Hospitality Report 2024: With its need to look refreshed, hospitality presents a lot of opportunity for flooring providers - November 2024

By Jessica Chevalier

The hospitality market encompasses many different types of operations: hotels, restaurants, clubs, resorts, conference centers, spas and casinos. In all cases, appealing interiors are key to attracting visitors and earning good reviews. In many hospitality zones, flooring has historically played an outsized role in setting the stage-with large-scale custom designs a distinctive element of the hotel, conference center, resort and casino experience.

Since the extraordinarily challenging Covid years, the hospitality market has worked hard to find its footing and return to its standard seven-year renovation cycle, which virtually guaranteed flooring turns on a regular basis, to keep the properties fresh and appealing. However, the impacts of the widespread incorporation of hard surface into the hospitality space, specifically in guest rooms, is changing the cycle rhythm, as it was sold on the promise of extending the need for replacement of the material to a decade or longer.

Regardless, with such a broad range of properties in the hospitality market, there is generally business to be found in one segment or another, which makes it a sector worth serving for many hard and soft surface flooring manufacturers.

SUPPLIER SENTIMENT
As Covid put a halt to both business and recreational travel, those serving the market suffered a substantial decline in business during the pandemic years, when many hotel brands paused required property improvement plans (PIPs) so that owners and operators could divert their funds toward survival. As business has returned, so too have PIP requirements-good news for flooring purveyors serving the hotel market. There is the question, though, about how much power brands have to enforce PIPs, because revoking the flag, effectively the brand license, of a non-compliant member also damages the strength of a brand, some of which are required to have a particular number of flags due to requirements of public trading.

According to interviewees, the strongest hotel segment for renovation is the luxury end, which never suffers to the extent that the rest of the market does as, quite simply, the rich can afford to travel regardless of the economic climate. “It is almost recession proof,” remarked one interviewee. In addition, of course, luxury establishments must maintain top-notch interiors to justify their premium per-night cost-and to meet the ever-changing expectations of the luxury client. Melissa Nau, vice president of hospitality global accounts for Shaw Contract, notes that at The Lodging Conference this year presenters discussed how the surge of Millennials into the luxury market has created a demand for services that entertain children, thereby enabling parents to relax without the little ones.

Other parts of the business were more hit-and-miss this year, with many interviewees reporting that the year started strong and then slowed, but they’re anticipating good things from 2025. “Project registrations are steady, and there was a slight bump last month over the prior three, so it’s getting busier,” says president of Oriental Weavers Hospitality Gavin McDowell. OW offers Axminster and hand-tufted carpet to the luxury end of the hospitality market; all its work is custom and can be utilized in either wall-to-wall or area rug formats.

“Indicators for 2025 to 2028 are really strong in the hospitality market, barring a global catastrophe,” says Carrie Stevens, director of hospitality and multifamily marketing for Shaw, which offers both soft surface and hard surface flooring for use in the hospitality market. Its soft surface portfolio spans from offerings suitable for economy brands to Axminsters, including new technology on its CYP platform with 16 colors and the ability to create more depth in a pattern. And on the hard surface side, the company offers resilient flooring, engineered hardwood and porcelain. With Nau, Stevens attended October’s The Lodging Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona and reports that attendees were “cautiously optimistic” about the market, noting that, barring anything unseen, all signs are positive for travel and the hospitality market for the next three to five years.

In addition, she points out that “it is easier to get funding for renovation currently, and, moving ahead, we will see conversions of existing properties into luxury properties.”

Dal-Tile’s Whitney Welch, vice president commercial sales, notes that renovation activity is equally active in brands and boutique locations, one-off properties that are often privately owned and managed. Dal-Tile offers porcelain, stone, luxury vinyl tile, countertops and pavers for outdoor areas.

Allie Bruski, vice president of hospitality for Milliken Floors, reports that some brands have publicly announced a focus on extended stay. Milliken specializes in printed carpet and carpet tile, as well as offering the full range of standard soft and hard surface flooring products used by the hospitality sector, including LVT, SPC and PVC-free products. The company has a partnership with Bloomsburg for Axminster. Some of these new extended-stay flags include Hilton’s LivSmart Studios, which offer studio apartment-style suites with full kitchens, and StudioRes by Marriott, designed for travel nurses. Both are new construction.

New construction, interviewees report, has been sluggish because high interest rates may discourage borrowing. In addition, some interviewees believe that election year indecision has been a drag on building and they expect the market to loosen again post-November 5.

“The hospitality business has been very active,” says Daniel Habib, vice president of business development for Bloomsburg Carpet Industries. “There was a lull after Covid, but we’ve seen a good ramp-up since then. Hospitality has been one of our big growth sectors, especially in custom work.” Bloomsburg, which manufacturers on two high-speed Axminister looms in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, specializes solely in woven broadloom and targets small- to medium-sized properties at the high end of the market.

Brinton’s Mark Oldfield, senior vice president–Americas, says, “We saw this year start aggressively with a lot of demand. That has leveled off a little bit, maybe because it’s an election year. But we are hopeful the interest rate cut will fuel the hotel acquisition cycle, which will lead to renovation before or after the sale.” Brintons focuses on woven Axminster targeting the upscale and luxury markets, and, Oldfield notes, “Those properties with high demand for leisure and business travel have topped their coffers and will have funds to fuel renovations sooner than others.”

Gina di Roma, executive vice president of sales and operations for Royal Thai, says that funding is a significant issue in the market today. “In purchasing and procuring, funding slowed us up,” she notes. “A lot of jobs that we thought would come in during summer slid to the end of the year. We are such a small cog in the whole wheel of the hotel. What do you think falls to the wayside? Sometimes it’s that rug for the lobby or art or new credenzas. The competition is so fierce today with Airbnb and the like. Customers are looking at reviews. Their travel dollars only go so far. They are asking, which one provides the best experience? It bodes well for what we do, as our work is so custom that it helps us maintain marketshare.”

McDowell notes that owners that took out loans during or just after Covid may be dealing with the stress of paying on those. “With regard to refurbishment, properties held off as long as they could and simply can’t anymore,” he says. “We’re seeing lots of buying and selling and consolidation right now. The market is in a much better place than it was, but loans are coming due and the sensitivity toward new construction is still lingering.”

“The Lodging Conference is a good pulse check,” says Kim Drautz, president of Tarkett Hospitality. “They told us last year there could be headwinds but that 2024 should be a good year, though it can be hard for us in flooring to figure out what that translates to in regard to selling product. For this year, the U.S. FlooReport tells us that the hospitality market is down 7% year over year. For that reason, renovations didn’t happen, and PIPs were not enforced, but there were other channels that made up for that. Casino was still moving and the new construction luxury segment was still moving, so there were some pickups that helped.” To the hospitality market, Tarkett offers broadloom for guest and public space, Axminster, Johnsonite wallbase, LVT, carpet tile and VCT. In addition, the company reports that it recently invested $1 million in fabrication equipment to produce area rugs in-house.

“Experience” was a talking point in the hospitality market prior to Covid, and Arnavaz Barshan, director of design for Mohawk’s Durkan brand, believes it has become even more important following the virtual shutdown that the market experienced when the virus was raging. Barshan notes, “There are so many new brands. Which will capture the customer’s attention? The whole market is rebounding; everyone is traveling. Even the small airports are busy. Hotels are trying to get ahead and address the customer’s needs and focuses.” Mohawk’s hospitality portfolio includes carpet tile, broadloom, woven carpet, walk-off tile, LVT, HVT, resilient sheet, laminate and engineered hardwood.

TELLING A STORY THROUGH CUSTOMIZATION
Creating interiors that tell a story begins with finishes that are unique-sometimes to a single location. “We are designing to actual spaces in the hospitality market,” says Habib. “Each detail is tailored for each space-that is becoming more popular.” Often the custom pieces that Bloomsburg creates are paired with hardwood or terrazzo in a hospitality setting.

Brintons, too, has noticed a rise in demand for boutique and individualistic styles and has proprietary technology that uses up to 32 colors in woven Axminster carpet, which really “enables the client to enhance the design,” says Oldfield. “The floor is the biggest space to tell a story, and carpet is really good at that. And the addition of more colors can help hide soiling and increase longevity.”

Brintons recently rolled out hand-carved Axminsters, which offer even greater options for statement-making on the floorscape. The company has not yet introduced the hand-carved Axminster to the full market but is unveiling new collections featuring the offering. As it focuses on custom business (more than 95% of its total business is custom), the collections are mainly intended as inspiration.

Johnny Massey, vice president operations, Americas for Brintons, has noticed the use of Axminster increasing in guest rooms, specified as an area rug atop hard surface flooring. Massey adds that customization comes in several levels. In a semi-custom project, the designer may tweak the colors on an offered design; this will come with a faster turnaround than a fully customized project. Brintons owns vertically integrated factories in India, Portugal and Poland.

SOFT SURFACE: AREA RUGS, BROADLOOM, CARPET TILE
While there has been much chatter about hard surface displacing soft surface in guest rooms, the fact is that the use of hard surface has generated greater demand for one part of the soft surface market-area rugs. Carpet manufacturers that have been serving the industry for decades report that they are cutting or producing more rugs for the sector than ever before. And Habib notes that, amid this transition, he has found that many hospitality decision makers are spending up on their soft surface products.

There are two ways in which rugs are utilized in a guest room-some are inset, and others are looselay. Inset rugs have the benefit of staying in place and being less of a trip hazard when paired with a hard surface material of the same thickness. However, when utilized with thinner SPC, they require a transition and, for that reason, are often deselected.

In addition, Stevens reports that many operators now lean toward looselay rugs because they feel it’s easier for maintenance to pick them up and clean under them rather than clean around them.

“We see our products going into meeting nooks off the lobby or quiet business spaces. These are normally inset or looselay rugs over hardwood,” notes Massey.

Di Roma says, “Because some customers want wine on a beer budget, we have found ways to mass produce hand-tufted, as long as they are not super intensely tufted. Lobby rugs employ more handiwork and, as such, are higher price points, but if we can keep them simple-ish, we can get the price points down on room rugs.”

Interestingly, due to the popularity of incorporating outdoor spaces into hospitality plans, Royal Thai has introduced a high-end outdoor area rug line, coming to market after four years of research. “It’s a combination of Axminster and hand-tufted, called pass-tufted,” explains di Roma. “It’s an adjunct to the business and a very comfortable pivot for our sales team.”

Carpet tile isn’t a product some may associate with hospitality, but it is growing in popularity in the sector, according to several interviewees, due to its ease of replacement and maintenance, as well as its sustainability attributes. Some properties prefer it to broadloom for corridors.

Bruski reports, “Texture seems to be very appealing in carpet. We are seeing a lot of branded prototypes with cushion-back carpet tile with the backing helpful both for acoustics and for creating a more plush feel.” She adds that carpet tile’s use is primarily in select service brands and lower, not so much in the upper tier, which is broadloom-centered.

Barshan concurs, adding, “People are being very conscious about what kind of padding is used in guest rooms. Is it cold underfoot in the morning? They don’t want the cheapest, but something with good acoustics and a good pad that makes the experience more comfortable for the guest.”

Massey notes, “Cut pile is a great sound absorber. If a facility is having acoustic issues, we recommend cut pile.”

Jake Brumlow, founder and co-owner of Encore Hospitality, reports that his broadloom business has been strong. The mill offers 100% solution-dyed products and recently added a new extrusion operation to make nylon in Calhoun, Georgia. Encore produces Infinity, ColorPoint and iTron products. In addition to broadloom, the company offers both area rugs and carpet tile. Its core business is solution-dyed products for guest rooms, using Infinity and ColorPoint for corridors, meeting rooms and pre-function spaces.

Adds Drautz, “If you look at the FlooReport, rolled goods are declining, and we can see that. But we also sell a tremendous amount of broadloom because, in the end, it is the least expensive for ownership. I don’t ever see it going away, and it may have a resurgence. It’s beautiful, lasts and wears well, and it’s easy to install and take out. We see it in both guest and public space, especially when you get into the luxury market with woven Axminster.”

RESILIENT REIGNS
Over the past decade or so, Floor Focus has been tracing the entry of LVT into hotel guest rooms. Appealing to travelers and advantageous for owners and operators with regard to lifecycle, this change did initially present substantial challenges in the hotel space in terms of acoustics and cleaning-challenges which, at this point, the hospitality industry has largely worked out.

“In hotels, the LVT trend has transcended into tiers you wouldn’t think-upper upscale, even higher-end brands want it-perceiving it as a way to delay the renovation cycle as well as being easy to clean and more residential feeling,” says Bruski. “LVT continues to dominate the guest room all the way from budget to full-service upscale. The other thing is that it’s pet-friendly, which is important. Many owners prefer SPC because it is easier to take up at the end of its life.”

Style-wise, Nau reports that wood continues its reign, noting that she does see some requests for a concrete visual. She adds, “We see a trend for the hard surface to flow into the hallways as a runner with carpet in the middle.”

“We are coming to market with beautiful new designs that aren’t wood look,” says Drautz. “They are going to present opportunities in the boutique market, but the big brands will stick to wood looks.”

For the most part, the industry hasn’t yet lived through the first lifecycle of LVT in the guest room, but many flooring producers don’t expect installed LVT to remain in place for the full 12 to 14 years that the material can endure, as color and design will demand a refresh. LVT aesthetics alone have come so far in the last decade that material in place from 2014 may appear unsophisticated in comparison to what’s available today.

“From a maintenance standpoint, LVT is easy,” says Drautz. “It’s easy on housekeeping. And, today, the technology has gotten a lot better. We build a better product for acoustics.”

Acoustics, one of the major challenges of introducing LVT in the hotel guest room, has become something of a non-issue. “We have an acoustic testing lab at Shaw Contract,” says Stevens. “As we develop products, we are continuously adjusting. We have all gotten a lot smarter.”

Adds Morgan Stephenson, director of hospitality for Daltile, Marazzi and American Olean, “It’s really as simple as the right underlayment. We write all of the specifications for installation for our clients so they can meet whatever acoustic rating they need.”

In some cases, LVT is being taken into the bathrooms of hospitality properties, taking share from porcelain, though Stevens notes, “If there is LVT in a bathroom of an economy property, it may continue with that, but I don’t see brands transitioning from porcelain to LVT otherwise.”

Along with LVT, AHF Producs, a major hard surface manufacturer, sells VCT to the hospitality market and sees it not only being used in back-of-house locations but also in some public-facing locations as a design element. Fred Reitz, vice president of commercial at AHF Products, reports that he recently visited a high-end restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina that utilized black, white and green VCT. He has also come across long-standing installations that still look fresh due to the ability to buff the material. One such installation, which had been in place for 42 years, utilized four 12”x12” tiles to create a “large format” tile to which 12 coats of polish were applied for a marble affect. In addition, AHF offers engineered wood, porcelain and densified hardwood.

PORCELAIN
There are many locations that rely on porcelain in a hospitality space-the bathrooms, high-traffic public space zones, restaurant zones, kitchen spaces in extended-stay properties and, often, in the pool zone.

“In these spaces, larger sizes continue to dominate, with 12”x24” now the standard,” says Stephenson. “12”x48” is being used, as well as gauged porcelain panels, both on the floor and vertically as cladding or on interior walls. Clients and customers do not want grout. Grout is what stains and chips and has issues.”

Due to ease of cleanability, gauged porcelain panels are increasingly popular choices for shower floors and walls, as well.

HARDWOOD
Wood looks brings warmth, and for upper-scale locations, real wood is the desirable choice. The material is utilized in both public areas and guest rooms.

Thicker engineered woods, with their ability to be refinished, are the most common choice for hospitality spaces. “There’s a big demand for engineered hardwood in boutique properties, used in guest rooms,” says Nau.

AHF is currently testing its densified wood in hospitality settings. The manufacturing process compresses the air pockets in hardwood, which results in increased performance without the need for acrylic impregnation or any other thick surface treatment. The product will hit the market before the year’s end.

CLEANING
Guests feel that hotel rooms with hard surface flooring are cleaner than those with soft surface, says Stevens, and this is a key reason why many owners are all-in with LVT.

At the same time, almost any flooring used in a hotel space can face damage simply based on the nature of the hotel experience. Di Roma points out that a spill in a guest room can sit for days or longer if the guest posts their “Do not disturb” sign, leaving time for spills or other messes to settle into the floor and stain or absorb. The question, of course, is whether a floor can be thoroughly cleaned even after a stain has set or soaked in, and it isn’t only hard surface that wins here. “Maintenance is huge for us; it’s one of our best-selling points,” says di Roma. “With woven carpets, maintenance can hot water-extract messes.”

Habib points to the importance of preventative care through the use of walk-off mats to catch grease or food particles. He notes, “Soft surface will take some handling and care, but, honestly, we don’t receive many complaints about our Axminster. It performs well.”

Massey reports that the use of bleach, which was employed early on in Covid to kill the virus, has diminished, a positive development for the longevity of flooring products.

SUSTAINABILITY
Stevens believes that telling a property’s sustainable story will soon be an important part of the guest experience, and materials will play a part in that storytelling. The telling may occur through static means, like an informational plaque, or through more interactive ones, such as a quick informational comment by staff as part of the check-in process.

What many believe has slowed the progression of sustainability in hospitality is the different layers of stakeholders involved. Brands are happy to make sustainability an initiative, and architects and designers often practice sustainable design even if it isn’t a customer mandate, but owners and operators, who are actually paying for property renovation and upkeep, may not have the same enthusiastic buy-in, and that has limited the progress of green initiatives in the sector. Sure, owners may be willing to transition to wall-mounted shampoo/conditioner/body-wash products instead of single-use ones because that also provides cost savings, but investing extra capital in a material with a cradle-to-cradle footprint is another. What benefit-besides feel-good-are they reaping?

Stevens reports that one of this year’s Lodging Conference panels featured a lender offering loans incentivizing the purchase of sustainable products. She also notes an increase in the number of inquiries she and her team receive for PVC-free resilient.

“There have been some case studies where the front desk team tells a property’s sustainability story to some guests at check in,” says Stevens. “After these, the properties conducted a loyalty and satisfaction survey and found that those who heard the story were more satisfied and loyal to that brand, feeling like if the property made sustainable choices, it would translate to better care for guest. The crux is telling the story.”

Welch notes, “I think that pre-Covid, what drove the industry from a specification or material selection priority was the best visual for the best price. Post-Covid, that has really changed, especially with the younger generation. Gen Z and younger Millennials in design firms want to understand your sustainability platform and your story, prior to ever seeing a piece of tile or understanding the cost.”

For its part, Bloomsburg has been investing in sustainable endeavors-including LCAs and a solar array that provides 100% of the power needed for operation-which “plays well to specifiers,” Habib says.

“Hospitality is a unique segment because it’s the only one with a timed renovation cycle,” says Bruski. “If they don’t select finishes with an end-of-life story, these are going into the landfill every seven to ten years.”

With style such an important part of the hospitality experience, there will also be flooring changed out before it reaches the end of its useful life. Reitz notes, “The product may not be wearing out or uglying out, but the scheme or look may be changing, especially in the more profitable parts of the hospitality industry where cycles are different because they have money.” Reitz adds that often they make an acquisition and want to rebrand.

Health and safety have become a priority for brands post-Covid, says Barshan, adding, “People are now thinking about products and their ingredients.”

McDowell points out, “Global warming is a critical issue for hotels, which find themselves unable to bring in any revenue if a hurricane, for instance, strikes their area.”

Copyright 2024 Floor Focus 

Related Topics:Mohawk Industries, The International Surface Event (TISE), AHF Products, American Olean, RD Weis, Tarkett, Daltile, Marazzi USA, Shaw Industries Group, Inc.