Journal · For buyers · Oct 2026

What a five-star hotel actually specifies.

A procurement team at a five-star hotel writes a specification before anyone looks at a rug. It covers fibre, density, GSM, tolerances, labelling, chemical testing, fire testing on request, and the documentation pack that ships with every piece. This post sets out what we see on those briefs, and what the honest answer is for each line. We name no hotel — this is the shape of the specification, not the client.

The fibre decision comes first

The specification starts with the fibre, because the fibre decides the risk profile for every environment in the hotel. Wool runs through guest rooms, corridors, and lobbies as the default; viscose or art silk is specified only for suites and formal reception spaces where water and point-load traffic will not reach the pile; silk accents are specified where lustre is the design intent; jute or wool-and-jute flatweaves show up for terrace, veranda, or lower-exposure spaces where a plant fibre is the right call. We write the fibre on the pro-forma against the named installation room; the hotel’s procurement officer signs that line before anything else.

Construction and density per room type

Construction follows the fibre and the environment. Hand-knotted at the right KPSI is specified for signature spaces and suites: lobbies, formal reception, long-life areas. Hand-tufted at the right GSM carries guest-room programmes where carved relief or detailed patterning is part of the design brief. Handloom covers mid-traffic residential and functional areas. Flatweave is specified for terrace, outdoor-adjacent, and reversible-use locations.

Density ranges in the brief are not round numbers — they are tied to a wearing standard and a target service life. Our published hand-knotted range is 20–180 KPSI with a lead time of 45 days at 30 KPSI and 90 days at 150 KPSI, scaled linearly between. Our hand-tufted carved programme runs 1,200–2,800 GSM. Specifying higher within the range buys longer service and better recovery under traffic; specifying lower keeps lead time short and the price point lower. The honest conversation at the brief is which part of the hotel the specification is for.

Tolerances in writing on the purchase order

Three tolerances appear on every serious hotel pro-forma, and we commit all three in writing before production starts.

GSM: ±5%. Written on the purchase order. The digital weighing scale is calibrated every three months through IICT Bhadohi (the Indian Institute of Carpet Technology). A piece outside the ±5% tolerance is rejected and a new piece made for the client — not reworked, not discounted, not shipped. Very few competitors put a GSM tolerance in writing.
Size: ±3%. Length and width verified with tape against the SKU and the approved CAD, recorded on the QC slip that also carries the GSM check.
Skew: not more than 1 inch. Checked on every rug. Nobody else publishes a skew tolerance; a hotel procurement team that has installed a buckled rug in a corridor knows exactly why this matters.

Colour matching and lab-dip approval

Hotel schemes work in Pantone TPX, Pantone TCX, or ARS 1400 references. We match to the reference under D65 light and send the physical lab dip for approval before pulling the colour into production. The lab dip takes about ten days per colourway, and we do not skip the light-box check. On a multi-colourway programme (a corridor set, a suite scheme, a hospitality-wide range), the sign-off is per colourway; a batch dyed before its own dip was approved does not ship.

Chemical safety: Oeko-Tex via Hohenstein, Chem-ST via Eurofins

Oeko-Tex Standard 100 (BASE class) is tested at Hohenstein Germany. The certificate is held and verifiable; the licence number is provided to buyers during onboarding, not published, because the public directories make a competitor shortlist too easy to build. The restricted-substances panel (Chem-ST) is run at Eurofins Product Testing India in Gurgaon on a monthly random basis. Chem-ST covers AFIRM RSL limits, REACH Annex XVII and SVHC, and POP Regulation; the panel includes azo dyes, aromatic amines, chlorobenzenes, chlorophenols, Chromium VI, dimethyl fumarate, formaldehyde, PFAS, phthalates, PAHs, and VOCs by HS-GCMS. The most recent report was PASS on both Chem-ST and EU Regulation across five colourways, destination USA and Europe. We supply the full report on request as part of the hotel documentation pack.

Fire testing: project-specific, not blanket

We hold no blanket ASTM E648 or IMO fire certification. For a hotel project that requires a flammability pass to a specific standard (ASTM E648 Class 1, CSTB M3, EN 13501 B-fl, state fire marshall), we arrange project-specific testing through Intertek or SGS, with the sample pulled from the lot that will ship and the certificate attached to the pro-forma. We never imply yacht, superyacht, or marine capability; IMO FTP Code and MED Wheelmark are explicitly not held, and we will decline a brief that requires them without naming the labs who could sub-contract the test.

Labelling, barcoding, and private-label packaging

Private-label hotel programmes ship with the buyer’s branded label stitched to the reverse (RWS, GoodWeave and Oeko-Tex marks alongside the hotel mark), the buyer’s barcode system applied, and packaging to the hotel’s warehouse brief. Confidential design agreements are standard: CADs, colourways and constructions are ring-fenced to the account and never shown, resold or adapted for another buyer.

The documentation pack that ships with every programme

The documentation hotel procurement teams expect, and the version we supply.

Commercial invoice and packing list, line-item against the pro-forma.
Certificate of origin and HS classification (5701 hand-knotted, 5702 handloom and flatweave, 5703 tufted).
GoodWeave transaction certificate on certified lines.
RWS and GRS transaction certificates on the applicable material programme.
Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certificate and licence details on buyer request.
SMETA 4-pillar audit summary from our Sedex membership.
Chem-ST panel report (most recent) and REACH SVHC statement on request.
Pre-shipment inspection photographs, one set per rolled rug with the GSM reading and size verification visible on the slip.
Fumigation certificate for destinations that require it.
REX number for every EU shipment (INREXABAFP1825BDG015).

Payment terms, Incoterms, ports

Payment is 50% advance and 50% before dispatch; goods do not leave until paid in full. SWIFT bank transfer or PayPal with the buyer covering the ~5% processing fee. We accept EXW, FOB, CFR, CIF, DAP, DDP. Pricing basis is FOB Nhava Sheva (Mumbai) for sea freight and FOB IGI Delhi for air freight. Freight routing is buyer-nominated forwarder, buyer’s own DHL/FedEx account for door-to-door courier, or PiHue-arranged freight added to the invoice.

What a procurement team reads before the first call

If a hotel procurement team can read this post before the first supplier call, the call runs faster and cleaner. The specification is already most of the way written: fibre by room, construction and density by use, tolerances committed in writing, chemical testing lab names on the record, fire testing arranged project-specifically through named labs, labelling and documentation at the standard a buyer actually asks for. We do not add marketing to the brief, and we are explicit about what we do not hold — because the specification conversation is faster when the gaps are named.

What goes wrong on hotel programmes

A specification written against a magazine photograph. Lifestyle photography shows rugs under three months old. The specification needs the service-life floor the hotel actually requires; service life is a function of fibre, construction and GSM, not the photograph.
Fibre chosen for cost before the environment is confirmed. Viscose in a dining room, hand-tufted in a corridor, flatweave at a tight GSM in reception. Specify to the environment first; the quotation adjusts to the budget inside that constraint.
Fire certification promised without a named lab and project test. Blanket fire certifications on handmade rug lines are rare and expensive. Project-specific testing through Intertek or SGS is the honest route; a supplier who claims the blanket is usually wrong.
Documentation requested after the shipment lands. The transaction certificates, Chem-ST reports, and audit summaries ship with the pro-forma, not after. Build them into the pre-ship pack.
No MOQ discussion. MOQ is 1 piece across our constructions, so the specification can be trialled before the programme-wide order. A side-by-side sample in the actual installation room settles more arguments than any specification language.