Turkey vs Vietnam for hotel furniture: a comparison for one hotel order

Turkey and Vietnam are both large furniture exporters, and both can build a hotel. They suit different orders. This page compares them for one hotel project: a set of room types, made to drawings, delivered to one site in phases. All duty and transit figures are dated; transit figures are forwarders’ planning ranges, labelled as market data, not our quotes.

The comparison at a glance

Sources for each row are listed below the page, read on 4 Oct 2026.

Duty: the US gap closed in July 2026

Since 24 July 2026, CBP collects an extra Section 301 duty on products of both countries at the same 12.5%. On a hotel order to the US, duty no longer separates them. Section 232 adds 25% to certain upholstered wooden seating, kitchen cabinets and vanities from both. The importer’s broker confirms the full stack per entry, and every line on our quote carries its HTS code so the broker can check it before the order.

Into the EU and the UK, wooden furniture pays 0% from both. Turkey’s goods travel under the EU–Türkiye Customs Union with an A.TR, so there is no origin calculation for the EU. Into the Gulf, both pay the 5% GCC tariff; for the UAE, the UAE–Türkiye CEPA can lower the rate per HS code.

Distance: what it does to a hotel programme

A hotel opens floor by floor, and late or damaged pieces hold up a floor. Distance shows up in three places:

1. Phased delivery. A truck from Turkey to Germany can carry one floor and arrive in under a week. A container from Vietnam is one sailing of roughly a month, so the phases are planned further ahead.
2. Replacements. A damaged headboard or a missing drawer front can follow on the next truck from Turkey to most of Europe. From Vietnam it waits for the next sailing or goes by air.
3. Red Sea routing. SEKO’s September 2026 guide notes that Red Sea rerouting adds about 10 to 14 days to Asia–Europe routes. Turkish road freight to Europe does not pass through it.

Sea routes into the Gulf have been disrupted during 2026, so we quote Gulf deliveries by land and via Jeddah, with the route and its validity written on the quotation. From Turkey that means TIR trucks through Iraq into Saudi Arabia (Iraq Business News, Apr 2026) or a sea leg through Suez to Jeddah, with no Bab el-Mandeb crossing.

For a US West Coast project, Vietnam’s sailing is shorter than Turkey’s; for the US East Coast, Turkey’s direct sailings are shorter.

Made to order: drawings, samples and approvals

A hotel order is made to the designer’s drawings, with shop drawings, samples and a mock-up before the batch. VIFOREST, Vietnam’s timber association, describes much of its sector as OEM work for US buyers, at margins of 5 to 6 percent (Wood Central). That model is built for long runs of one design. A hotel needs short runs of many items, each with its own drawing.

Turkey’s largest furniture buyers are spread across the Middle East, Europe, North Africa and the US (UN Comtrade, 2025). Rovers reads the drawings and the BOQ, prices every line with the Turkish partner factory that fits the project, issues shop drawings, approves samples and a mock-up, follows production on the floor and inspects before packing.

Visiting the factory

A buyer can see the samples, the mock-up and the first batch on the floor in one short trip to Turkey from Europe or the Gulf.

Documents

What to send us

Send the BOQ or drawings, the destination and the date each floor must be ready. We price every line with the Turkish factory that fits and show the freight and duty for the route, so the comparison is made on your project’s numbers.