Why Discussing Your Hotel FF&E Project Budget Is
a Good Idea
Your project budget is a significant factor when planning a new hotel construction or renovation. It shapes the decision-making process from the start and can be catastrophic if not considered at each step.
Discussing your hotel project budget with your FF&E is essential; in this blog, we will explain why.
Your Hotel Project Budget
An important part of any hotel project is determining the budget based on experience, research, and due diligence. The hotel brand team can often share a generic per-key amount in the documents as part of the franchising steps to give you a starting point.
In your budget, it’s critical to include all the necessary components, including sales tax, freight, and labor costs for the installation. If you’re budgeting for a renovation project, remember to include the removal and disposal of your existing furnishings.
Also note design and architectural fees, project management costs, and the price of the actual FF&E products and potential customizations, any applicable tariffs, warehousing, and installation charges.
Discussing Your Hotel FF&E Project Budget
Discussing one’s project budget with design and FF&E providers can be uncomfortable for some hoteliers. But keeping it confidential, especially from the team supporting you in your hotel project, just makes everything more complex and time-consuming. All of the players involved in your project need to understand your expectations, limitations, and assumptions – how you arrived at your budget – so you can all be on the same page together.
Here’s who to involve in your hotel project budget discussions:
- Designers
- Architects
- FF&E Providers
- General Contractors
- Sub-contractors
- Installers and Assigned Personnel
When discussing a new build project with your team, share your Responsibility Matrix. This document breaks down who on the team is responsible for which scopes and deliverables.
Often, your FF&E provider will price out hard flooring, wall coverings, direct-wire lighting, and large appliances or equipment that the General Contractor has included in their part of the budget. When this happens, the overall budget amount has duplicate items.
In contrast, when everyone involved in the project clearly understands what they are providing, it is much easier to provide accurate and timely information.
The Importance of Discussing Your Hotel FF&E Project Budget
Having this discussion up-front saves time and work for everyone. Otherwise, without clear budget guidelines, designers or procurement providers may propose products outside your price range. Then it is time-consuming and causes delays to later go back through the process and find products or services more in line with what you need.
Researching and receiving prices from suppliers can be a slow process already due to talent shortages manufacturers are experiencing. It is always easier to ask a supplier for specific products endorsed by the brand or customized by the design team rather than pricing out multiple items that then may be deemed useless to the project if not within budget guidelines.
Instead of requiring your team to guess and then go back and forth due to an elusive budget, Innvision recommends having early and open communication about your expectations and budget. This will give them the tools they need to succeed.
At Innvision, we support our clients during the budgeting phase and know the right questions to ask to get you what you need for the right price. We are experts in brand requirements and have constant interaction with our vendors. That partnership gives us an advantage from earliest stages of every type of project. Finally, our industry knowledge helps us build a timeline and stay ahead of future price increases to help you make the best use of your project budget.
To learn more about how Innvision can help make your next hotel project a success, reach out!
