to the finish line of a project only to find out that the furniture is going to take longer than they expected or budgeted for.
Unfortunately, this happens too often in our industry. Hoteliers require custom furnishings that are designed to their exact specifications. If they are ordered from an international conglomerate, manufacturing can be difficult to mitigate. There are communication challenges, design challenges, and quality control issues. Often, these aren’t noticed until hotel case goods actually arrive at their destination and you’re stuck with the mistakes.
Then there’s shipping. Not only can international shipping be costly, but it can also be delayed, late, or even canceled. There’s nothing like your shipment getting stuck at port for inspection when you’re supposed to be opening in a manner of weeks. Of course, you probably understand the problem all too well. Northland can offer a solution: hotel case goods that can be designed, manufactured, and shipped in 6-8 weeks. If that sounds like a pipe dream, it’s not. Here’s how it works.
Four Ways to Ensure Timely Hotel Case Goods
-
Get Ahead of Your Production Schedule
Of course, the first thing that can be done to ensure a timely production schedule is to get ahead of it. So often, hotels look at their furniture as an afterthought. Construction is ongoing and it has to be complete before furniture arrives and is installed on site. But that doesn’t mean you can’t order furniture well before it’s due to arrive. In fact, doing so will ensure your furniture manufacturer has time to design and manufacture the entire run for an on-time arrival.
The moment you have a design concept ready—and perhaps even before then—talk with a hospitality furniture manufacturer about their availability as well as their customizability. At Northland Furniture, we make customizable furniture to your exact specifications. Our design team is happy to meet with yours to discuss ways we can create customize pieces that will look absolutely stunning in your hotel lobbies or bedrooms.
-
Watch Out for Red Flags
There are several things you want to look for in a manufacturing company. The first is the absence of complication. For example, you know when you’re dealing with an international manufacturing team that there will be complications. There always is. Thankfully there are several ways you can avoid this. Here are just a few of the red flags you should look out for when choosing a hospitality furniture manufacturer:
- A language barrier—make sure your design team is on the same page as theirs. Otherwise, you might discover that things don’t turn out quite how you’d imagined them.
- International shipping—we’ve already mentioned this twice, and for good reason. International shipping comes with its fair share of red flags. Shipping delays are almost inevitable.
- Lack of communication—it’s important that both teams embrace communication so you are always aware of when your case goods will be ready and when they will be shipped.
-
Buy American
Northland Furniture goes the extra mile by manufacturing all of our hotel case goods in Bend, Oregon from North American sourced materials. In doing so we eliminate the element of surprise when it comes to manufacturing and shipping products on-time. With the current uncertainty surrounding the tariffs and imports, using a domestic manufacturer will reduce your stress and help your project flow smoothly.
With 6-8 week lead times and 10-year warranties on all of our hotel case goods, you can rest assured that your products will be designed, manufactured, and shipped in a timely fashion. Whether you need furniture for a hotel opening, reopening, or re-furnishing, there is nothing our project management team enjoys more than being able to get you everything you need in a timely manner.
-
Choose Blanket Shipping
Not only that, but we don’t mess around when it comes to furniture packaging. Many modern furniture manufacturers pack their product using cartons, styrofoam and plastic wraps. Not only are these damaging to the environment, but they incur huge disposal costs once on site. That is a hidden cost put directly on the hotelier. That’s why Northland Furniture relies solely on efficient, low-cost blanket wrapped shipping.
Blanket wrapping is more sustainable and more capable of protecting your products during shipping. And because we don’t have to ship your products far, we can get them to you in record time and without delay. If there ever is a cause for concern, our project management team does everything in their power to provide a smooth transition from the old furniture to the new, and to communicate with you about the project from start to finish.
Contact us to inquire about your hotel case goods needs.
