Case Study · Hospitality · Decorative Lighting
Decorative lighting for a five-star hotel in Ethiopia
A client in Dubai. A factory in Asia. A site in Ethiopia. Bespoke fixtures throughout, and not one stage started before the previous one came back signed.
The brief
A Dubai-based main supplier came to us with the decorative lighting scope for a five-star international hotel under construction in Ethiopia: guest rooms and the presidential suite.
Nothing in the package was a catalogue item. Every fixture had to be developed from a reference image into a manufacturable, hotel-grade luminaire: amber and smokey-grey glass pendants in four diameters, marble-base table lamps with linen drum shades, matte black bedside reading lights, ash wood and woven raffia flush mounts, antique brass wall lights, and bespoke desk lamps that needed their own tooling.
Three countries were involved and none of them could see the others. The client was in Dubai, production was at our nominated partner factory in Asia, and the site was in Ethiopia. On a job shaped like that, the thing that fails is not manufacturing. It is the handover between one stage and the next.
Seven gates, in order
We don’t start a stage until the one before it is approved in writing. It is how we make sure the client gets exactly what they signed for.
Enquiry
Reference images and a room-by-room requirement. No dimensions, no specifications, no drawings.
Commercial offer, next working day
Priced the following morning. Several numbered offers and revisions followed as scope firmed up, each one traceable to the comment that caused it.
Technical datasheets, fixture by fixture
Dimensions, materials, finish, light source, colour temperature, wattage and dimming behaviour agreed in writing before anything was drawn. The technical baseline.
Shop drawings
Every fixture drawn to manufacturing tolerance from the agreed datasheet, then issued to the client for review.
Physical finish approval
Finish references (matte black, marble, brushed metals, fabric-wrapped cord) confirmed against physical samples rather than screen renders.
Client-stamped drawings
Production released against a stamped approval, not a verbal go-ahead. Fixture-specific installation manuals issued the same week, so mounting and assembly are already answered when the site team opens the box.
Inspection against a project-specific checklist
A generic checklist is not enough on a bespoke package. We build the checklist from the client’s own approved drawing and inspect item by item, photographed line by line.
Then commercial invoice, packing list, airway bill. Around six months from an enquiry with no dimensions on it to a mock-up set inspected and shipped.
What the process is actually for
Partway through the drawing stage, the client came back with four comments. They’re worth reading, because they’re exactly the kind of thing that becomes an expensive argument on site if the paperwork is loose.
Four comments
- All decorative fixtures to be 2500 K, not the colour temperature first specified
- Bedside reading lamps to be 3000 K instead, a different and crisper task light
- Reading lamps to be fixed, not adjustable
- A presidential-suite item removed from scope
Each one changed a drawing. Each revised drawing went back for stamp. Each stamped drawing changed the QC checklist. So when the reading lights came up for inspection, they were checked against a fixed arm at 3000 K, because that is what the approved drawing said, and the checklist was built from the drawing rather than from memory.
Every reading light in this package goes through that check, and every one that follows will. Had the change stayed in an email and never reached the inspection sheet, it would have been discovered in Ethiopia.
We had one of everything built before any of it was built
Before a single production unit was committed, the client received a physical mock-up set: one or more of every fixture type in the package, produced on the same tooling, in the same finishes, with the lamps included so the set could be switched on and assessed as a complete fitting rather than a shell.
That is the stage that has just completed. It costs money and it adds weeks. It is also cheaper than a rejected container at the port of entry, and it is the only way to have an argument about a finish while the argument is still worth having.
Scope
| Fixture | Specification |
|---|---|
| Bedside reading light | Matte black metal, LED at 3000 K, fixed arm |
| Glass pendants | Smokey grey, four diameters, dimmable LED at 2500 K |
| Amber glass pendant | Hand-blown amber glass, E27, dimmable at 2500 K |
| Flush mount / floor lamp | Solid ash wood, woven raffia, whitewashed shade |
| Table lamp | Marble base, linen drum shade, copper detailing, dimmable at 2500 K |
| Table lamp, large | Metal and linen shade, E27 at 2500 K |
| Floor lamps | Stainless steel, natural marble, fabric shade |
| Bespoke desk lamps | Two designs, dedicated tooling, marble and brushed gold |
| Wall light | Antique brass and black, E27 |
Specification, shop drawings, finish control, quality protocol and warranty: Arclite Middle East, Dubai. Production at our nominated partner factory. Supply scope; installation by others. Warranty: five years on material and finish, one year on electronic components. Held and serviced in the UAE by Arclite Middle East.
Where it is now
The mock-up set passed inspection, cleared documentation and left the factory. It is in transit to site.
We will update this page when the fixtures are installed.
Specifying decorative lighting for a hotel?
Send us the reference images and the room schedule. On this project that was priced the following morning, with a technical datasheet agreed before anyone drew anything.
Talk to usA note on this page. The client and the property are not named. Specifications are taken from the project’s own document record. Photography is real factory and inspection imagery. It has been corrected for exposure, colour and background, and cleaned of packaging, tooling and clutter. No fixture has been altered, restyled or generated.
