Your hotel development or rehabilitation project is almost complete. Only three steps are left: receiving your furniture, fixture, and equipment (FF&E) deliveries, assembling items, and installing them.
This guide explains how to make the FF&E delivery and installation processes fast, efficient, and effective.
What Does Hospitality FF&E Mean?
FF&E is a common design industry acronym, incorporating the first letters and ampersand for furniture, fixtures, & equipment. This typically includes anything not permanently attached to the hotel structure.
Many components of a hotel’s interior design and operation are considered FF&E, including:
- Case goods furniture
- Tables and chairs
- Lamps and other freestanding lighting fixtures
- Desks
- Televisions and other tech accessories
- Shelving and detached storage units
- Beds and bedding
- Window treatments
- Artwork
- And more.
FF&E plays a significant part in any hospitality development or rehabilitation project and in delivering a comfortable and satisfying guest experience.
How to Make FF&E Delivery, Assembly, and Installation Fast and Easy
Hotel furniture, fixtures, equipment delivery, assembly, and installation must be carefully planned. Most hotel FF&E projects are large undertakings involving many rooms, types of spaces, and configurations. Each project has its unique challenges.
Here are the steps you must take to ensure your FF&E installation is successful.
Hotel FF&E Delivery and Assembly
The FF&E delivery and assembly processes for hospitality properties can be a logistical nightmare, especially for larger hotels, urban lodgings, and resorts. Not only do you want your items delivered to the right places on time and assembled correctly, but you also want to make sure items are free from nicks, scratches, and other blemishes and that hotel property isn’t damaged.
Use this checklist to ensure your hospitality furniture, fixture, and equipment delivery and assembly team is up to the job. Make sure they can:
- Safely store items and shift delivery dates if construction is delayed
- Provide a complete delivery, assembly, and placement plan
- Effectively communicate through modern systems
- Access the equipment needed to handle the scope of your project
- Meet your project timelines
- Efficiently unpack, assemble, and clean up
- Properly document, track, and report your complete order
- Assemble all types of furnishings, fixtures, and equipment
- Prove they successfully executed projects similar to yours.
Ensure you check the safety record of the firms you’re considering doing business with. Transferring items from delivery trucks to guest rooms and other lodging spaces is dangerous. Every stairwell, elevator, narrow hallway, and door frame is an obstacle that can cause injuries and damage. An experienced installation team will know how to move heavy and awkward FF&E through tight spaces safely.
Doing your due diligence will help ensure your hotel furniture, fixtures, and equipment are delivered on time without damage and assembled correctly.
Hotel FF&E Set Up
The typical hotel room is under 350 square feet. Almost one-quarter of that can be taken up by two queen-sized beds. That space gets eaten up quickly when you factor in all the living, comfort, and luxury amenities today’s hotel guests demand. Add other FF&E and a hotel room can quickly go from feeling spacious to cramped.
While you and your design team may have a vision of a perfect guest room or common area in your hospitality property, the reality is that the actual case goods installation could diminish your vision of perfection.
Your hotel FF&E provider can help prevent unexpected surprises when placing items in spaces. An experienced one like The Stroud Group can work closely with you to select items that will fit properly in your hospitality spaces and create the esthetic and feeling you imagine. Plus, we’ll go above and beyond to ensure items can be delivered efficiently and moved through even the most challenging spaces. In addition, we will ensure your FF&E placement meets hotel safety and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations.
Hotel FF&E Delivery, Assembly, and Set Up: The Final Word
One of the critical issues hospitality companies face when it comes to furniture, fixture, and equipment delivery and setup is coordinating between manufacturers and suppliers, and delivery companies. Many issues can be avoided through good conversations that address the following:
- Location
- Travel routes
- Staffing and equipment required for the job
- Any special considerations for the installation
- The nuances of the design of each piece of FF&E
- Possible navigational challenges
- Potential installation issues
- Training requirements.
Another proven way to eliminate FF&E delivery, assembly, and setup issues is to work with a one-stop hospitality furnishings, fixtures, and equipment company like The Stroud Group. We will provide end-to-end service that will ensure a seamless experience from ordering items all the way through to final set up.