Your hotel is someone’s home away from home. For this reason, your venue needs to provide a comfortable and enjoyable experience for your guests. We would recommend you do this through your hotel furniture, which we understand can be a big task.
For this reason, we’d like to set your mind to rest on at least one point – cost. We’ve pulled together a rough guide that you can follow for the cost of hotel furniture that you can expect across the industry. Read on below to find out more about what makes the pricing go up and how you can choose furniture to suit your budget.
There is a great difference across the industry in the pricing that is charged for hotel furniture. There are various reasons for this – it could be materials used, or the place of manufacture or even the style of the furniture you’ve chosen.
How does material affect the cost of my hotel furniture?
Across the board, whether we are talking about tables, table tops or chairs, timber will be the priciest option made available to you. A variety of timbers are used across the industry, ranging from Australian hardwoods, right through to Asian timbers. Furniture made from Australian hardwoods would be the costliest due to the limited resources and labour costs in Australia. Alternatively, many imported Indonesian or Indian timbers offer great quality, but will cost less than Australian made furniture with Australian wood. For all your chairs and stools, we would recommend a European Beech timber, which is strong and stable and has been the preferred timber for chairs since the 1800s. The bottom of the timber ladder would be the Asian timbers, which are cheaper, however they tend to not be hardy enough to endure the rough Australian weather extremes.
For your tables, an alternative could be to use a laminate or resin table top.
Laminate can either be compact laminate or pre-laminated. Pre-laminated table tops come in a wide range of colours and offer more value for money. The downfall for pre-laminated tops is that they can’t be used outdoors, whereas compact laminate can. Compact laminate tops are hardy, thin and weather-proof, but more costly than pre-laminated versions.
Resin table tops are strong and offer beautiful finishes. These table tops are the most cost-effective tables tops as the process to create the tops is simple and doesn’t require the use of solid, natural materials.
You might also be looking at table bases for your tops. When you look at the base options keep in mind that the material of your base will affect the price you pay.
Standard steel bases will tend to be the least expensive bases on the market. This is due to the material being abundant. Cast iron bases tend to be a little more costly as they require separate moulds for each base. Stainless steel bases would be the costliest base due to the additives that are used to make the product corrosion resistive. Any additions to steel products, such as powder coating or galvanising, will also drive the costs up.
When you choose your chairs and stools, timber is not the only option available. You might also look at upholstered options. These chairs and stools bring in classic comfort, however they are high on the price scale due to the materials that are used to create them. Depending on the frame of the chair and the material used to upholster the chair, upholstered options can vary in price. For example, a chair or stool with a timber frame will cost more than one with a steel frame. On the same line of thought, a chair or stool upholstered in leather will cost more than a chair or stool upholstered in a commercial vinyl.
Alternatively, you could opt for a polypropylene chair or stool. The prices for these chairs and stools vary depending on the design and style. Polypropylene products are injection moulded, meaning that the more complex designs require more complex moulds, which adds to the price. You may also find that some polypropylene chairs are much cheaper than others that look similar. The key to this is to check the country of origin. Not all countries maintain the tight control on the quality of the polypropylene used and it may fade or break down over time in the harsh Australian conditions.
The final option we have for chairs and stools is metal. Stools that are considered ‘metal’ can be made from mild steel, aluminium, brass and sometimes, although its rare, from stainless steel. As with almost any product, the more details in the design, the more the design will cost. Finishes such as chroming, galvanising and powder coating will also add to the price of the chair or stool.
Now we’ve covered off on the materials element of hotel furniture. The next feature we would recommend you look at for the costing, would be the style of your furniture.
How does style affect the cost of my hotel furniture?
Tables and seating options come in many different styles, and it mightn’t always cause an increase in price, however there are various features you should consider as they will increase the cost you pay.
For example, when you’re choosing your bar furniture, remember bar tables are big, bulky items. Size does cause an increase in price. The bigger the table, the more materials it requires to create, and the bulkier it is, the more it will cost to freight from the warehouse to your venue.
Other features on your bar tables may cause an increased freight cost, such as any fixed footrails or if the product is flat packed or assembled. Slab end bar tables will tend to cost you more due to the solid materials used to create the slab end style that you are paying for.
However, it isn’t only bar tables that you need to watch. Your bar stools will also have varied features that will mean that you may pay more.
For example, are you looking at bar stools with a back or without one? For obvious reasons, bar stools with a back will cost you more. They require more materials and labour, and therefore will cost you more to purchase.
Similarly, the height of the bar stool you choose will also affect the price. As a company that provides commercial grade furniture to the hospitality industry, we would always recommend you purchase furniture that is commercial grade. This does mean a change in the height of your stools. Domestic bar stools are lower than a commercial bar stool and therefore will cost less.
Other features, such as gas lift or the ability to swivel will also add to the price you pay. If you’re wanting to go the other way and not have your stools move at all, you can opt for fixed stools. These are bar stools that are concreted or bolted into the ground. Doing this will prevent your stools from flying away in the wind, however it will also add to the cost of your stools.
How does the place of manufacture affect the cost of my hotel furniture?
The biggest difference you will see across the industry with pricing will relate to the origin of the furniture. Different countries use different methods of production and often have varying standards of quality, which all affect the price that you will pay for your selected hotel furniture.
Often hotel furniture of Asian origin come at a lower cost due to being mass-produced in a factory with minimal costs and lower standards of quality. These warehouses produce masses of furniture daily with little attention paid to the quality of the products produced. Often the furniture is produced at a lower cost and therefore tend to sit further towards the lower end of the pricing spectrum.
European (Turkish, Italian, Bulgarian) manufacturers maintain tight quality control and therefore produce less products at a higher quality and, therefore, cost. Typically, European manufacturers come from a line of craftsmen who take pride in their work and pass their tricks of the trade down through their families. They’re experienced craftsmen whose workmanship is that of hand-crafted quality.
Furniture made here in Australia is great quality but will also tend to cost you much more than any imported furniture. This is due to a higher cost with the raw materials and a higher labour cost.
And now the choice is yours! If you’re still having a little trouble making the decisions about your furniture, give us a call today and one of our consultants will be more than happy to help you out.