Client: Embassy Suites by Hilton
Location: Nationwide
Project Type: Hospitality
Area Supplied: Entire hotel – lobby, guestrooms, and amenity spaces
Kapolei, HI has recently become a “hotspot” for new hotels as affordable hotel options in the area were previously few and far between, and demand for them has been on the rise. According to ABC’s KITV 4 Island News, The Hampton Inn and Suites in Kapolei reached close to 100% occupancy every week since its opening in 2016. The Embassy Suites in Kapolei, HI is one such new hotel which opened in October 2017 to meet the increasing demand. Owner Kapolei Hotel Partners, used furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) firm, Hospitality Furnishings & Design (HFD), for design and procurement. HFD focuses on the hospitality market and has worked on more than 50 Hilton projects.
Challenge | Complex Logistics, Specific Design
While Kapolei is beautiful to visit, it is also a logistical nightmare from a large commercial building materials supply perspective. The island simply does not have 70,000SF of 20 different tile products from seven factories across the globe sitting in a warehouse. Unfortunately, that’s precisely what was needed to supply this project.
Additionally, not just any tile would do. HFD had a specific “beachy-modern” theme in mind and one tile collection, in particular, was critical to the design.
Solution | Client Services, Sourcing Expertise
Creative Materials to the rescue! Creative Materials is a tile supplier offering access to 50+ tile manufacturers through a single point of contact. The team handles consolidation of tile and setting materials on large commercial projects such as these as part of standard operating procedure and eliminates headaches for owners, design firms, and contractors alike by coordinating all logistics.
HFD and Creative Materials Corporation have a long-standing relationship and as such, HFD recognizes Creative Materials’ ability to offer design consultation, sourcing, consolidation, great pricing, and unparalleled logistics coordination. HFD knew that instead of ordering and coordinating with seven different manufacturers in three different countries to procure the tile, they would only have to make one phone call to Creative Materials. Plus — Creative Materials could supply the exact tile that HFD had in mind, and provide design consultation on additional tile that would be needed throughout the hotel.
HFD sent a mood board to their Creative Materials Architectural Sales Consultant and requested options that would fit. Lobby space had already been reserved for a featured collection that the consultant brought in the previous spring. Creative Materials attends global tradeshows and finds trends to share with designers twice a year. Creative Materials was the first to bring HFD the award-winning and transformational “Transition” collection which HFD had already selected to be used in the lobby.
Although Transition had already been selected, Creative Materials had to find a product to complement it with the aesthetic and color that HFD was looking for. HFD envisioned tile surrounding Transition in the lobby so that Transition looked almost like a rug insert. (See rendering below.)
The Creative Materials team worked on laying out the Transition and Striation products which were especially complex since the tile was from two different manufacturers, and required expertise to be made compatible. The team also provided consultation on selecting tile for all other areas of the hotel such as Maximal which was a perfect fit for the guestrooms. In addition, HFD needed a custom-sized bullnose to meet specification requirements. Creative Materials knew which manufacturing partners would be able to meet this need while staying on budget, and used long-standing manufacturing relationships to tap into the right partner to make it happen.
Result
When it was time to order tile, one phone call was made to Creative Materials. A Client Services team member was ready, having already proactively been in communication with all parties regarding timeline. Creative Materials took it from there and handled every detail including air freighting tile to meet the deadline, and working directly with customs.
Working with Creative Materials resulted in risk mitigation by consolidating the entire supply of tile through a single source. Team members knew this project inside and out and placed the appropriate high-level priority on even the smallest tile orders because they understood the project as a whole. Every tile shipment was monitored and timelines were communicated. Proactivity and consolidation meant that the design was precisely as HFD has envisioned because no tile had to be reselected at the last minute. Lead time issues, production limitations, and logistics problems were fully mitigated.
The Creative Materials team took a moment to celebrate when the Embassy Suites in Kapolei opened as originally scheduled in the Fall of 2017.
