Notes for owners · Sales management
Restaurant and hotel suppliers: the quotation a procurement manager can compare line by line
A hotel or restaurant purchase manager types three quotations into one comparison sheet, so quote in their line order with brand, size, unit, rate, GST and delivery terms in the same columns every time.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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The purchase manager at a sixty-room hotel is typing three quotations for glassware into one comparison sheet for the general manager to sign. Yours says "per dozen, GST inclusive, delivery as per availability". The other two say per piece, GST extra, seven days from the order. Now the purchase manager has to do arithmetic on yours, and may get it wrong. Write your quotation in the order their sheet reads: their line number, their item name, your brand and size, unit, quantity, rate, GST and total. Put delivery and payment terms underneath, in the same layout every time.
What happens to your quotation after you send it
In a hotel, a chain restaurant or a large caterer, quotations are not read; they are transcribed. The purchase team builds a comparative statement, one row per item and one column per supplier, and marks the lowest rate on each line. The executive chef or executive housekeeper checks that the items are the ones they asked for. The general manager or the owner signs.
So two things decide whether you win. The rate on each line, and whether your rate landed in the right cell. A quote that cannot be transcribed cleanly loses lines it should have won, and nobody calls to tell you.
Chains with a central purchase office do the same thing at a larger scale. A new hotel's pre-opening list runs to hundreds of lines across kitchen, housekeeping and the bar. The supplier whose sheet drops straight into the purchase team's format is the one they want to deal with.
The quotation layout, column by column
Copy the buyer's enquiry list in their order, with their line numbers, and fill these columns for every line.
| Column | What goes in it | What goes wrong without it |
|---|---|---|
| Line number | The buyer's own number from the enquiry | Your lines are matched to theirs by guesswork |
| Item as asked | Their item name, copied exactly | "Tumbler 300 ml" and "highball glass" look like two items |
| What you are quoting | Brand, model, material, size or capacity | Two "full plates" of different sizes are compared as equal |
| Unit | Piece, set, dozen, carton of six, kg | A per-dozen rate looks twelve times dearer than a per-piece rate |
| Quantity | The quantity asked, or yours with a note if pack size forces a change | The line total does not match their budget |
| Rate per unit | Before tax | Inclusive and exclusive rates get mixed in one column |
| GST | Rate and amount, separately | Finance sends the sheet back to purchase |
| Line total | Rate times quantity, plus GST | Arithmetic errors get blamed on you |
Here is one line filled in, with illustrative figures: line 14, tumbler 300 ml, quoted as a toughened 300 ml tumbler, per piece, 240 pieces at ₹38.00 before tax, GST at 18% (₹1,641.60, to be confirmed with your CA), line total ₹10,761.60.
Under the table, put the terms in a fixed block, in this order:
- Freight, as its own line, to the delivery address named in the enquiry.
- Delivery period, counted from the purchase order date, with any items that take longer listed by line number.
- Payment terms you can hold.
- Validity, as a date.
- Transit breakage for glass and crockery: how a broken piece is reported and replaced.
- Samples already given, with their reference, so the chef can match what arrives to what was tasted or handled.
The rule that matters most: never move a cost out of the rate to look cheapest and add it back on the invoice. A purchase manager who is caught out by your invoice in front of the general manager may not open your next quotation.
Imagine: a Raipur supplier and a new hotel in Bilaspur
Imagine a Raipur supplier of glassware and kitchen smallwares quoting a new fifty-room business hotel in Bilaspur. The supplier quoted the way they sell to restaurants in their own city: per dozen, GST included, freight included, because delivery across Raipur costs little.
The hotel's purchase manager entered all three quotations per piece, before tax. The purchase manager divided this supplier's rates by twelve and took the GST out, but the freight for the road trip from Raipur was still buried in every rate. The other two had shown freight on one line at the bottom. On the comparative statement, the Raipur supplier was the most expensive on almost every line. The goods were in fact cheaper.
The supplier found out only by asking the purchase manager which lines had been lost. Now the quote is per piece, with GST separate, freight on its own line by destination, and the buyer's line numbers copied. It took a week of rework. A hotel in Korba then sent an enquiry. The rates sat in the right cells. The conversation was about the delivery date, not about a price gap that never existed.
When this format is the wrong one
A single-outlet restaurant owner who messages "steel plates price?" on WhatsApp is not building a comparative statement. Send a photo, the rate per piece and the delivery charge, in three lines. Save the full layout for buyers with a purchase department, a central purchase office or a pre-opening list, and for any enquiry that arrives as a spreadsheet.
The format also will not save a rate that is simply too high. If you are losing the same lines every time, the comparison sheet is telling you something about your buying, not your paperwork.
After the quotation goes in
Call to confirm it arrived and ask when the comparison will be signed. If you lose, ask which lines you lost on and by how much. The question costs nothing. The answer shows where your rates or units are out of step. Our note on following up a quotation has the messages.
Rebuild the quotation you lost
Take the last quotation you lost to a hotel or restaurant group and rebuild it in the layout above. Did your unit, GST treatment and freight match the other two? Keep a price list that uses the same item codes and sizes as your quotations makes the next one quicker. Other supply trades are under e-commerce sales and marketing. If you want help with your quotation format or your follow-up, tell us what you need; quotation and proposal follow-up and sales collateral development are the related services.
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