Why Hotels Are Buying More Aluminum Outdoor

Hotel Outdoor Furniture Demand Is Growing — Here Is What CIFF Shanghai Showed Us

Hotel outdoor furniture is becoming one of the most active categories in the outdoor living market. At the 58th China International Furniture Fair (Shanghai), this pattern was easy to see on the exhibition floor. More booths were built around pool decks, resort lounges and hotel patios than in past years. Buyers walking the aisles were not only asking about home patio sets. Many carried floor plans for hotel courtyards, rooftop bars and resort pool areas. Kingmake brought its Cenxi Collection and a new round daybed to this show, and the response from hospitality buyers gives a clear picture of where this category is heading.

A Clear Shift Toward Hospitality Projects

Walking through the show, the change was in the details. Several exhibitors added dedicated "hospitality" or "project" sections to their booths this year, separate from their retail displays. Sample boards showed hotel logos and floor layouts instead of single product shots. Conversations at the Kingmake booth followed the same pattern. Most visitors introduced themselves as purchasing managers or project consultants working on resort renovations, boutique hotel openings, or beach club builds, rather than individual homeowners.

This is not a random shift. Hotels and resorts replace outdoor furniture on a fixed cycle, usually every 3 to 5 years, because the furniture sits outside in sun, rain and salt air every day. When a property is renovated or a new resort opens, the outdoor furniture order is large and immediate. This is different from the residential market, where one household might buy a patio set once every 10 years. As more coastal hotels and resorts get renovated across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, the order volume for hotel-grade outdoor furniture grows with it.

Why Hotels Are Moving Away From Older Materials

Talking with hotel buyers at the show, one complaint came up again and again: woven furniture with a soft fiber backing wears out fast in daily hotel use. A home patio set might get used a few hours a week. A resort pool chair gets sat on, moved, and rained on every single day, all year round. Under that kind of daily load, backing straps can stretch, foam can trap moisture, and mold can build up inside cushions that never fully dry out.

This is the exact problem that pushed more of this year's product development toward aluminum mesh backing instead of traditional strap weaving. Aluminum mesh is a thin woven aluminum sheet used for the seat and backrest instead of fabric straps or rattan strips. Because it is metal, not fiber, water passes straight through it and it dries in the open air within minutes after rain. It does not stretch under body weight over time the way a woven strap can, and it will not develop mold because there is no absorbent material for moisture to sit in.

The Cenxi Collection: Built Around This Shift

The Cenxi Collection, shown at the Kingmake booth this year, was designed with these hotel-use conditions in mind rather than home patio use.

Sofa Set

The sofa set uses a powder-coated aluminum frame in a warm beige tone. The backrest and seat base are aluminum mesh, so both stay dry quickly after rain and do not need to be brought indoors during a storm. Solid teak pieces are set into the armrests, so the frame still has a warm wood touch even though the structure underneath is metal. Waterproof cushions in a light neutral fabric sit on top for regular seating comfort. The 3-seater sofa, single armchairs, and a matching side table can be arranged in different layouts depending on the size of a pool deck or lounge corner.

Dining Set

The dining set follows the same construction. Dining chairs use aluminum mesh for the seat and back, with a teak insert built into each armrest. The table has a white marble-effect top on an aluminum frame, with a thin teak trim along the table edge. The full set seats six people, which matches a typical hotel poolside dining table order.

Sun Lounger

The sun lounger uses the same aluminum mesh lying surface, so it supports body weight evenly instead of sagging in the middle the way fabric slings can after repeated use. A waterproof cushion sits on top of the mesh base. The backrest adjusts to different reclining angles, and small wheels are built into the front legs, so hotel housekeeping staff can move it around the pool deck without lifting the full weight of the frame.

There is also a practical side to the teak inserts beyond appearance. Full teak armrests on an outdoor chair get more sun exposure than any other part of the frame, since armrests sit at hand height and are rarely shaded. Over a few years, a full wood armrest in that position can crack or fade unevenly across a large order of chairs, which becomes a visible problem in a hotel setting where guests sit at dozens of matching chairs side by side. Using a smaller teak insert set into an aluminum arm limits how much wood surface is exposed at once, while keeping the warm texture guests notice when they rest their arms on the chair.

Construction Details Behind the Frame

At the booth, several buyers asked directly about the joints on the frame, since weak welds are a common failure point in outdoor aluminum furniture after a year or two of use. The Cenxi frame components are cut using laser cutting, which keeps every part the same size and shape before assembly. The frame is then fully welded, with the welding points ground down and finished so the joints sit flush with the surrounding metal instead of showing raised weld marks. A frame built this way carries weight along its full welded shape, instead of relying on a few weaker connection points like screws or clips, which are the parts most likely to loosen first under repeated outdoor use.

A Different Design Approach: The Round Daybed

Alongside the Cenxi Collection, Kingmake also displayed a round daybed this year, built for a different part of a hotel layout: the quiet corner rather than the main seating group.

The daybed's inner frame is powder-coated aluminum, the same rust-resistant base structure used across the Cenxi line. The outer body is hand-woven with PE rattan in an off-white shade, using a tight vertical weaving pattern rather than a loose open weave. PE rattan is a synthetic material, not natural cane, so it does not crack or fade the way natural rattan does after long sun exposure.

The seating area is fully enclosed on one side by the curved woven back, creating a semi-private nook rather than an open lounge chair. A round cushion and five throw pillows, all in waterproof outdoor fabric with removable covers, sit inside the woven shell. Above the seat, a canopy rotates a full 360 degrees, so a guest can turn it to block sun from any direction, or move it out of the way completely.

At the show, this piece drew attention from resort buyers specifically for pool deck placement, where a shaded, semi-enclosed seat is often requested for one or two quiet corners, separate from the main group seating area.

The rotating canopy also solves a scheduling problem hotels deal with daily: pool furniture faces the sun at a different angle every hour, and staff cannot reposition an entire lounge chair every time the shade line moves. A canopy that turns on its own axis lets a guest adjust shade coverage without moving the whole piece, which matters most in the middle of the day when a pool deck is at full occupancy and chairs cannot easily be repositioned.

Where This Fits: Kingmake's Background in Hospitality Supply

Kingmake has manufactured outdoor furniture in Foshan, Shunde District, for more than 18 years, working across hospitality, commercial and residential markets. This history is relevant here because hospitality furniture orders come with requirements that residential orders do not: fire-safety certificates for cushion fabric, matched batch coloring across large quantities, and delivery scheduled around a property's opening date. Buyers at the booth asking about the Cenxi Collection were, in most cases, asking these exact questions rather than asking about single-piece pricing.

Product Comparison at a Glance

Where This Collection Is Being Placed

Based on the layouts buyers described at the show, this type of furniture is being specified for:

• Pool decks and terraces at coastal resorts and boutique hotels

• Restaurant and bar patios attached to hotel properties

• Rooftop lounges in city hotels

• Private villa gardens and pool areas with a similar daily-use pattern to hospitality settings

What This Means Going Forward

The direction from this year's CIFF Shanghai was straightforward: hospitality buyers are asking harder questions about how furniture holds up over years of daily outdoor use, not just how it looks in a showroom photo. Materials that dry fast, resist rust, and hold a welded joint under repeated load are becoming the baseline expectation for hotel and resort orders, not an upgrade option.

If you are sourcing outdoor furniture for a hotel, resort or large residential project and want details on the Cenxi Collection, the round daybed, or OEM/ODM production for a specific project, contact the Kingmake team through the product pages linked below.