A hotel or apartment project is the kind of order where an agent either saves you a great deal or costs you a great deal, and the difference is visible in the first conversation if you know what to ask. The questions below are the ones that reveal whether an agent has actually delivered a project of your size, or has only written about it.
Ask them on the first call. Write the answers down. Then compare two or three agents on the same list.
1. Which projects like mine have you completed, and can I speak to the buyer?
You are not asking for a client list. You are asking for one project comparable to yours in size and type, with enough detail to be credible, and a reference who will take a fifteen minute call. An agent who has furnished a hotel of your scale has this ready. An agent who has not will describe their capability instead of their work.
Listen for specifics. Room count, room types, which factories were involved, what went wrong and how it was handled. Every real project has something that went wrong, and the way it was solved tells you more than the parts that went smoothly.
2. How do you build the schedule of quantities, and who owns it?
A project of two hundred rooms with four room types is four different product lists, plus corridors, lobby, restaurant and back of house. The schedule of quantities is the single document the whole order hangs on, and an agent who has done this has a method for building it from your drawings and a clear view of who keeps it updated.
The right answer includes counting by room type rather than by total rooms, a spares allowance of a few percent, and one person named as the owner of the document.
3. How will you write the specification for each item?
Hotel furniture is a specification, not a picture. Frame material, foam density, fabric rub count and fire performance for seating. Board grade, thickness and edge banding for case goods. Hardware make and load rating. Finish reference. Compliance documents for your market.
Ask the agent to show you a specification sheet from a previous project. If it reads in materials and numbers, they know the job. If it reads in adjectives, keep looking.
4. How many factories will my project involve, and how will you coordinate them?
A full hotel package typically comes from several factories. Case goods from one, upholstery from another, mattresses, lighting, mirrors and soft furnishings from others. The agent’s job is to run them as one order with one timeline.
A good answer describes a master schedule, a single point of contact at each factory, first article checks on each product line, and consolidation into one warehouse before loading by room type.
5. What does your inspection programme include for a project this size?
For a project, one pre shipment inspection is not enough. You want a first article inspection on each product line before the run is made, in production checks at agreed points, a pre shipment inspection with a defined sample size, packing review with the foam and corner protection visible, and loading supervision with photographs at three stages.
Ask to see a sample inspection report. It should contain photographs, measurements against the specification, and a clear list of findings. A paragraph of text saying everything passed is not a report.
6. How do you handle a defect found at inspection?
This question separates experience from theory. The answer should describe what happens in the factory, who decides whether to rework or replace, how the timeline is protected, how you are informed, and how the balance payment is held until the fix is confirmed.
An agent who has been through this will answer calmly and in sequence. It is a normal event in a large order and the process for it should be routine.
7. How will the goods be loaded, and in what order?
A hotel container loaded by room type or by floor lets your installation team work through the building without opening every carton to find matching items. It costs nothing to arrange and saves days on site. An agent who mentions this before you ask has installed a hotel before.
Ask also about the packing specification, moisture control inside the container, and the labelling format on each carton, which should carry the room type, item code and carton number.
8. What certificates does my market require, and how will you arrange them?
Fire performance for contract upholstery, formaldehyde emission classes for board products, electrical safety for anything with a plug, and sometimes structural or load documentation for beds and seating. Requirements differ by country and building type.
The agent should know which apply to your destination or know how to find out quickly, and should arrange testing at the specification stage rather than discovering the need at the end, because some tests take weeks.
9. What is a realistic timeline, and where is the margin?
Ask for the timeline stage by stage. Specification and quotation, sampling and approval, production, inspection and packing, shipping and clearance, installation. Then ask where the buffer is and what the agent has seen slip on similar projects.
An optimistic single number is a warning. A stage by stage plan with a buffer and an honest note about approvals being the usual delay is what experience sounds like.
10. How are you paid on a project of this size, and by whom?
For a project, a fixed fee against a defined scope is common and has the advantage of removing any incentive to recommend a more expensive supplier. A percentage with a sliding scale is also normal. Either way, the fee should be in writing before work starts, it should be paid only by you, and the agent should say so directly when asked whether they receive anything from the factory.
Three extra questions if you have time
What would you change about my product list? An experienced agent will have an opinion after a first look, and it is usually the most useful thing said in the meeting.
Who will be my day to day contact, and in which language? A named person, reachable on a working channel, in a language you both use comfortably.
What is your minimum project size, and what is the largest you have run? You want to be comfortably inside the range they work in, neither their smallest job nor their biggest stretch.
How to score the answers
Do not score on charm. Score on specifics. For each question, note whether the answer contained a method, a document, a number or a named person. Agents who have done the work produce those without effort. Agents who have not produce assurances.
Then weigh the fee against the inspection programme and the coordination method rather than on its own. On a hotel project, the difference between two agents’ fees is usually smaller than the cost of a single product line arriving wrong.
Frequently asked questions
One agent coordinating all product lines is almost always simpler, because the value on a project is in running the factories as one order with one timeline. The agent may use specialist inspectors for particular products, which is fine.
At the specification stage, before quotations. An agent who sees the drawings and the room list early can suggest changes that lower cost or lead time before anything is fixed.
Any project where a mistake would be expensive to fix, which in practice means most hotels, apartment buildings and restaurant chains. Smaller projects benefit too, usually on a fixed fee or day rate basis.
Some coordinate installation teams at the destination, most do not. What every good agent does is load the container in installation order and provide a reference photograph of each finished room type, which makes any installer’s job faster.
Working with our team in Foshan
We run hotel and apartment packages as one order across every factory involved, from the schedule of quantities through first article inspections to a container loaded by room type. Ask us these ten questions. We would rather you compare us on the answers than on the brochure.