Hospitality Furniture Specifications: Questions Worth Asking
Four Key Takeaways for Designers and Specifiers
- Look beyond commercial-grade claims. ANSI/BIFMA testing provides useful information, but designers must evaluate whether testing conditions and product construction reflect the intended application.
- Engage procurement during specification writing. Early collaboration can reduce unnecessary reselections, uncover vendor concerns, and help protect both budgets and installation schedules.
- Account for actual use and maintenance. Guest behavior, cleaning chemicals, climate, and operational practices can affect performance in ways that product specifications do not fully capture.
- Consider durability a sustainability priority. Selecting furniture with an appropriate service life can help limit premature replacement and associated waste.
Specifying furniture for hospitality environments requires more than finding products that meet brand standards, budgets, and aesthetic expectations. Guest behavior can be unpredictable, maintenance practices vary, and products that perform well in one commercial setting may not withstand the demands of another.
These challenges make collaboration between designers and procurement specialists particularly valuable, according to Hayley Pernsteiner, director of hospitality at Empire & Co., who joined Robert Nieminen on the I Hear Design podcast.
Drawing on her experience in hospitality design and procurement, Pernsteiner emphasized that ANSI/BIFMA testing and commercial-grade designations cannot account for every aspect of furniture performance. Product durability, manufacturer reliability, site conditions, and lifecycle expectations require further evaluation.
Her advice: Involve procurement partners during specification development, not after selections are complete.
Questions to Ask Your Procurement Partner
Working with an experienced procurement specialist can help designers identify potential specification gaps, evaluate manufacturers, and anticipate problems before they affect project budgets or installation schedules.
Consider these questions when reviewing furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) selections:
Product Performance and Application
Manufacturers and Brand Requirements
Procurement and Project Coordination
Service Life and Sustainability
Next Steps: Make Specification Review a Team Effort
Pernsteiner recommends choosing procurement partners with relevant experience and involving them early enough to contribute meaningful input, rather than relying on them to resolve problems after an order has been placed.
For designers and specification writers, a practical starting point is to build collaborative reviews into the FF&E selection process. Identify potential performance and budget concerns, discuss vendor capabilities, and evaluate how selected products will function throughout their intended service life.
Just as important, remain willing to revise a specification when additional information reveals a better solution. Designers should retain ownership of their selections while drawing on procurement expertise to make more informed decisions.
Listen to the full I Hear Design conversation with Hayley Pernsteiner and Robert Nieminen for additional examples of the specification challenges that can arise between design intent and installation.
This piece was developed from EndeavorB2B content with the help of generative AI tools and edited by our content team for clarity and accuracy.