Ninety days from an empty building to a hotel ready for guests is a tight schedule, and it is done regularly. What makes it work is not speed at the factory. It is the order in which decisions get made, because a single late approval can hold up an entire container.
Here is the sequence that keeps a 90 day furniture programme on track.
Days 1 to 10: fix the schedule of quantities
Before anything is quoted, produce one document listing every item, room type by room type, with quantities. Bedrooms, corridors, lobby, restaurant, back of house. Include the small things, because bin, luggage rack, mirror and bedside light are the items that hold up a room handover.
Count from the actual room plan rather than from the room count, since a hotel with four room types has four different lists. Add a small allowance for spares, usually two to five percent depending on the item.
Days 10 to 20: agree specifications and get quotations
Send the schedule with a specification for each item. Frame material, upholstery with a rub count, board type and thickness, hardware grade, finish, and any compliance requirement for your market such as fire performance for contract upholstery.
Ask every supplier to quote on the same basis, including packing and delivery to the port, and to state carton dimensions and loading quantity. Those two numbers decide your freight, so collect them now rather than later.
Days 20 to 30: samples and finish approvals
This is the step where schedules are won or lost. Approve a physical sample of the bed, the seating and the case goods, plus finish panels and fabric swatches for everything else. Look at colour in daylight, not under an office light.
Keep the approval window short and put a date on it. If a full sample cannot be made in time for a secondary item, approving a finish panel and a drawing is usually enough to release production while the sample follows.
Days 30 to 65: production
Five weeks of manufacturing for a hotel package is a normal window when the approvals were clean. Your job during this period is to stay available and answer questions quickly. A question that waits three days for an answer costs three days of production.
Ask for a first article photograph set as soon as the first units come off the line, covering the front view in daylight, a finish close up, the underside, the hardware and a measurement shot. Reviewing those within a day catches anything before it is repeated across three hundred rooms.
Days 60 to 70: inspection and packing
Book a pre shipment inspection while production finishes rather than after. Check a sample of units against the specification, confirm quantities, and review the packing method in progress with the foam and corner protection visible.
Confirm the packing specification is being followed, including bagging, desiccant where used, carton grade and labelling with order number, item code and carton number.
Days 65 to 75: loading and documents
Plan the container loading with the room type in mind. Loading by room type, so all the items for the first floor travel together, makes installation dramatically faster at the other end. It costs nothing to arrange and saves days on site.
Prepare the document set in parallel, covering the commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate of origin, insurance and any compliance certificates. Ask for drafts before the goods sail so corrections happen on paper.
Days 75 to 88: transit, clearance and delivery
Transit time depends on the route and is the part of the programme you control least, which is why the earlier steps carry the buffer. Give your customs broker the full document set in advance so clearance starts on arrival rather than after it.
Arrange delivery in the sequence you will install, and confirm the site can receive it. A hotel with no lift access or a narrow service door needs that solved weeks earlier, not on the day.
Days 85 to 90: installation and snagging
Install floor by floor and snag as you go rather than at the end. Keep the spare parts and touch up kits accessible, since small marks from installation are normal and quick to fix when the materials are to hand.
Photograph a completed room of each type as the reference standard, so the team installing the remaining rooms has something to match.
The three things that protect the date
First, decide the specification once and stop changing it. A change in week six costs more time than it saves. Second, answer approvals within 48 hours, every time. Third, keep one document as the single source of truth for quantities, and update it rather than emailing revised lists.
Do those three things and 90 days is comfortable rather than heroic. If you are opening a property and want help running this programme with makers in Foshan, our team does exactly this work.