Hospitality is the hardest environment for a clear plastic: it is cleaned constantly, moved daily and dropped occasionally. The two variables that decide whether a tray still looks good after a year are the edge finish and the cleaning agent.
Four things come up on almost every enquiry in this sector. None of them is solved by choosing a thicker sheet.
A high-resistance cast grade plus diamond-polished edges tolerates hourly wiping. A flame-polished edge on standard sheet hazes first.
Warm-edge polishing removes the machined dullness, and a felt or cork base stops the rattle and the scratch on a table.
UV-stabilised sheet for anything in daylight, and a light colour rather than a dark one to avoid heat build-up.
Menu changes and seasonal pieces are quoted from 10–50 pieces, without tooling, because no tooling is used.
All of the below run on the same machines, in the same plant, with no operation subcontracted. Full detail sits on the Home & hospitality line page.
Hotel and restaurant work is judged by housekeeping, not by the design review. That means the specification has to survive cleaning chemicals, daily handling, a trolley knocking it, and a guest leaning on it — for years, not for a photoshoot.
A bent acrylic coffee table in 20 mm sheet is the signature piece of this sector, and the reason it fails is almost always the same: it was bent and not annealed. Bending locks a stress gradient into the sheet, and that stress shows up months later as a crack running from the bend line, often after a cleaning agent reaches the stretched face. Annealing at 80 degrees C for 2–4 hours with a controlled ramp removes it. Any bend over 10 mm gets annealed, without exception.
A flower stand 1,200 mm tall on a 300 mm foot will go over if a guest leans on it. The rule we work to is a base at least 40 percent of the height in depth, with 8–12 kg of ballast for a floor piece. Where the design calls for a slim base, a steel insert is bonded into the foot and covered with a flush acrylic plate. The same logic applies to a podium: a clear lectern reads light but moves when someone leans on it unless the base is ballasted.
| Piece | Build | Service limit |
|---|---|---|
| Bent coffee table | 15–25 mm, radius 3x thickness, annealed | Span divided by 40 sets the thickness; beyond 1.2 m add a rib |
| Wine rack | 8 mm lattice or 6 mm bent cradle, felt-lined pockets | Pocket 4 mm oversize for bottle variation |
| Beverage tray | 5 mm base, 25 mm rim, 40 mm corner radius, non-slip insert | Rim height is what stops crockery sliding on a carried tray |
| Flower stand | 15 mm column, ballasted base | Base 40 % of height, 8–12 kg ballast |
| Menu holder | 3 mm L-shape or 5 mm handled, 15 or 30 degrees | Angle set by whether the reader is seated or standing |
| Podium or lectern | 15 mm body, 8 mm shelf with 20 mm lip | Knock-down above 1.2 m; cable route machined |
Hotel housekeeping uses whatever is on the trolley. Acrylic tolerates soap, water and most neutral cleaners; it crazes under alcohol-based sanitiser used daily and under abrasive cream. A piece in a public area should be specified with a written cleaning note, and where the operator cannot guarantee that, polycarbonate is the safer material despite the faster yellowing.
Hospitality orders are usually multi-SKU and repeat annually, so the economics are different from a one-off. On a 200-piece order across four pieces: sheet 20–30 percent, machining 25–35 percent, annealing and polishing 15–25 percent, packing 10–15 percent.
The lever that matters is SKU consolidation. A hotel that orders a tray, a magazine rack and a tissue box in three different thicknesses pays three setups; the same set at one thickness is cheaper and looks more like a family. The second lever is packing: hotel orders ship to a site, not to a warehouse, so individual cartons with room numbers add cost that a bulk pack with separators avoids — unless the site needs staged delivery, in which case the individual packing is the point.
The third lever is the annealing decision. A flat piece does not need it. A bent piece over 10 mm always does. Getting that right saves money on the flat pieces without risking the bent ones, which is where the real loss sits — a cracked table in a lobby is a replacement, a delivery delay and a conversation with the designer.
What we quote as standard for this sector: felt or cork base bonded on, edges polished where visible, cleaning note in the carton, and a spare-piece option priced in so the hotel can hold one replacement of each SKU on site.
| Item | What we need | Why it changes the price |
|---|---|---|
| Piece and quantity | SKU list with quantities, and whether it repeats annually | Consolidating to one thickness across SKUs saves 10–15 % |
| Cleaning regime | What housekeeping uses | Daily alcohol sanitiser crazes acrylic; soap and water does not |
| Service load | What the piece carries, or whether people lean on it | Sets thickness by span and the ballast for a tall piece |
| Delivery | Site address, and whether delivery is staged by floor or room | Staged delivery needs individual labelled cartons |
| Spares | Whether one replacement per SKU should be held on site | Cheap to add at order stage, expensive later |
If the piece is a bent table or a tall stand, send the interior photo where it will stand. Floor material, ceiling height and the position of a spotlight decide the base weight and the edge finish more than the drawing does.
The acceptance points below are recorded per batch, and the record travels with the packing list.
No. A commercial dishwasher runs hot enough to distort acrylic over repeated cycles, and the alkaline detergent attacks the surface. Acrylic trays are for display, presentation and hand-washing. For machine-washed service ware the correct material is polycarbonate or a melamine, and we will say so rather than sell the wrong sheet.
Neutral detergent, warm water and a soft cloth. Avoid 75% alcohol, chlorine bleach and anything scented with solvents — they craze stressed acrylic and the damage is permanent. We supply an approved cleaning note with hotel orders so the instruction reaches the person holding the cloth.
Yes, on cast sheet with a retained swatch as the reference. Small batches in a custom colour carry a minimum, typically one sheet, so it is worth grouping the pieces for all properties into a single order.
Yes. Engraving is done on the underside of the rim so it does not collect dirt and does not wear against crockery, and it is monochrome — a frosted mark inside the material. On a 200-piece order the engraving is a small line item; the schedule is set by the sample approval, not by the quantity. Delivery to Europe is typically 30 to 38 days by sea.
Yes, and it is the normal brief. Send the alcove dimensions and the bottle count and we will lay out the lattice or the cradles to suit, keeping pockets 4 mm oversize so labels are not chipped. Where the alcove is not square we build in a scribe allowance on the two faces that meet the walls, rather than cutting the rack to a nominal rectangle.
