Specify and procure FF&E and OS&E at scale with Fohlio today. Empower teams to move faster and improve their operational workflow with specification, prototyping, procurement, collaboration, and analytics tools.
When it comes to hotel design and procurement, two of the most important acronyms to understand are FF&E and OS&E. Brand standards are especially crucial to creating the ultimate guest experience across locations – and materials are going to make the biggest impact. So to begin: What is FF&E? This stands for Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment. OS&E, on the other hand, represents Operating Supplies and Equipment. Both play an essential role in hospitality design and procurement, but they are two distinct categories of items that require different procedures.
Learn more: Converging Workflows: How to Reduce FF&E and OS&E Costs
In this article, we'll explore which items fall under these two categories, plus how to:
FF & E or Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment are all items that are permanent or semi-permanent; they don’t get replenished on a regular basis like consumables do. This includes everything from furniture to lighting fixtures to air conditioning units. In other words, anything that isn’t part of the building itself but that is necessary for guests to enjoy their stay falls under the FF&E meaning.
Learn more: How FF&E is Bringing Hospitality Design Trends to Life
There’s a fun way to picture this: If you pick up a hotel and shake it, everything that falls out is FF&E. That includes beds, night tables, wall art, and lamps. It does not include walls, ceilings, and floors.
This fun illustration does kind of fall apart when it comes to the semi-permanent objects – namely, the fixtures. That is: the shower head, faucet, and lighting.
Learn more: What is FF&E: The Ultimate Guide to Specification, Procurement, and More
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We’re going to skip the generic advice here of making sure you do due diligence on your suppliers, setting a budget, keeping a close eye on lead times, etc.
Instead, we’re going to talk about how to sync FF&E specification and procurement so that the two workflows are not antagonistic towards each other.
By keeping both workflows on the same platform, you save a massive amount of time and money that you would have otherwise spent on manual, repetitive work and correcting errors.
Learn more: 4 Tools to Streamline Specification and Procurement Teams
For example: What if your procurement department didn’t have to copy and paste thousands of items from a specification software to a procurement software? And what if your specification team could see purchasing data from past projects so they could avoid discontinued products from the get go?
Fohlio’s product information management platform can make this happen.
Image: The Ritz-Carlton in Bali
OS&E stands for Operating Supplies & Equipment; this category consists of items that get used up quickly and must be replenished frequently (e.g., linens/towels/sheets). Unlike FF&E items which can last years with proper maintenance and care (provided you choose quality products), OS&E items tend to need replacement more often due to wear-and-tear or just general use.
OS&E can also include consumables such as paper products, toiletries, coffee, and cleaning supplies.
When it comes to purchasing OS&Es for your hotel, there are several factors you need to consider in order to maximize resources.
First, determine how many rooms will require which types of supplies—this will give you an idea of how much inventory is needed overall (as well as how much money needs set aside for restocking).
Secondly, research suppliers who carry quality products within your budget range. Beyond that, also consider lead times and dependability. You may also want to keep sustainability in mind.
In Fohlio, you can build a list of trusted suppliers. This is especially helpful if you have a large number of options and you want to compare several different factors.
Learn more: The Only Procurement Management Plan Template You'll Need
When designing a hotel space or purchasing hotel supplies, it's important that everyone is on the same page. One way to ensure that all stakeholders are in agreement is by having a clear process for managing approvals.
Every person involved in the project should sign off on materials before they are purchased. This can be done with an approval sheet or checklist that outlines who needs to approve what items at each stage of the process. This will help keep everyone up-to-date on the decisions being made throughout the project.
Learn more: How to Track Changes, PO Approvals by Thresholds, and Project-Based Templates
Another way to ensure everyone stays aligned on an FF&E project is through a well-structured materials library—the foundation of any strong interior design specification. This library should include all the details about materials used in the project, from product names and finishes to colors, sizes, and textures.
When managed through modern interior design software, your materials library becomes far more than a folder of samples. It becomes an interactive database where every interior design specification is linked to real-time data—helping designers, procurement teams, and vendors access accurate information whenever needed.
Keeping all of this information centralized ensures consistency across projects and phases. Any updates to your interior design specification—like a discontinued finish or a new vendor—are instantly reflected within the interior design software, reducing miscommunication and costly mistakes.
Ideally, your materials library acts as your single source of truth, powered by interior design software that enforces brand standards, streamlines collaboration, and helps lower procurement costs—all while keeping your interior design specification accurate and up to date.
Building a Design Narrative
Once all of these decisions have been made it's time to create a design narrative. This is a document that outlines exactly how each space should look once completed based on all of these decisions about colors, furnishings etc.
The goal here is not only to provide clear direction for designers, but also serve as an educational tool for clients so they can understand why certain choices were made and how those choices translate into their overall vision for their space(s).
Learn more: How to Build FF&E Brand Standards: An In-Depth Guide
Creating design standards is essential when designing hotels because it helps ensure consistency between different locations while still allowing each space to have its own unique look and feel.
Hotel design standards must include guidelines regarding color palettes, furniture styles and finishes, lighting fixtures and more.
A brand matrix can also be used to identify which elements should remain constant across multiple locations for maximum brand recognition (i.e., logo placement/color) while allowing other elements (i.e., wall coverings/textiles) to vary from location-to-location depending on budget constraints or desired aesthetic outcomes.
Learn more: How to Build FF&E Brand Standards: An In-Depth Guide
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After you’ve made all your design decisions and documented them in your narrative, the next step is organizing your interior design specification so it’s easy to find, reference, and update. This should be true at any stage of your project—even long after completion—when you need to revisit materials, finishes, or product details.
That’s where interior design software like Fohlio comes in. Instead of juggling folders and spreadsheets, interior design software centralizes every interior design specification in one intuitive workspace. With drag-and-drop functionality, you can quickly categorize items by type, project, or brand standard—whatever makes the most sense for your workflow.
Fohlio also allows you to build pre-approved product lists directly into your interior design specification, making it simple to maintain brand consistency across properties and reduce procurement errors. The result: a seamless, scalable system that keeps your entire team aligned—without the manual chaos.
Why Interior Design Specification and Interior Design Software Matter in Hospitality FF&E
When you’re designing spaces that guests remember—whether hotels, resorts, or restaurants—the backbone of your success is a strong interior design specification. That specification ensures everything from lighting to furnishings aligns with the design intent, brand standards, and operational needs. And the kicker: the right interior design software turns that specification from static document to dynamic workflow.
In hospitality projects, you’re dealing with more than just product picks. Your interior design specification covers durability, aesthetics, functionality, maintenance, brand consistency… the list goes on. Having this detailed specification matters because it’s what distinguishes a project that “looks nice” from one that “lives up” to the brand promise. Meanwhile, interior design software makes sure that specification is alive—accessible to designers, procurement, project managers, and operations alike, all on one platform.
Think about it: your team crafts the interior design specification early on, deciding which furniture, fixtures and equipment will deliver guest experience and longevity. Without the right tooling, procurement might chase outdated items, maintenance may struggle to reference specs later, and brand consistency across locations goes out the window. But with interior design software, you give everyone the same playbook, data flows from spec to procurement, and you reduce risk of errors, delays and budget blowouts.
In short: your interior design specification sets the “what and why.” Your interior design software sets the “how and who.” Put them together and you’re no longer just buying FF&E and OS&E—you’re executing strategy with intention and clarity.
Finally, once everything has been decided upon, approved, organized, and documented , etc., you need a system that will help make sure everything gets purchased correctly & at competitive prices.
A good hospitality procurement software like Fohlio helps streamline & automate every step of the purchase order processing from supplier selection & product pricing comparisons through invoice payment tracking & tracking. It even allows you to set up custom dashboards so you can easily view & analyze data related purchases whenever needed.
And like we mentioned earlier, having both your specification and procurement teams on Fohlio drastically reduces cost. You not only save time by eliminating manual and repetitive work, it also cuts down on time spent correcting errors. That means less money spent on unnecessary man hours. It’s also less cost associated with having to send back the wrong items and reorder the correct ones, or pay fines because of delays that could have been avoided.
To conclude, FF&E and OS&E are critical components when it comes to designing hotels or other hospitality spaces—but managing them doesn’t have to be overwhelming (or expensive)! By understanding what each acronym stands for—Furniture Fixtures & Equipment vs Operating Supplies & Equipment —managing approvals , creating material libraries , implementing design standards , crafting narratives , using specification software , & utilizing hospitality procurement software -you’ll be well on your way towards keeping everyone on the same page while creating beautiful spaces that people love.
Featured image: The Ramble Hotel
Specify and procure FF&E and OS&E at scale with Fohlio today. Empower teams to move faster and improve their operational workflow with specification, prototyping, procurement, collaboration, and analytics tools.