Lexington, SC Hotel Loans: Laundry Equipment, Keycard Systems and Linen Stock

A guest room refresh replaces the soft goods and the small hardware: bedding, drapes, mirrors, lamps, artwork, safes, mini-fridges. At the front desk it can mean a new property management system, keycard encoders, computers and a phone system. Term financing spreads a refresh over a fixed number of months, so the rooms earn while the payments run.

Keycard systems are a common piece of that work. Replacing door locks across every room, the encoders at the desk and the software that ties them to the reservation system is a single quoted project, and a request can carry it on its own or with the room refresh.

NAICS 7211, Traveler Accommodation, groups hotels, motels and bed-and-breakfast inns. In Lexington County, SC that code held 52 establishments with paid staff in 2023 and 653 employees in the March pay period, about 12.6 per property (CBP; our arithmetic).

A motel or a franchised hotel can pay for upgrades several ways, and the right one depends on what is being bought.

• Equipment financing for items with a serial number: laundry machines, TVs, keycard locks, breakfast equipment
• Term financing for a room-by-room refresh with a fixed budget
• Working capital for payroll, linen stock and supplies while rooms are out of service
• A business line of credit for repairs and replacements that come up one at a time
• Paying cash for small items and keeping financing for the larger ones

Brand standards drive part of this. A franchised hotel works from the brand's list of required room items, and a change to that list can mean new mattresses, TVs or lighting across every room at once.

Illustration only, invented figures: replacing mattresses and TVs in 64 rooms at $950 a room is $60,800. At 10% over 48 months, that is $1,542.05 a month, or about $24.09 per room per month, and $74,018.40 across the term.

Case goods are the wood furniture in a guest room: the dresser, nightstands, headboard and desk. Safes, mini-fridges, lamps, drapes, artwork and mirrors are the smaller movable pieces. With linens, they make up a room refresh priced room by room; heating and cooling units such as PTACs, carpet and other work on the building stay outside this site.

A $180,400 total like the one in the table can be phased floor by floor, and a request can name each phase separately so the rooms out of service at any one time stay few. Work on the building itself, such as the exterior, structure or parking areas, is property work outside this site.

FF&E stands for furniture, fixtures and equipment, the movable contents of a hotel. In a breakfast area that means waffle makers, coffee machines, refrigerated cases, toasters, tables and chairs. At the pool it means loungers, tables, umbrellas and towel carts; the pool itself is part of the property and stays outside this site.

Laundry equipment is FF&E too. Illustration only, invented figures: a $46,000 set of commercial washers, dryers and a folder at 9% over 60 months costs $954.88 a month, a figure an owner can set against what an outside linen service charges.

Working capital sits beside the FF&E. Housekeeping, the front desk and breakfast staff are paid every pay period; Traveler Accommodation payroll in Lexington County, SC totaled $14.1 million in 2023 (CBP), and linen stock has to be bought ahead of the rooms it serves.

A property improvement plan, or PIP, is the list of upgrades a hotel brand sets for a franchised property. The movable items on it, such as furniture, bedding, lamps, TVs, keycard locks and lobby seating, are FF&E that a request through this site can cover. Renovation work and exterior and structural items on the same list are property work and stay outside it.

Smaller properties carry the same lists. In 2023 County Business Patterns showed 13 traveler accommodation establishments in Lexington County, SC with fewer than five employees, one in four of the 52 (25.0%).

Within ZIP 29072, 2023 ZIP Code Business Patterns list 8 traveler accommodation establishments. In a separate series, the 2024 Nonemployer Statistics count 48 lodging businesses in Lexington County, SC that run with no paid employees (NAICS 7211). Restaurants and stores are grouped with lodging on the industries page, and the Lexington, SC page carries ZIP and town figures.