What moves a renovation cost per room

The nine drivers, in the order they reach a quotation

1. Room mix

Hilton's Note 7 puts it first: the FF&E cost “will depend on the number and type of guest rooms (for example, double rooms versus king rooms)”. Two beds, two headboards and two nightstands per key against one is the first multiplier, and a suite adds a living-room set to the same key.

2. The tier: soft goods or case goods

Marriott's Autograph Collection contract renews soft goods FF&E and case goods FF&E on separate clocks. A soft-goods pass replaces carpet, window treatments, wallcovering, lamps, bedding and the fabric on the seating and leaves the carcasses standing; a case-goods pass replaces the headboard, the bed base, the wardrobe, the desk, the nightstands and the seating frames. Which pass the PIP asks for decides more than any other line.

3. The material build-up

The same desk drawn once can be built as laminate over board, as veneer over board, or as solid timber, and the three prices are not close. The build-up is the specification's decision and the brand book's: it names the fire standard the seating must meet and often the durability grade of the fabric, and the build-up is specified to meet what it names.

4. Sample rounds before the mock-up

A finish signed off at the first sample costs one panel. A finish argued over three rounds costs three panels and the weeks between them, and on a PIP with a date the weeks are the expensive part. The model room, one complete key built and approved by owner, brand and designer together, is where the sample count stops.

5. The procurement route

Hilton's 2026 disclosure states that an owner who buys through Hilton Supply Management pays the product cost “plus freight, sales tax and other actual costs, plus a procurement fee that ranges 4% to 10% of the project cost”. Marriott's Design & Construction arm charges “the greater of $3,500 or approximately 4.5% to 5%” of cost. Both disclosures say the route is the owner's choice. Factory-direct removes that line and puts the freight and the duty on the owner's side of the table, where they were anyway.

6. What the estimate leaves out

Nehmer and HVS Design's 2024 guide states that its unit costs “do not include Professional Fees, Contingency, Operating Supplies + Equipment, Attic Stock, Freight or Sales Tax, the Contractor's General Conditions, Overhead and Profit”. Hilton's Item 7 lists inventory and operating equipment as a separate $400,000 to $600,000 line for its 134 rooms. A per-key figure without its exclusions named is not comparable to any other per-key figure.

7. Freight and tax

The 2024 Nehmer guide budgets freight and tax at 16% to 18% of the FF&E cost for a US project and design fees at about 10% of the overall budget. From Gemlik the freight leg is a road or sea quotation per container, and the container fill is a driver of its own: a wardrobe ships flat, a lounge chair does not.

8. The duty line

For a US property the furniture enters on the HTS line its classification puts it on: wooden casegoods at 12.5% under heading 9903.05.79, upholstered wooden-frame seating at 25% under the section 232 wood line, a bathroom vanity at 25% now and 50% from 1 January 2027, the same cabinet at 12.5% if it is general furniture. HTSUS Revision 15, read on 5 August 2026. A ten-digit line moves the rate by up to 37.5 points.

9. Contingency

Hilton carries $1,845,302 to $2,665,436 of contingency in a $25.5 million to $37.4 million Hilton Garden Inn budget, about 7%. Nehmer's guide suggests 10% for a detailed budget and 15% for a quick one. Contingency is the driver that is spent when the eight above were guessed.

The figures the franchisors publish, and what they cover

Three franchise disclosures, read at the franchisors' own sites in September 2026. Each FF&E line covers more than the guest room, and each note says so.

Why we publish the drivers and not a number

Hilton's own figure for one brand and one room count is $17,700 to $26,000 per key once its FF&E line is divided by its 134 rooms, and that figure includes corridors, public areas, a kitchen and a laundry. A number for the guest room alone, from a factory that has not seen the drawings, would be narrower and less true. What we can say from the bench is which of the nine drivers are already decided by the time a PIP is issued and which are still open: the room mix and the tier are decided; the build-up, the sample count, the procurement route and the classification are decided at the quotation, with us.

So the quotation is built line by line from the specification in front of us, priced at the build-up the book names, with the duty line stated per item for a US property and the freight quoted per container. The number that comes back is a number for that room, and it moves only when one of the nine drivers moves.

What the same room costs twice

The renovation figures owners remember are the ones paid twice. A finish changed after sign-off is paid at the sample stage and again in production. A wardrobe carcass thrown out on a soft-goods pass because its doors were the wrong colour is a case-goods cost on a soft-goods budget. A vanity classified as furniture at the quotation and as a cabinet at the border is 12.5 points of duty found at the port. Each of those is a driver that was left open and closed itself.

The mock-up room exists to close them in one place. Marriott Belgrade's ≈1,500 pieces, two room types and a restaurant, were released into production against one approved room.