While many hoteliers who spent money on imported furniture, fixtures and equipment over the past year might be hopeful about the $166 billion pool of refunds from previously collective tariffs, it's still uncertain when or if they will receive any of that money.
On the latest episode of the CoStar News Hotels podcast, Alan Benjamin, founder and president of procurement firm Benjamin West, said he's yet to hear from any hoteliers who have received any refunds. Plus, there's no formal process in place to get them that money since they are not the buyer of record for importing purposes.
That doesn't mean interest isn't high, though.
"Our phone, email and text messaging is going off the hook with every single client asking what they get back, how they get it back, what they do, et cetera," he said.
The answers to those questions "vary greatly by the vendor involved," Benjamin said. Some importers ate some of the costs of tariffs after they were imposed a little over a year ago, so it's not always obvious how much hoteliers should expect.
The established process begins with the importer of record formally requesting refunds, but despite consumer-focused court cases to try to clarify things, it's not ultimately decided how much obligation they then have to pass on those funds to the people and businesses that made orders in the first place.
Ultimately, there are several complicating factors for tariff refunds, Benjamin said. These include tracking when orders entered customs — rather than when they were made by clients — whether smaller importers are even pursuing refunds, and if so how much. There's even the fact that while the U.S. Supreme Court struck down some tariffs, others remain in place and new ones continue to pop up.
"I think the biggest thing to ask from [hotel] owners right now is a little bit of patience as we go through this," he said.
For more from BenjaminWest's Alan Benjamin, listen to the podcast embedded above.