Rudloff Seeks New Products For Omni Properties

NEW YORK— When a deluxe hotel company decides to enhance and add on to its portfolio of properties, its lead purchasing executive has to get busy finding new goods with which to furnish the hotels. Such is the case for Dennis Rudloff, corporate director for purchasing for Omni Hotels, who was in the process of selecting and recommending goods to upper management for seven Omni properties in San Francisco; Los Angeles; Indianapolis; Atlanta; Tucson, AZ; Dallas; and San Antonio, TX. All properties, except for the one in San Francisco— which is a new conversion from an office building—are undergoing room renovation. HOTEL BUSINESS® caught up with Rudloff at the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show (IH/M&RS) in New York last month, as the purchasing executive met with representatives of carpeting, furniture and electronics companies in search of the latest available products. Rudloff has been in purchasing for 25 years; he has had stints with Ramada, Best Western, Adam’s Mark Choice Hotels and Studio Plus. He has been with Omni—which currently has 40 four-and-a-half star properties in its portfolio but aims to grow that number— for nearly three years. Joining Omni is an upward move Rudloff has enjoyed. “It’s opened me up to chandeliers and armoires,” said Rudloff as he stopped at the Uniforms To You booth at the show. He wanted to say hello to his new representative, who had just stepped away. Promising that he’d swing back, Rudloff headed over to the American of Martinsville booth, where he instantly noticed a new veneer on an impressive piece of furniture. It turned out to be mahogany. The topic instantly turned, however, to a much smaller piece of furniture to the right, out of which a flat screen tv was ascending with the help of an electronic lift. American of Martinsville representative Roy Mitchell noted that at the show he was getting visits from “a lot of people looking to put flat-screen televisions in their suites, against a wall.” But he also noted that flat-screen TVs would not become widely used in the hotel industry until their price comes down, which could happen, he said, if a company the size of Marriott International began buying them in volume. The eventual arrival of flat-screen TVs in guestrooms will mean that hotels will be able to use furniture that is smaller than armoires are now, which would be a good thing, he said, since “it’s difficult to ship armoires without their breaking; a smaller armoire for a plasma TV would be easier to ship,” he said. Leaving the booth, Rudloff said he was currently considering whether to go the route of the flat-screen TV for Omni’s hotels. “Zenith has a 27-inch flat-screen TV, do you do that, or a 32-inch round screen which gives a similar-sized picture?” he said, noting that each were similarly priced around $500. “With a flat screen screen, people will go ‘wow,’” he concluded. At the Pompeii Furniture booth, VP Perry Martin showed off a new line of “Santa Monica” style outdoor furniture, which he said was more retro in design for the Miami-based company than previous products. Martin said that he is noting a need for “sling”-style outdoor furniture (whose seating and backing units are covered with one sleek piece of material) for upscale hotels, rather than furniture with plastic strapping, which represents “the lower end.” Rudloff concurred. “It’s easy to design a really beautiful pool area and then realize afterward the furniture doesn’t really go with it,” he said. Martin said his delivery time for furniture is six to eight weeks, which Rudloff said is faster than others which can take up to 20 weeks. At the Signature Hospitality Carpets booth, Bob Thomas, vp of sales, said that he and Rudloff spend time discussing what Omni is looking to do overall at its properties. That prepares him for the times he will speak with buyers at individual Omni properties. “If someone at an individual hotel tries to cut the price [by going to a lower product