How Long Does Bespoke Hotel Lighting Take? An 8-14 Week Timeline, Stage by Stage

How long does bespoke hotel lighting take from drawings to site?

For most bespoke hospitality projects, Metis Maison gives 8-14 weeks end to end. The spread depends on three things the company names: the size of the fixtures, the finish and the material. A run of brass sconces and a six-metre bronze lobby chandelier do not move through the workshop at the same speed, even on the same order.

The company splits the work into four timed stages and assigns one project manager from the first mood board to installation support. The table sets out each stage, what happens in it, and the approval it waits on. The last column is the one that decides whether the schedule holds.

One detail is worth noticing. The stage minimums add up to 9 weeks and the maximums to 14, so the 8-week floor of the headline range only works if some stages overlap. That is normal on a hotel package, where guest-room pieces can be in drawing while the lobby chandelier is in prototype. Ask which stages overlap on your project, and which do not.

What has to happen before the lead-time clock starts?

Two steps sit in front of the timed stages. The first is a mutual NDA: Metis Maison signs one before any mood board, drawing or supplier name is exchanged. If your legal team needs a week to review an NDA, that week comes before week one.

The second is the quotation, and how fast it arrives depends on what you send. A clear BOQ or FF&E schedule with references gets an itemised quote within 24 hours. A greenfield concept gets a budget range within 48 hours, and a firm quote within 5 working days after the prototype is approved. On a concept-led project, the firm price therefore arrives after the prototype stage, so plan your internal budget approval around that date rather than assuming a fixed price at the start.

The fastest way to shorten the front end is to settle the decisions that each later stage depends on. These are the ones that most often hold a schedule:

• Finish: request the 50 x 50 mm finish chip set early. It is sent by DHL at cost, and the cost is refundable against a confirmed order above USD 5,000. For large architectural finishes an A4 sample panel is available.
• Colour temperature and colour rendering: LED modules are tuned between 2700K and 4000K at CRI 80, 90 or 95+, and a mock-up at your chosen CCT is sent for sign-off before production.
• Control system: drivers and dimming modules are pre-wired in the factory to your control specification (for example DALI-2, Lutron, Casambi or 0-10V), so the protocol has to be fixed before production starts.
• Mounting conditions: ceiling heights, structure and suspension points feed the shop drawings and the load calculations, so get the site information to the drawing team in the first week.
• Destination and Incoterm: the delivery point decides whether your schedule ends at the port in China or at the hotel.

What happens in the drawing stage, and what slows it down?

Drawing starts only after the concept mood board, with its material palette and finish swatches, has been signed off. Metis Maison then produces 3D SolidWorks models and shop drawings with every weld, fastener and load path dimensioned, with structural calculations attached. The stated window for concept and shop drawings is 1-2 weeks.

What stretches this stage is rarely the drafting itself. It is the review loop: drawings go to the designer, comments come back, drawings are revised. As general practice, consolidate comments from the designer, the lighting consultant and the owner's team into one marked-up set per round.

Why does the 1:1 prototype take 2-3 weeks, and who has to sign it off?

Every bespoke design goes through a 1:1 physical prototype to check finish, proportion and optics. For hospitality projects the company recommends a full-scale sample of the largest fixture in the package, signed off by both the designer and the owner, before any production tooling is released. The prototype is built, finished and signed off in person.

The 2-3 weeks covers building the sample. It does not cover the time it takes your side to come and look at it. This is the point in the schedule where most delays originate: production cannot start until the prototype is approved, so a sign-off that slips by a week moves the site delivery by a week.

What drives the 4-6 week production window?

Once the prototype is approved, production runs 4-6 weeks, with weekly progress photos sent to the client. Where a project lands in that range depends on factors you can see in your own FF&E schedule:

• Quantity per reference: a typical first order is 30 to 100 pieces per reference. Several hundred identical guest-room sconces are a consistency task, checked against the approved golden sample.
• Finish: hand-applied finishes take craft hours. Metis Maison's hand-rubbed bronze is built up through a multi-stage patination process, and the company says plainly that patina cannot be hurried.
• Size and structure: a large multi-tier chandelier is engineered, assembled and wired as a structure, not as a single lamp.

At Sheraton Shaoxing Yukun, a Marriott International property, Metis Maison delivered more than 1,200 bespoke fixtures across the lobby, ballroom, F&B outlets, corridors and 280 guest rooms, in phases under a dedicated project manager. In the guest rooms the task was sameness: every lamp had to match a golden master approved at sampling.

What is the pre-hang test, and why is it worth the time?

Every chandelier over 12 kg is pre-hung in the factory on its actual suspension hardware, balanced, and photographed or filmed for the client. The fixture is pre-assembled, level-checked and load-tested, then knocked down for shipment, with a reassembly drawing and parts list packed inside the crate. The company includes this in its standard quotation.

The reason is arithmetic. A fault found before the fixtures ship costs days in the factory. The same fault found on site, with scaffolding booked and a ceiling contractor waiting, costs weeks, because parts may have to come back from China. For the Sheraton Shaoxing Yukun lobby, a multi-tier bronze chandelier more than six metres across was delivered in four pre-assembled sections, each one lit and photographed before it was crated.

Does the 8-14 weeks include ocean freight to my country?

This is the question to settle in writing. The FAQ groups pre-hang test and ocean freight into one 2-3 week stage. The same FAQ lists typical door-to-door ocean transit times that are longer than that for most destinations:

Read together, the 8-14 week figure is most safely treated as reaching the point of shipment, with transit added for your destination. If your quotation shows a delivery-to-site date, check which transit time it assumes. Sailing schedules, customs clearance and the last leg from port to hotel also take time, and who carries that risk depends on the Incoterm.

Metis Maison quotes EXW, FOB Shenzhen or Ningbo, CIF, DAP, and DDP for most countries. Under FOB, its milestones end at the Chinese port and your forwarder takes over. Under DAP or DDP, the supplier's schedule runs to the named place, so the quotation should carry a site delivery date.

How do I plan backwards from a hotel opening date?

Start from the date the fixtures must be on site, not the opening date. Your site programme sets that date: lighting usually has to be installed before ceilings are closed, finishes are protected and the operator's pre-opening checks begin. Then count back stage by stage. The worked example below uses the upper end of every stated range for a hotel in the European Union:

To turn the example into a programme, work through these steps in order:

• Get the date fixtures must be on site from the main contractor's programme, not from the marketing opening date.
• Subtract transit for your destination from the table above, and add your forwarder's time for customs and delivery if you buy FOB.
• Ask for a milestone schedule with separate dates for drawing approval, prototype sign-off, end of production, vessel departure and, where relevant, arrival on site.
• Put the decision dates for your own side, mood board, drawing comments and prototype sign-off, into the owner's and designer's calendars.
• Agree the payment dates that release each stage, so a deposit or balance payment does not hold a finished container.
• Review progress weekly against the production photos and keep a short buffer before the site date. Its size is a judgement for your project team.

What moves the schedule after the order is placed?

Most slippage on bespoke lighting does not start in the factory. It starts with a decision or a payment that arrives late. These are the usual causes, and what to do about each:

• Late prototype sign-off: every day of delay passes straight to site delivery. Fix the date and the approver in advance.
• Design changes after approval: a changed dimension or finish can send work back to drawings or the prototype stage. Freeze the design at sign-off and log any change with its schedule impact.
• Undecided control specification: drivers are pre-wired in the factory to your control system, so a protocol decided late holds the electrical assembly.
• Payment timing: standard terms are a 30% T/T deposit and 70% before shipment, or an L/C at sight for projects above USD 80,000. The balance has to clear before the container can be released, and an L/C has to be opened through your bank.

How do phased openings and multi-site projects change the timeline?

Hotels often open in phases: a podium and public areas first, then guest-room floors, or one tower after another. Metis Maison says milestone payments are negotiable on multi-phase rollouts, for example tower-by-tower delivery, and the Sheraton Shaoxing Yukun package was delivered in phases under one project manager.

A phased programme works best when the hardest piece goes first. Put the lobby chandelier or the largest ballroom fixture into the first prototype, because it carries the most engineering and the longest pre-hang. Guest-room pieces can follow once the golden sample is approved, and repeat orders after the first sample sign-off have no minimum quantity.

For multi-property developments, one quotation can cover several villas, towers or cities, split into per-site containers with per-site packing lists, so each site gets its own arrival date.

What happens in the weeks after the fixtures arrive?

For overseas projects, Metis Maison can send a senior engineer for the first on-site installation, typically for 5-10 days on site. The engineer's daily rate is in the quotation appendix, and travel and accommodation are quoted separately. Book those dates as soon as the vessel departure is confirmed.

If something arrives damaged, photograph the crate and the part within 48 hours of arrival and send the photos to the project manager. Because every crate is photographed before sailing, the company says claims are settled within 7 days. A replacement part ships from the next batch, or a local fabricator repairs it under guidance. Allow for this in your buffer.