Starter Kit. Idea 402 of 500. Cluster 20
Interior-design firms serving the villa and hotel owners, with the products sourced from this list
The mechanism, from the book
Sri Lankans make the world's underwear to the world's standard, and the country has no fashion brand of its own that the world has heard of.
The first step
Walk into three boutique hotels or villas in your area and ask the owner what they bought abroad for the rooms last year and why they could not find it at home. Then put together a sample room scheme using only products from this appendix, with prices. An owner who asks you to quote for one room is your first client.
- Who pays first
- A villa or boutique hotel owner refurbishing rooms who wants a local look and would pay a designer to source it from island makers.
- What leaves today
- Hotels import much of their furnishing from abroad; a local interior firm sends that spending to island makers instead.
Ask first
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask which business registration suits a small interior-design firm.
- National Crafts Council. Ask which makers can supply furnishings in hotel quantities.
Check before you spend
A written scope and price for each room, who carries the risk if a maker delivers late, and that every product meets hotel fire rules.
Find out these three numbers
- What did owners buy abroad for rooms last year?
- What does a sample room scheme cost to source here?
- Which owners are refurbishing this year?
A comparison from the book
Bentota and the hotels of Asia. Chapter Three
"the most expensive hotels in Asia look the way they do because"
Hotels across Asia took a Sri Lankan look; owners here can buy it from the source.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.