What is Asset Clearance?
An asset clearance service is a sustainable and cost-effective way of removing unwanted furniture and other assets from your hotel, restaurant, pub, or other hospitality establishment. This may be because you’re refurbishing your hotel, upgrading old furniture, or replacing broken or damaged assets.
The Hotel Industry’s Need for Asset Clearance
To keep up in a competitive industry, hotels must make sure every asset, from beds to bathroom fixtures, are consistently maintained. This also means upgrading when necessary – even things as simple as rusty towel rails or wobbly chairs can negatively impact a guest’s experience. When your assets can’t be fixed, it’s time to get rid of them: and the best way to do that is through the use of an asset clearance service.
If you have just one or two unwanted assets, you may choose to remove them yourself, especially if they’re relatively small and easy to transport. However, it’s what you do with the assets after they’ve been removed which can throw up some problems. One of our main priorities as a hotel clearance company is to keep unwanted assets out of landfill wherever possible, whether through selling, donating, or recycling them.
If you’re clearing out entire rooms or even properties, an asset clearance service is essential to get the job done quickly and efficiently to minimise business downtime. We can also help you remove large or heavy items, which can be dangerous if not removed properly.
The Benefits of Asset Clearance
There are many advantages of using an asset clearance service like The Hotel Clearance Company. If we haven’t convinced you yet, keep reading…
Cost Efficiency
The process of asset clearance involves many stages – the service we provide is far from a simple turn-up-and-pick-up solution. Instead, we work with you prior to the big day to plan an efficient removal strategy, and then we get to work removing and storing your unwanted hotel assets using our secure storage facilities. We’ll then focus on moving the assets along, whether through our partnerships with specialist auction houses, through our list of regular buyers, or by recycling. You can then receive money for your unwanted assets after they are sold.
Instead of paying separate companies to provide a service for each of these stages of the furniture clearing process, including the cost of labour, using a furniture clearance service is much more cost efficient.
Avoiding Storage Expenses
The costs involved in renting storage space can quickly rack up, especially if you’re storing large items and aren’t sure how long you’ll need to store them. If you’re planning to move the assets along yourself after removal, for example by selling, you’ll have to keep paying for storage if you don’t get a sale immediately. Using a specialised asset removal service means these costs are included, so you know what to expect from the start.
Maximising asset return
Quick, think: if you were to try and sell a piece of hotel furniture today, who would you contact to sell it to? Chances are you don’t have too many buyers in mind, or if you do, you likely don’t have time to contact them all. That’s what we’re here for. As an asset clearance service provider, we have a ‘little black book’ of regular, qualified buyers who consistently buy our clients’ unwanted assets through private treaty sales, as well as partnerships with leading specialist auction houses. This means we’re able to maximise your financial return on your assets.
Reducing Environmental Impact
To save money on storage, we often see companies removing their unwanted assets and simply disposing of them at landfill. Sure, this might be quick and simple, but this method has a big impact on the environment which should be avoided as much as possible. Recycling just a single plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a lightbulb for more than three hours. Now consider how much energy can be saved through recycling or rehoming hundreds of unwanted hotel assets.
Our service aims to reduce the environmental impact of hospitality asset clearance whilst maintaining a fast and efficient removal process for you.
Over 90% of the assets we removed from The Westbury in Mayfair, London were reused, keeping them out of landfill.
Donation and Repurposing
One person’s trash is another person’s treasure! This is a fitting phrase for our asset clearance service. Whilst we describe the items we remove as ‘unwanted’, the reality is that someone else might want them. Whether our buyers are planning to upcycle or restore a piece of furniture, break a piece of equipment down into parts, or simply use an asset as-is, we can help repurpose your items. If we’re unable to find a buyer for an asset which isn’t obsolete, we’ll give you the option of donating it before we move onto recycling.
Improving Space Management
Through our origins as hoteliers ourselves, we understand how easy it can be to accumulate unused pieces of furniture and other assets in various storage areas throughout your property. The fabric of a chair rips or frays, so you replace it with another, and hide the old one away in a cupboard next to a smashed mirror and a rogue table leg. Soon enough, you’ll run out of space, and you find you can no longer use your storage areas as intended. That’s where an asset clearance service comes in: even if you’re not actively refurbishing, we can still remove these unwanted assets to improve your space management.
Reducing Downtime
The longer your establishment is closed, the longer your business isn’t generating revenue. This is why our number one priority during our furniture removal process is minimising downtime. Relying on multiple services to help you shift your unwanted assets means you could be let down, extending the length of the process. As a specialist hotel asset removal company, we provide all the services in one – working in perfect harmony to get the job done as quickly as possible.
Not every asset removal project will require your business to be fully closed, but there are many moving parts in any hospitality business which must be balanced with a labour-intensive job such as this. Outsourcing the project to a specialist team who are experienced in moving furniture and equipment quickly allows you to focus on running your business.
The Asset Clearance Process
Initial Consultation
Our hotel furniture clearance service begins with an in-depth consultation with a member of our experienced and friendly team to discuss your clearance requirements and create a detailed plan tailored to your specific business needs. We can remove your unwanted furniture in a big one-off collection or multiple smaller collections, with the aim to be as discreet and tactful as possible. The best option for you depends on your overall plans – are you liquidating, fully or partially renovating, or simply clearing out your storerooms?
Inventory Assessment
Once we have an idea of your needs, we’ll come to assess the items that need removing. During this assessment, we’ll identify any large or heavy items, including any which may need specialist equipment to move. This is to prevent us getting caught out on removal day – because we know exactly what to expect, we can bring the appropriate tools and labour.
We’ll also determine which assets can be sold, donated, or recycled, allowing us to make arrangements for transfer after removal.
Clearance Strategy Development
The information collected during the initial consultation and assessment allows us to develop a clearance strategy focused on your specific needs. You may need us to be discrete, making several small collections over several days or weeks to minimise disruption to your business. This will usually be the right choice if you’re keeping your establishment open to guests throughout the clearance process.
Other situations may call for us to be as fast as possible to allow you to get on with cleaning or renovating your property. Whatever you need, this is where we’ll get a comprehensive plan in place. Any items that are going to be rehomed and sold at auction will be placed into a secure storage facility until the resell of the item happens. The items removed from the hotel which aren’t going to be rehomed need to be disposed of properly. This may involve recycling certain materials, donating usable items to charity, or disposing of hazardous waste according to local regulations.
Execution and Removal
Because we’ll have planned your unwanted hotel asset removal so comprehensively, all that will be left to do is get on with the job. We have a highly experienced, professional team who have successfully completed many hotel clearance projects for a variety of businesses, including established four and five-star hotels. For situations which call for it, we also have a specialist team on hand who all hold CSCS accreditation, allowing us to work alongside even the biggest contractors to get the job done.
Our clearance project at The Conduit Club in Mayfair, London, required us to work alongside the main contractor. Due to our experience working alongside the construction industry, we were able to complete the project seamlessly and to schedule.
Post-Clearance Support
After the hotel clearance process has been completed, the task of rehoming any furniture and assets begins through private treaty sales with our regular buyers and auctions at our partnered auction houses. Whilst this process is ongoing, we’ll be storing your assets in our secure storage facilities, which are monitored 24/7 by CCTV and anti-theft devices.
Discuss Your Hotel Clearance Requirements Today
Hotel renovations are essential for elevating guest satisfaction, staying competitive, and boosting revenue. While the process requires an initial investment, it can lead to long-term savings through maintenance and energy efficiency improvements. Assessing your property’s needs and planning strategically are crucial: using professional services like The Hotel Clearance Company will streamline your process, minimising downtime and costs.
If you’re looking to discuss your hotel clearance requirements in more detail, get in touch with The Hotel Clearance Company. Whether your business is due to go through a refurbishment, a change in property use, or you are liquidating assets, we are here to help.
Our expert team can be contacted by calling 020 8123 8241 or visit The Hotel Clearance Company and fill out our online contact form.