The overall sentiment among designers and buyers in the hospitality industry is positive, with 81 percent of respondents to a recent survey reporting that their budgets increased or stayed the same in the first quarter. Eighty-three percent predicted an increase in projects over the next 12 months.
The findings were part of the Q1 2022 "Hotec Global Buyer Sentiment Insights Report," which was conducted by Questex Hospitality, the parent company of Hotel Management, ahead of next month's Hotec EMEA conference in Portugal. Participants were asked a series of questions gauging their opinions on the state of the industry, future trends, challenges they’re currently facing and the solutions they’ve found.
More than half of respondents—52 percent—said that the supply chain is the biggest challenge facing their business, and a majority reported lead times of three to six months when ordering products. Nearly three quarters of respondents said they had not seen any improvement in supply chain challenges, while 81 percent did not see improvements in logistical challenges.
Respondents ranked furniture (and custom furniture), lighting, fabrics and casegoods as the most challenging to source due to the supply chain shortages.
Among design product categories, outdoor furniture, seating/upholstery and furniture/casegoods were rated as the being the most important in terms of sourcing. Technology was ranked as the least urgent. For operations categories, the F&B/banquet/serving equipment category was ranked as most urgent for sourcing while mobile and cloud computing was least.
Improving Relations
Respondents also shared insights on how suppliers could build better relationships with buyers and designers. "Sensible" presentations with information on cost and availability, upfront (and transparent) pricing estimates and lead times and agility when providing samples and solutions were all listed as elements buyers seek when working with suppliers.
Twenty-four percent of suppliers and buyers said that their budgets for the next year would be higher than $25 million. In contrast, only 2 percent said their spending budgets would be between $500,000 and $1 million. Perhaps not surprisingly given that number, 56 percent said they expected to see the most new projects in the upscale hotel segment. (Respondents were allowed to select multiple segments for this question, so 51 percent also predicted a high number of projects in the upper-upscale segment.)
The Q2 2022 survey was conducted from July to August and respondents represent senior executives from the hospitality industry’s leading hotel chains, management companies, purchasing companies and interior and architectural design firms. More than half of the respondents (54 percent) purchase for both design and operations.
Hotec EMEA will be held Sept. 21-24 at the Tivoli Marina Vilamoura Algarve Resort, Portugal. Applications are open for buyers and suppliers.