NEW YORK— From carpeting to dressers and armchairs, FF&E vendors exhibiting at the IH/M&RS say 2005 has been a year of solid growth and express confidence that 2006 will be even stronger.
After a three-year downturn that only started to rebound in late-2004, hotels’ profitability has been up along with surging occupancies and ADR in many markets, making hotel owners more inclined to invest in property renovations. In the process, they’re creating more demand for FF&E and, consequently, benefiting FF&E vendors’ own bottom lines.
Two clouds are on the horizon, however. One concern is immediate, the other long term. Facing FF&E vendors right now is the rapidly rising cost of raw materials, specifically materials that are petroleum based. The escalation in prices is due to the recent run-up in the cost of fuel. Vendors have been forced to pass on their increased costs to customers. Manufacturing and construction-related industries generally are facing the same crisis.
Longer term, a concern is that the hotel new-construction pipeline, which has been at near historic lows, will suddenly shift into high gear. While FF&E vendors may benefit initially as more hotels are built, it can eventually create a supply-demand imbalance that could send the lodging industry into another downturn.
Among the items Furniture Design Studios is confident about going into 2006 is the new all-in-one dresser it’s exhibiting at the hotel show. In the same way, Shaw Hospitality’s Solar Shade line is a response to a current guestroom trend— all-white pillow-top beds— the all-in-one dresser is a response to another trend: the growth in popularity of flat-screen televisions as large as 42-inches.
“Unlike the traditional armoire, which enclosed the TV, the top of the dresser includes a frame in which the TV sits,” said CEO Craig Monaco. The unit, which comes in a choice of maple, birch, cherry, or more exotic woods, is 72-inches wide and 21-inches deep. The dresser itself is 33.5-inches high; on top of the dresser sits the TV.
The dresser itself can be customized by the hotel owner to include an electronic safe, minibar, or 16-cubic foot refrigerator. In addition, the unit contains two large overnight drawers for guests to store their clothing. Two other drawers are intended for amenities provided by the hotel such as a complimentary coffee maker or candy bars and potato chips, items that the hotel sells as an extension of the minibar.
Meanwhile, Inova, LLC, will be exhibiting two items from its Space Saving Solutions line that combines Murphy beds with either a desk or a sofa. In the age of the Westin Heavenly Bed, beds have become even more central to the guestroom. In Inova’s solution, the bed is concealed in a wall unit, allowing guests to enjoy use of either the desk or sofa.
According to CEO Jerry Blackwell, rooms with the company’s beds and traditional beds can double as suites for single guests or traditional two-bed guestrooms for families. “Either solution gives hotels flexibility to change the mix of their room inventory from day to day,” Blackwell said.“Sometimes the beds are transformed by the hotel staff and other times by the guest.”
MTS Seating, which markets armchairs, side chairs, and barstools, will be on hand with its Contempo Collection that blends Euro design with American quality.
Carpet manufacturer Shaw Hospitality, for example, goes into the show confident in its prospects of its Rave Collection of wall-to-wall carpet that, if bound and surged, would also work as well as area rugs. “The line, which is intended for guestrooms, comes in three textures— a heavy pile, a corduroy-like pile, and a pile that resembles needlepoint. Available in seven colors, it has an herbal wash or tea stain effect,” said vp, Charley Knight.
According to Knight, the carpet is made of 100% nylon, though it looks as though it were pure wool or silk. Consequently, it’s much more cost effective than it appears.
A second line Shaw is promoting is called Solar Shade. This is a carpet with a large scale, 12-foot by 12-foot pattern. By adjusting the scale of the pattern, Knight said the carpet can work well in corridors as well as guestrooms. “Similarly, it has an area rug-like effect, so if the scale is adjusted the right way, it can work as an area rug in guestrooms.” It’s available in five colors.
According to Knight, Solar Shade’s bigger-than-usual pattern is a design response to the increasing popularity of pillow-top beds. “The signature beds being launched by the national brands are uniformly all white, which gives us an opportunity to do bigger patterns on the floor. The carpet is no longer competing with the bedspread,” he said.
(See story above for more introductions from Shaw.)
As in bath design and bedding, FF&E vendors report that guest expectations of how contemporary and stylish the guestroom should be are rising as people’s level of design sophistication increases. The growth in popularity of national home furnishings retail chains such as Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel has fueled the trend. No longer are guests willing to accept that the design of the hotel lobby or room where they stay will be on par with the design of their home interiors; rather, they expect the hotel design to seriously surpass the residential.
Owners who understand this not only invest heavily in renovations and upgrades, but they hand the assignment to a more accomplished level of designer than they might have used previously. In addition, hotel companies are starting to take the marketing of their hotel’s FF&E to the next level— offering items available in the hotel, many of which have been custom-made for the property— for purchase by the public.
Of course, where did guests first get to experience the product, whether it be a chair, lamp, or desk, but during their hotel stay? “It just makes sense that guests, getting to try out the furnishings during a two-or-three day stay, decide they’d like to have favorite items in their homes on a permanent basis,” said Robin Uler, Marriott International senior vp, food and beverage, spas, and retail services.
Consequently, Marriott, Hilton Hotels, and the W Hotels brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide are among the chains that have introduced merchandise catalogs and Internet sites to help market their wares.
