Discussion:
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The Travel Institute introduces course on booking air travel
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Good News for Travelers: Prices on Flights, Hotels, Rentals Finally Dropping

DEEP DIVE

Running a successful hotel means mastering the art of the invisible. Guests rarely think about how the hotel keeps rooms turned over, breakfast stocked, public areas maintained and guest amenities available around the clock. They simply expect everything to be there when they need it. Coffee pods, cups, tissues, shampoo, towels, cleaning products and basic maintenance supplies may seem insignificant individually, but when something is missing, the failure becomes highly visible. A small procurement issue can quickly become a front-desk problem, a housekeeping delay, a maintenance call or, ultimately, a guest complaint. This is why procurement deserves more attention than it often receives. It may sit behind the scenes, but its efficiency has a direct impact on hotel operations, service delivery and the cost of running the asset.

The more difficult question is what these seemingly small procurement tasks are costing the hotel in management and labour time. Managers generally notice when a delivery is late, a supplier misses an order or an essential product runs out. What is less visible is the cumulative time teams spend placing repeat orders, checking availability, following up with suppliers, reconciling invoices and moving between different ordering systems. According to survey data from more than 500 business decision-makers across multiple industries, including hospitality, 37% of respondents spend four to seven hours each week on routine purchasing. In a hotel environment, that time is particularly valuable. Every hour spent chasing supplies is an hour that cannot be spent managing the guest experience, supporting employees, solving operational issues or improving commercial performance. The cost therefore extends beyond the price of the product itself; it includes the labour and management attention required to procure it.

Most hotels operate with a wide network of suppliers covering everything from food and beverage and linen to cleaning products, guest amenities, maintenance items and office supplies. The original survey found that 87% of respondents work with multiple vendors, with almost 40% identifying the management of orders, accounts and invoices across suppliers as one of their biggest challenges. For hotels, the problem becomes particularly visible during periods of high occupancy, when procurement demand increases at exactly the same time that operational teams are under the greatest pressure. Housekeeping may suddenly need additional linen and amenities, F&B may require additional food and beverage stock after an unexpectedly strong weekend, while maintenance needs replacement parts to prevent rooms being held out of order. Each requirement may be relatively small, but collectively they create a significant administrative workload.

Food and beverage is often where these problems become most obvious because purchasing is frequent and demand can change quickly. A busy weekend can materially alter consumption levels, while a delayed delivery or unavailable product can force the team to find an alternative at short notice. The same principle applies throughout the hotel. If housekeeping runs out of rubbish liners, gloves or guest amenities, the problem does not remain within the purchasing department; it affects room turnaround. If maintenance cannot access a basic part, a relatively minor defect can potentially keep a room out of service for longer. If breakfast supplies run short, the guest experiences the consequences directly. Procurement therefore has a much closer relationship with hotel revenue than it might initially appear. A room that cannot be released because an operational requirement has not been met is not simply an operational inconvenience — it is potentially lost inventory.

The answer is not necessarily to eliminate suppliers or centralise every purchase. Different properties and departments have different requirements, and local supplier relationships can sometimes provide flexibility that larger arrangements cannot. The more useful starting point is to identify where the greatest friction actually exists. Which products are ordered repeatedly? Which suppliers require the most follow-up? Where are teams duplicating orders? Which categories could be standardised across a property or portfolio? Where could a supplier consolidate multiple categories? And, importantly, how much management time is being spent maintaining the current process?

Centralised or more structured procurement can create value by reducing the number of transactions teams need to manage, improving visibility over spending and creating greater consistency across properties. Saved order lists, standardised products, consolidated purchasing and better visibility over historical spend can all reduce the amount of administrative work involved in routine purchasing. For hotel groups, there may also be an opportunity to leverage portfolio-wide purchasing volumes rather than allowing each property to negotiate independently. The objective should not simply be to obtain a lower unit price. It should be to reduce the total cost of procurement, including product cost, freight, labour, administration, stockholding and the operational cost of supply failures.

This is where procurement becomes particularly relevant from an owner and asset-management perspective. A small saving on an individual product may appear insignificant, but multiplied across thousands of room nights, meals, housekeeping turns and maintenance activities, it can become material. Equally, a procurement strategy that reduces stockouts, emergency purchasing and operational disruption can protect revenue that would otherwise be lost. The commercial question is therefore broader than “Are we buying this product cheaply?” It is “Are we operating the hotel with the right supply structure, at the right cost, with sufficient reliability to support the level of business we are trying to generate?”

The relationship with suppliers also deserves reconsideration. The original survey found that 85% of respondents want suppliers to feel like part of their team. In hospitality, that expectation is particularly relevant because supply reliability can have a direct impact on daily operations. A supplier that consistently delivers on time, maintains product availability, provides predictable pricing and makes reordering simple can remove a significant amount of operational friction. Conversely, an unreliable supplier can create a chain reaction that reaches far beyond the purchasing department.

For hotel operators, the best procurement relationships should therefore be judged on more than price. Reliability, availability, flexibility, service levels, contract compliance and responsiveness all have economic value. A slightly cheaper supplier that regularly creates delivery problems may ultimately cost the hotel more through emergency purchases, additional labour and operational disruption. Conversely, a reliable supplier that helps the hotel maintain consistent stock and service standards may create value well beyond the invoice price. Procurement should therefore be managed with the same commercial discipline applied to other hotel contracts: understand the cost, measure performance and hold suppliers accountable.

The biggest opportunity may simply be recognising how much time and attention procurement currently consumes. Hotels are complex businesses, and operational teams will always need to purchase products and manage suppliers. But there is little value in highly skilled hotel employees repeatedly performing low-value administrative tasks that could be standardised, consolidated or automated. The objective is not to make procurement more complicated. It is to make it less visible to the operation, so that the hotel team can spend more time on the things guests actually notice.

Ultimately, procurement is one of those hotel functions that becomes visible only when it fails. A guest does not care which supplier delivered the towels, how many invoices the finance team processed or how many emails a manager sent chasing a delivery. They simply expect the room to be ready, the amenities to be available and the hotel to operate without friction. For owners and operators, that makes procurement more than a back-office cost-control exercise. It is part of the infrastructure that allows the hotel to deliver revenue efficiently. The best procurement strategy is therefore not necessarily the one that buys the cheapest product; it is the one that gives the hotel reliable supply, lower total cost, less administrative friction and more time to focus on the guest and the performance of the asset.

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