Hospitality Procurement – The Key Areas to Focus On
Hospitality procurement forms one of the subsets of the vast field of purchasing or procurement. Hospitality procurement is entirely focused on the purchase of commodities and goods for resorts, restaurants and hotels. The needs of this industry are quite specific, with no other industry having the same needs.
We all know that the businesses operating in the hospitality industry have to spend huge amounts of money on goods and services like food, drinks, housekeeping and much more. These costs do not add to the profits made by the business. So, a Cost Reduction Consultant has an important role to play in this industry. These consultants design effective strategies to cut down the business overheads of this industry and increase the savings.
Hospitality procurement focuses on four primary aspects. These aspects have been described below in brief:
Sourcing:
In sourcing of materials in the hospitality industry, a Cost Reduction Consultant needs identifying suitable vendors, issuing requests for quotations or proposals, and inspecting several manufacturing plants. In this industry, the appliances and furniture should be made up of materials that are highly durable and designed for use by a large number of people. These products should certainly be of good quality, but they also should have good longevity.
Using environmentally friendly products is a unique challenge for this industry. This is because hotels and resorts use a huge number of consumable products, appliances, furniture and fixtures. Many of the products used by them are made up of non-renewable materials. Disposal and replacement of products is also quite common with the hospitality industry. Though many hotels and resorts are addressing to the client requests of offering environmentally friendly service, still using each and every product built of eco-friendly materials is a challenge.
Contract Negotiation:
Contract negotiation focuses on contracts for long-term for several brand name locations. Consider a hotel chain having 4 to 5 separate brands, with each needing to possess a distinguished look and feel. The negotiation of contracts is done by the chain, but may require using local suppliers. It may also require the use of different layouts of design schemes and colors for fulfilling the various requirements.
Payment Terms:
Issues related to cash flow are quite common in the hospitality industry. This issue has given way to the aspect of payment terms. The terms in it are usually quite generous, with the payment date negotiated as between 90 and 120 days after the receipt of products.
End of Life Management:
This aspect has proven to be an ongoing challenge for this industry. The replacement of equipment is done usually within a time frame of 2 to 3 years. The timeframe may be lesser in case of high-end faculties. The industry needs to constantly refresh the look and feel of goods used. This leads to some portion of useful life remaining even after the replacement. So, a Cost Reduction Consultant needs to design a process of removal and reimbursement as a procurement strategy. The supplier can freely sell these items after refurbishing them.
These areas need to be focused on while designing procurement strategies for the hospitality industry. Procurement consultants can efficiently reduce the expenses involved and increase the savings, which can be used in the core competencies of the industry.
Justin Turner writes articles on role of a Cost Reduction Consultant. For further queries and information visit the website Routeorg.co.uk.














