Lodging Kit Company is an excellent example of what happens when hard work and a great idea come together to create something special. Founded in 1989 by two employees, the company has since grown to include three distribution centers located in New York, Florida, and Las Vegas, enabling them to supply properties across the country.
Their feature product, Room in a Box®, is a stroke of genius. Anyone who has attempted to furnish units at their property understands that the process can be a circus to manage. If you go alone, you will contact multiple suppliers across the country to get the products you need. This results in multiple agreements, warranties, shipping, and delivery dates, separate packages, and the potential for wasted time and money. With Room in a Box®, those issues disappear.
A “Room in a Box®” is a package containing all the in-room items you specify in your order. All items ordered to furnish a unit are shipped in a single container. If you are supplying 20 units, then Lodging Kit sends you 20 pre-organized packages to your site. The benefits of Room in a Box® include:
- No need for multiple purchase orders
- No multiple deliveries
- Easier and faster installation for your crew
A “Room in a Box®” can include item kits for your unit’s kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, and closet. And with superb flexibility built into their processes, Lodging Kit can work with any room arrangement.
Lodging Kit’s three nationwide distribution centers can provide housewares, kitchen products, small appliances, towels, bedding, housekeeping supplies, spa supplies, furniture, art and much more to vacation ownership resorts, extended stay hotels and every accommodation in between.
Their “kits” can be customized to solve smaller solutions like microwaves or welcome kit packages but are scalable to supply gourmet or branded extended-stay kitchens. And, if you are new to this whole “kit” concept, Lodging Kit Company’s sales and service staff are available to help you and your installation and construction projects run smoothly and easier than ever before.
However, Lodging Kit offers much more than just the Room in a Box® solution.
Thinking Outside of the Box
Looking at the Lodging Kit Company’s product catalog, it is immediately clear that they are a complete source of lodging and hospitality supplies. At 168 pages, volume 15 of their catalogue series is impressive, to say the least. Lodging Kit Company vetted and secured relationships with multiple manufacturers and a superior network of vendors to create the unique Room in a Box program.
In other words, the Lodging Kit Company offers a LOT of products outside of the Room in a Box® service and is quite competitive when it comes to items such as:
- Bedding
- Bath amenities
- Towels
- Electronics
- Mattresses
- Coffee
- Key cards
- Cleaning supplies and chemicals
- Housekeeping carts
- So many other products that hotels and resorts use in their day-to-day operations
Product continuity is critical, and it is important to work with vendors who can provide it. Anyone who has shopped for hospitality-related products on Amazon, for example, has been offered sales due to retail-oriented manufacturers that are constantly discontinuing or changing their product designs. A disregard for product continuity across your units will result in inconsistent customer experiences and poor reviews from your guests.
Lodging Kit Company has 30 years of experience vetting manufacturers and has built an impressive network of vendors who excel at keeping their products in continuity for years at a time.
They also understand the importance of resupplying replacement products. Although customers typically purchase dinnerware and kitchen utensils in sets, the pieces within the sets are typically not sold individually. For example, coffee mug handles are broken more frequently than cereal bowls, yet you would have to purchase a full 16-pc set of dinnerware just to replace your mugs. Lodging Kit Company strives to make those individual products available for resupply and replacement as a one-source supplier.
A Solution for You
30 years of successful experience providing operating supplies and equipment amounts to a lot of expertise. To that end, Lodging Kit Company has created subsidiaries to help those in operating specifically within the boutique lodging sector (SLX Hospitality) and the food and beverage industry (Blue Diamond Supply.)
SLX Hospitality brings unique sourcing and service solutions to the design of independent and boutique communities within the lodging industry. Short for ‘Simplifying Luxury,’ SLX offers many of the same services and solutions as Lodging Kit Company, including their own “Boutique in a Box®,” focused on the unique needs of the luxury boutique market. Additional services include warehousing and logistics, design assistance, budgeting, top-tier customer service, and a commitment to sustainability.
Another division, Blue Diamond Supply, specializes in restaurant equipment with a wide selection that will fully furnish any back-of-house operation, from ice makers and ovens to cookware and pan racks. The front-of-house items are just as important, and Blue Diamond Supply can assist with items like dinnerware, tables and chairs, bar supplies, serving trays, and more.
Lodging Kit Company has created something special within the hospitality industry. They have leveraged their leadership within the OS&E space to provide unique services and solutions to nearly every hospitality sector, saving their clients time and money.
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