MONO SUPPLIES
Why comparing FF&E and OS&E suppliers on unit price alone hides a real cost gap, and how to work out what an order actually costs once it clears customs.
Landed cost is the true price of an FF&E or OS&E order once it actually reaches the hotel: the unit price plus freight, insurance, customs duty, VAT, port handling and inland delivery. Comparing suppliers on unit price alone routinely hides a gap of 20 to 60% that only becomes visible once the container clears customs.
A quote that looks cheaper on the line item can land more expensive once duty and VAT are added, and by the time that is obvious the order is already placed. Independent hotels feel this hardest, because one project usually fills one container rather than several, the same minimum order quantity problem that drives up unit prices in the first place.
Landed cost is every charge between the factory door and the hotel's loading bay, not just the ones on the supplier's invoice:
The confusion usually starts with Incoterms. An EXW or FOB quote only covers the goods to the factory gate or the origin port, everything after that is the buyer's cost and the buyer's risk. A CIF or DDP quote already includes freight, insurance and, for DDP, duty and delivery to site. Comparing an EXW number from one supplier against a DDP number from another is comparing two different things, and the EXW number will always look better on the page.
Across the routes we actually ship, freight, duty, VAT and handling combined typically add 40 to 60% to an ex-works unit price landing in the EU. Strip out VAT, which a VAT-registered hotel business can normally reclaim as input tax, and the real added cost is closer to 20 to 30%. On Gulf-bound shipments, where import VAT sits at 5% rather than 19 to 24%, the all-in landed premium usually runs 25 to 35%, and most of that does not wash out through a VAT reclaim the way it does in the EU.
Two suppliers quote for 60 upholstered headboards, delivered to a hotel in Limassol.
On the headline unit price, Supplier A looked 33% cheaper than Supplier B. Once the full landed cost is worked out, Supplier A is actually 8% more expensive, and that is before accounting for the fact that Supplier A's total requires the buyer to manage freight booking, insurance and customs clearance directly, work Supplier B's DDP price already includes. The VAT component is recoverable for a VAT-registered hotel business in most cases, which narrows the real gap, but it is still cash paid out at the border before it comes back.
Furniture generally falls under HS heading 9403, where EU duty runs from 0% to 5.6% depending on the exact subheading and material, before VAT is added at the destination country's standard rate: 19% in Cyprus, 24% in Greece. Gulf states apply a flat 5% customs duty on CIF value under the GCC common external tariff, and in the UAE, import VAT is a further 5%, which is why an all-in Gulf landed cost, while still meaningfully above the unit price, rarely reaches the percentage uplift a VAT-registered EU order shows on paper before reclaim. For the shipping side of a Cyprus-bound order specifically, see shipping FF&E to Cyprus.
Ask every supplier for the same five things before comparing a single number:
If you want a second set of eyes on a landed cost comparison before committing to a container, get in touch with the order details and we will run the numbers.
Comparing FF&E quotes for a project?
We quote landed cost, not just unit price, for every project we equip in Cyprus, Greece and the Gulf, so the number in the proposal is the number that arrives.
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Mono Supplies works with independent hotels, resorts and serviced apartments across Cyprus, Greece, wider Europe, and the Gulf. Reach out to discuss your requirements.
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