Why Buy Second-hand Hospitality Furniture?
Cost Savings
One of the main advantages of buying second-hand hotel and restaurant furniture is the cost savings you’ll achieve. New furniture, especially high quality or bespoke pieces, are undoubtedly expensive, and by purchasing second-hand, you’ll get much more bang for your buck. This means you can get better quality items for the same amount of money, or you can have some of your budget leftover to invest in other parts of your hotel renovation project.
New furniture depreciates in value as soon as it’s purchased, so you can even save money when you buy slightly used items – not every second-hand purchase needs to be a DIY upcycling project. This also means that – because much of the depreciation has already happened – its resale value will be much more similar to the original price you bought it for.
Sustainability
In the UK, we send about 670,000 tonnes of furniture to landfill every year – and almost 45% of that is considered to be reusable. There is a huge need for businesses – especially those which own a large amount of furniture, whether this includes desks and chairs in an office building or beds and wardrobes in a hotel – to take steps to lessen their contributions to these figures.
A refurbishment of a hotel or restaurant generally comes with a massive carbon footprint, and as well as sustainably selling, donating or recycling your existing furniture, you can offset this by buying second-hand.
Uniqueness
How often do you walk into someone’s house and think ‘oh, I know that lamp’ or ‘I have that same coffee table’? If you’ve bought mass produced, cookie-cutter furniture before – which the vast majority of people have – then the answer is probably ‘all the time’. There is so much beauty in buying vintage, characterful pieces of furniture – it just takes a little more effort and searching. If you’re willing to put in that work, you’ll be rewarded with authentic, unique pieces that you probably won’t find anywhere else – whether they were made bespoke in the first place or because the original line of furniture they belonged to has long since been discontinued.
Designing a room with these unique pieces builds a memorable place for your patrons to visit for restaurants and hotels alike. They’ll provide a talking point that is so much more complimentary than ‘I have that at home’, and allow you to get really creative with your interior design, where each second-hand piece is procured and placed thoughtfully and with both intention and practicality.
Style
Tying very much into our last point, buying second-hand furniture allows you to achieve styles outside of the current contemporary minimalism wave. Whether you want a few statement pieces to bring a modern Scandinavian style room to life or you’re going all in on retro, you’ll be able to find more unusual, vintage or stand-out pieces when buying second-hand. A lot of second-hand pieces can also be considered timeless, either because they’re simple staples or because quality never goes out of fashion.
Stories
Another benefit to buying second-hand hospitality furniture is the stories these old pieces bring. A set of dining chairs may have lived in a hotel all their lives, or some old pews – to use as benches – may have resided in a local church. A once-beloved coffee table could have simply sat in someone’s home as the centre of family life in the living room. You may get particularly lucky with other pieces which could be steeped in even more history, bringing a sense of authenticity and intrigue to your establishment.
Where Can Old Hospitality Furniture Be Bought?
Auctions
Keep an eye out for any hospitality furniture auctions, where existing establishments are selling their unwanted assets in bulk. Generally, items sold at auction are still fit for purpose – the owners may just be refurbishing with a new style or even closing down. This is a great place to pick up sets of items like tables or chairs, saving you time and effort in finding many different pieces from different places which fit harmoniously in a restaurant. You may also be able to get a much better deal than if you were indeed to purchase the items individually.
At second-hand auctions or hotel clearance auctions, you may also be able to get your hands on equipment like ovens and fridges or televisions, or smaller items – again in bulk – like cutlery and crockery. At The Hotel Clearance Company, we work closely with industry-leading auction houses to sell hospitality items which are still fit for purpose, and it can be a real time- and money-saver when it comes to furnishing your hospitality establishment.
Second-Hand Furniture Shops
For more one-off pieces, second-hand shops or charity shops are the way to go. They won’t just sell any old piece of furniture – they’ll check the quality of it beforehand to ensure it’s good enough with no unsalvageable cracks or damage. If there is some damage that can be upcycled, they’ll price it accordingly. You’ll be able to browse for items you like and fully check them out yourself before purchasing, and building relationships with these shops can be a real benefit to your search. They may be able to contact you if they happen across something you’re looking for.
Supporting local second-hand furniture shops also supports your local economy.
Online Marketplaces
Online marketplaces like Facebook Marketplace, eBay and Etsy have become popular places to buy and sell second-hand furniture. It’s worth keeping an eye out on these platforms to see if anything you need becomes available in your area. We highly recommend keeping it local enough for you to easily visit and check the quality of the item in person before you commit to buying, but it’s important to keep in mind your own safety as you do so. Stick to communicating through the platform, and never purchase anything you haven’t seen through the PayPal friends and family option, as this won’t cover you should something go awry.
Car Boot Sales
You might also get lucky at a car boot sale, especially if you’re looking for one-off or decorative items. Items for sale at car boot sales are often priced particularly low, so it can be a great way to save some money. Before you go, make sure you read our second-hand hospitality furniture buying tips and tricks below to ensure the quality of your purchase before you commit.
Second-hand Hospitality Furniture Buying Tips and Tricks
Look for Quality and Potential
When you’re searching for second-hand hospitality items to buy for your hotel or restaurant, make sure you’re not just looking surface-deep. Coffee tables which look great at first glance may turn out to be flimsy or cracked at closer inspection, and upholstered items like sofas and armchairs could be hiding a plethora of sins beneath their soft exterior.
At the same time, items which at first look worn or dated can be some of the best quality items on offer when you look past the surface-level blemishes and investigate the craftsmanship below. Solid wood second-hand furniture, in particular, lend well to being sanded down and painted or varnished to bring out the beauty of the wood. They’re solid, sturdy, and just need a bit of love to bring them back to their full glory. They can also be maintained much more easily, meaning they’ll last years of use in your hospitality establishment too.
In general, look for pieces that are built from materials such as solid wood, strong metals like steel or wrought iron, stone, glass, and even high-quality wood veneer as these are all relatively durable.
Look Out for Cracks or Woodworm
When you’re looking for that quality, it’s important to keep a close eye out for any signs of unsaveable cracks or even woodworm. Even if there is no longer an active woodworm infestation, the tunnels the larvae leave as they burrow into the wood can impact the furniture’s structural integrity and durability, even causing it to crumble in places. And if there’s a live infestation – well, it goes without saying that you don’t want that anywhere near your property. Luckily, reputable resale shops will look out for these signs before they bring the furniture into their own establishment – you just have to be careful when purchasing over an online marketplace or car boot sale where a third party hasn’t been involved to assess the quality of the items.
Signs of woodworm include small, round holes (where the larvae exit the wood), often with a powdery dust around or below them. The wood may be brittle or crumble when you touch it, and you may even be able to see woodworm tunnels under the surface of the wood.
Look for Special, Unique Details – Carvings in the Wood, Legs and Feet
This is where the beauty lies! Carvings – from the most simple to anything more fabulously ornate like scrolls, flowers and fruits – just can’t be done in imitation wood like MDF or plywood. This means that mass produced, flatpack furniture doesn’t have anything of the sort, and it adds such a stunning level of depth and dimension to the piece that looks good in any room.
Carvings like this are usually done by hand, and it’s a form of art – any chest of drawers, wardrobe, chair or bed frame featuring a design like this has been lovingly poured over whilst it was built. It’s also a good sign that the rest of the item will be built with quality and longevity in mind – you don’t spend that much time creating beauty like this just to have the furniture break down after a few years of use.
Other details to look out for include the feet and legs of tables and chairs – claw and ball feet, pad feet, triffid feet, fluted or tapered legs. Chair backs can also be packed full of ornamentation, with carved leaves or scallop shells, and sweeping arches. Other details include architectural motifs like columns and brackets, iron or copper hardware (like knobs, handles or hinges), and even veneer inlays of more expensive woods like ebony and maple.
Check the Bottoms and the Backs
If you’re following our advice above, you’ll be checking your second-hand furniture finds thoroughly for any signs of wear that can’t be rectified or lived with. Whilst you’re there, there’s one place in particular you need to be looking at – one that you won’t be able to see when the furniture is just sitting there against a wall.
The bottoms of any drawers and the backs of any wardrobes or cupboards can sometimes be made from thin, flimsy materials like plywood which wear easily and break when too much pressure is exerted, whether through cracking or snapping, or by coming away from the rest of the furniture entirely. If you’ve found something you have your heart set on, you can replace the offending bottom or back, but it’s good to be aware that you’ll need to do so when you purchase.
Take Care Buying Upholstered Items
Buying second-hand upholstered items like chairs or settees for your hotel or restaurant can be a bit of a minefield. These items easily pick up stains or tears over the years, and can show signs of wear from use more obviously than wooden or metal pieces. Look out for these stains or rips and take into account anything that can’t be removed or repaired easily, as you may need to get it reupholstered – which comes with added costs.
Like with woodworm in solid wood furniture, you’ll need to keep an eye out for any infestations – this time of bedbugs, which is the last thing anyone wants – least of all in a hotel where they can easily spread and destroy your reputation. Avoid any upholstered items with a hint of a sign of bed bugs – small black spots, reddish streaks and smears, or the discarded exoskeletons of the pests. Like with woodworm, reputable shops will not risk stocking furniture with bed bug infestations, so stick to these when buying upholstered items.
Avoid Second-hand Flatpack or Mass Produced Furniture
Flatpack furniture simply isn’t designed to be taken apart and rebuilt multiple times, and they aren’t built to last. In a hotel or restaurant, you need durable furniture which will withstand a high amount of traffic – more than in the home. Furniture like this is often made from flimsy materials which sag, crack and break far more easily – if you’re putting the effort into buying second-hand, focus on looking for items which will flourish as your business does.
Sustainable Hospitality Clearances with The Hotel Clearance Company
At The Hotel Clearance Company, we specialise in hospitality furniture clearance and soft strip demolition to help prepare your hospitality establishment for refurbishment, liquidation, or full demolition. We offer a sustainable, cost-effective, and comprehensive service which includes everything from an original inventory assessment to removal of your assets to selling via private treaty sales and auction.
To find out more about what we do and how we can help you to maximise your profits on your unwanted hospitality assets, simply get in touch with us today by calling 020 8123 8241 or filling in our online contact form and a member of the team will get back in touch to discuss your hotel clearance requirements.