Counting back from opening night: when to order FF&E

Most furniture that arrives late was ordered late. The plant didn’t fail. The schedule simply never had room for the steps every custom order needs. If you start from your opening date and count backwards, you can see the problem months before it becomes one.

The five blocks of time

A typical hospitality package moves through five blocks, and each one has a floor you can’t compress much.

1. Spec review, about 1 week. We confirm quantities, finishes and standards, and flag anything that puts the date at risk. A complete spec package makes this faster; a floor plan and a mood board make it slower.

2. Shop drawings and mock-up, about 4 weeks. Drawings take 10 working days, revisions take as long as decisions do, and a mock-up takes 2–3 weeks to build. This is the block teams most often underestimate, because it depends on people outside the plant.

3. Production, 8 to 14 weeks. Lighting is quickest, guestroom case goods sit in the middle, and fully custom public-space pieces take longest.

4. Freight, 1 to 2 weeks within the continental US.

5. Installation and punch list, 1 to 3 weeks, depending on room count and access.

Add them up for a standard guestroom package and you get roughly 19 weeks. That’s the number to put on your project schedule as the latest date to sign a purchase order.

Where schedules go wrong

The usual failure isn’t production running long. It’s the approval block stretching while the opening date stays put. A mock-up waits two weeks for the brand’s design team to visit; a fabric is swapped after the drawings are signed; the purchase order sits with finance. Each delay is reasonable on its own. Together they eat the buffer.

Three habits keep that block short:

• Name one approver per decision. Drawings, finishes and the mock-up each need one person who can say yes.

• Book the mock-up visit when you sign the PO, not when the mock-up is ready.

• Freeze COM early. A customer’s own fabric adds a week from the day it arrives at the plant, and it often arrives late.

When the date is already too close

If the count comes out short, you still have options. Quick Ship frames in stocked finishes ship in 3 weeks. Phased installation lets you open public spaces first and finish guestrooms floor by floor. And finished goods can wait at our plant for up to 90 days if the building runs late, so you can order early without risking damage on site.

The planner on our Process page does this arithmetic for you. Put in the date and the package, and it shows the order-by date and every milestone between. It’s a first read, not a promise. Your project lead confirms it after spec review, and that’s the number we’ll hold ourselves to.