Comparing quotations
The unit price is the line everyone looks at, and almost never the one that decides. The others show up at the end of the job.
The unit price is the wrong line to compare
Comparing a catalogue fitting with a bespoke one by unit price is like comparing two building quotes by the price of cement: it is a real line, it is easy to read, and it decides nothing.
The lines that really move the total are three, and none of them appears in the line being compared: how many separate codes it takes to cover the building, what it costs to adapt a catalogue piece to a room it was not thought for, and what it is worth not to reorder in two years with a finish that has changed in the meantime.
Count the codes, not the pieces
A hotel with forty different codes has forty data sheets to file, forty lead times to coordinate and forty stock lines to hold. One with eight families has eight of each.
The difference is not in the purchase price: it is in everything that comes after, and it falls on people other than those who signed the order — the buyer who reorders, the maintenance team hunting a spare, the manager explaining why the lamp in one room is different.
Adapting is a cost that moves, not one that vanishes
Shortening a pendant, changing a fixing, remaking a shade to size, moving a cable exit: these are bespoke operations performed on a catalogue piece. They get paid for anyway, they simply appear after signature and on another line of the account — often on a line that does not even belong to the lighting supplier.
That is why the honest comparison is not "catalogue against bespoke", but "catalogue plus the expected adaptations against bespoke". Done that way the order of magnitude often reverses, and in any case it becomes a comparison between two comparable numbers.
When bespoke really wins
The case where bespoke wins is more common than it looks, and it is recognisable: when one family, made in three or four sizes, replaces six or seven different catalogue items.
The list of codes gets shorter, so does the list of spares, and the rooms resemble one another — which was the point to begin with. It does not win when a single piece is needed, in a single position, with no repetition: there the catalogue is the right answer, and it is worth saying so.
The minimum order changes the total more than the price does
On a purpose-made piece there is almost always a quantity below which the cost per piece rises quickly, because the set-up is spread over fewer units. It is a characteristic of the process, not a commercial policy, and it has to be asked about explicitly.
The useful question is not "what does one cost?" but "from how many pieces does the price settle?". The answer changes how the spaces get grouped: two batches of twenty cost more than one batch of forty, and the difference often pays for the bespoke choice on its own.
The finish is settled on a sample, not on a code
Two batches of the same finish, made months apart, may not be the same tone: it depends on the bath, on the starting metal, on the hand. On an isolated piece nobody notices; along a row, the eye catches it at once.
Whoever reorders therefore needs the colour fixed on a physical sample that is kept, and needs it clear who keeps it and for how long. A colour code written into the order is not enough: it describes a target, not a reference against which a newly finished piece can be compared.
The spare at two years, which is where the difference shows
On a catalogue piece, in two years, the spare either exists or has been discontinued — and in the second case there is nothing to be done. On a bespoke piece it is never discontinued, but it has to be made again, with the timings and the minimums of a production run.
They are two different risks, and they have to be chosen knowing which one is preferred. What makes both manageable is the same thing: buying the spares with the first supply, while the tooling, the bath and the hand are still the same ones, and keeping them in the building.
Who pays for the drawing, and who keeps it
On a bespoke piece the drawing is work, not a commercial courtesy: design hours, a sample, often a revision. In a serious quotation that line is present, and the right question is not whether to strip the cost out but what happens if the project does not go ahead.
Three arrangements are common: the drawing is included and stays with the supplier; it is paid for separately and belongs to the client; it is paid for separately and credited against the order if the supply proceeds. None of the three is wrong, but they have to be written down — because the only thing worse than paying for a drawing is discovering, with the project stalled, that it cannot be taken elsewhere.
The cost neither quotation contains
Among the items that decide the cost of an installation there is one that appears in no quotation, catalogue or bespoke: the time of whoever manages it. Forty codes mean forty conversations with forty suppliers, each with its own email, its own delay and its own invoice.
It is not an abstract item: it is the buyer's work, and it is measurable. Anyone who has done a hotel knows it and does not write it down; anyone doing it for the first time discovers it halfway through, when they realise they spend more time chasing suppliers than choosing fittings.
The way to allow for it at comparison stage is simple and nobody does it: count the counterparties, not the products. Two quotations costing the same, one bringing eight interlocutors and the other thirty-eight, do not cost the same, and the difference is paid by somebody who was not sitting at the selection meeting.
When the catalogue is the right answer
It is worth saying clearly, because a supplier who works to measure has an obvious interest in not saying it: when you need a single piece, in a single position, with no repetition, the catalogue wins. Adding a design, a sample and an approval to a fitting that does not repeat is time spent without gaining coherence.
The boundary is fairly sharp and is recognised with one question: how many times will this piece appear, and in how many variants? Below three or four occurrences, and without dimensional constraints, bespoke has no lever to work with. Above, or with constraints, it very much does.
Maintenance cost depends on where the fitting is
Two identical fittings, one at three metres and one at eight, do not have the same maintenance cost, and the difference is not the piece: it is the equipment and the people needed to reach it. It is an item that can be calculated at the start and almost nobody calculates.
On a phased installation the sum gets worse: if the high fittings belong to different families, every intervention is its own occasion. If they belong to one family, a single access serves several things — and in a hotel an access at height is a night's work, not an hour.
How to write a specification that does not stall
A specification that names a precise model is fragile: that model only has to be unavailable and everything stops waiting for a variation approval. A specification that describes the performance and the family does not stall, because it carries the criterion for judging an alternative.
In practice three things get written per space: what the light has to do, which family does it, and what has to stay the same between fittings of that family. The model, if useful, goes in as a reference and not an obligation — that is, "type x, or equivalent judged on these three criteria".
Special finishes and the risk of depending on one supplier
A very particular finish is beautiful and has a hidden cost: it is bought from one supplier, and from that moment the coherence of the building depends on that supplier surviving. On a ten-year project that is not a theoretical risk.
The way to handle it is not to give up the finish: it is to document it. The physical sample kept, the finish recipe if the supplier releases it, and a few spare pieces turn a dependency into reproducibility. Three lines in an order, and they hold for the life of the building.
The five questions to ask both quotations
For a comparison to mean anything, the same questions go to the catalogue and to the bespoke. The difference shows in the answers, not in the list:
- how many counterparties this supply involves, not how many products
- which adaptations are already included, and which will arrive on another line
- what it costs to reach the highest fitting, and how many times a year
- what happens if this model or this finish goes out of production
- who keeps the drawing and the sample, and for how many years
How to really compare a bespoke quotation with a catalogue one
For the comparison to mean anything, the two quotations have to contain the same lines. There are five to ask of both:
- how many distinct codes make up the supply, and how many families
- which adaptations are already included, and which will arrive later
- the minimum order, and the quantity from which the price settles
- who keeps the finish sample, and for how long
- how many spares are included, and where they stay
| The line | Catalogue | Bespoke |
|---|---|---|
| Price per piece | lower, visible | higher, visible |
| Adaptations | arrive later, on another line | already included |
| Number of codes | one per requirement | one family in several sizes |
| Spares | bought when needed | bought with the first batch |
| Spare at two years | it exists or is discontinued | remade, if you have drawing and sample |
| The drawing | already paid for by others | a declared line, and who keeps it must be written |
An honest total includes the adaptations
A catalogue quotation without a "modifications" line is not complete: it is incomplete in a predictable way. Asking for it is the quickest way to make two quotations comparable.
Spares are bought with the first batch
It is the only window in which they cost little and are identical. Afterwards they are a production run of their own — with its minimum, its lead time and its uncertainty about tone.
Sometimes the catalogue is the right answer
A single piece, in a single position, with no repetition: there bespoke adds time and adds no coherence. Saying so is part of a supplier's job.
The sum is done beforehand
Send us the list of spaces: we come back with how many families are really needed and what changes against the catalogue, before there is an order in the way.
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