Used hotel furniture is flooding the market, proving a boon for liquidators and homeowners looking to decorate on the cheap.

U.S. hotels, emboldened by one of the hottest travel markets in years, are spending record sums to renovate and upgrade amenities.

In catering to a hip new generation of travelers, they are aggressively replacing old furnishings with plasma TVs, contemporary credenzas, pillow-top beds, ergonomic computer desks and plush armchairs. Increasingly, they're calling on a handful of liquidators that specialize in clearing out hotel rooms and selling the furnishings in the second-hand market.

Don Fenning, owner of Hotel Surplus Outlet in Los Angeles, says his warehouse and showroom are overflowing with good furniture, and he's finding plenty of customers to take it off his hands. His firm cleared out the Beverly Hilton Hotel's 570 rooms last fall and will soon work on the high-end Regent Beverly Wilshire. "We're about to come across some of the nicest stuff we've ever had," Fenning says.

Hotels pay liquidators per room — typically $100 or more — to clear out old furnishings. Liquidators sell the furnishings to the public, to hotels lower on the luxury scale, or to institutions such as nursing homes.

At liquidators' showrooms, furnishings range in style and quality. Bargain hunters might, for example, find a 27-inch TV for $60 or an eight-drawer armoire for $299.

Liquidators say their prices are about 25 percent of the prices retailers charge for similar new products.

Mike Granger, an attorney in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., says he decorated the three houses he owns mostly with the furnishings from Cash Liquidations, a store near Atlanta. He recently bought a Henredon TV credenza for $450. It would cost about $3,000 new, he says.

Another credenza made by Drexel, for his vacation house in Panama, cost $800, versus about $2,800 new.

Few reputable hotel chains keep their furnishings and art beyond seven years, says Wendell Cooper of IRCA Hotel Services, a liquidator based in Phoenix.

With so many hotel companies undergoing changes, liquidators are "getting stuff that's barely used," says Kurt Karchmer of Cooper Used Hotel Furniture in Chicago. "When hotels want their stuff out, they want it out."