When undertaking a hotel renovation or new construction, it’s not a matter of whether issues will crop up, but when. Even the most well-planned, organized, and choreographed projects can experience their fair share of challenges.

Any number of things can happen that threaten the schedule and/or success of the entire project, from hiccups in the FF&E supply chain or manufacturing process to delays in construction on-site. Other culprits area lack of communication flow at critical junctures among stakeholders, along with FF&E damaged in transit that requires repair or possibly full product replacement.

In this post, we share what to look out for and how stake holders can respond to problems that arise.

Project Issues We’ve Seen Lately

Various factors over the past couple years have affected hotel project delivery schedules. Overloaded manufacturers have not always had the capacity to keep up with the inflow of orders, resulting in delays or sub-par product quality. Suppliers have also faced a shortage of raw materials, which stops or slows production. From a shipping standpoint, a scarcity of containers and delays at ports have slowed deliveries of product coming from overseas.

Meanwhile, at the property level, general contractors can get behind due to variables outside of their control. A lack of available materials such as switchgears – critical components within the electrical power system - and insulation can hamper GCs’ progress on construction. Bad weather and delays associated with the installation of elevators, fire marshal permitting, and activation of local utilities can all wreak havoc. Finally, a GC that cannot schedule or hire enough labor will also run into schedule problems.

Once product does arrive, Innvision has seen shipments from manufacturers with incorrect quantities, inferior quality and/or defects, and missing parts. Other issues that can arise after a shipment leaves the dock include broken merchandise, cut fabric, stains, and water damage from leaks in trailers or containers.

How to Handle Project Issues

When issues arise, experienced procurement and logistics professionals at Innvision advise that the most important thing is how you respond or recover.

With regard to FF&E damages and vendor claims mentioned above that require resolution, the GC and FF&E provider must quickly take the lead together and work closely with each other. They will need to submit counts, photos, serial numbers, and any documentation to the vendor to work out claims for replacements.

With FF&E shipping delays or a construction schedule that is difficult to meet, project stakeholders such as the GC, procurement, and the hotel owner should be collaborating to all stay on the same page. Sometimes parties are not all working towards the same timeline because communication is not flowing to all parties.

It is critical that both the FF&E provider and the GC’s on site project team keep each other in the loop through project calls and regular updates to make necessary adjustments. Delivering bad news as early as possible helps ensure project deliveries will arrive when the project team is ready for them.

At Innvision, we pride ourselves on the hands-on approach we take, which includes being on-site at key moments during the project. This not only assists our clients and the GC, but also helps us resolve product claims faster and gives us credibility with our vendors. We work closely with other stakeholders and can vouch for the project conditions with knowledge of what is truly happening onsite.

We also have developed strong, longstanding relationships with suppliers which are incredibly valuable when we need to ask for help with production delays, damages, claims and either revising ship dates or storing merchandise.

Contact us to learn what to look out for and how Innvision’s collaborative and partner-oriented approach with other project stakeholders can make your next hotel project go more smoothly.

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