Why are 8 out of 10 hotel property managers reluctant to address energy management issues?
The benefits of energy management should be straightforward: use energy efficiently, consume less, save money on utility bills and improve sustainability. So far, all good, until hotel property managers are faced with guest comfort challenges, many times demanding greater energy spending. So, the dilemma becomes:” Should I consume less or more to keep up to the guest comfort standards?”
Many hotel property managers dismiss energy and utility targets and focus on guest comfort.
Policies and directives for reducing utility consumption and their associated costs become commitments that organisations enter and are generally disconnected from the specifics of how individual properties within their portfolios operate. The policies are scripted to promote sustainability (and there are many examples of this type of ‘corporate speak’ in hotel literature) whilst neglecting the primary problems that the maintenance management or property engineers face at an operation level.
Hotel property managers may have little or no information on the relationship between operations and energy/utility consumption, often arguing “Our hotel is always full, hence no chance to reduce energy consumption”. Plant and control systems may not be understood or offer little scope to address energy, water or fuel consumption problems. Another problem can be the isolation from best practices and time pressures from building services and maintenance responsibilities. Other hotel departments that are not tasked with solving the organisation’s goals for energy reduction and sustainability may create resistance or disinterest for energy management. Therefore, we are frequently having the same conversation with hotel property managers across different territories. “How am I going to reduce consumption to meet my targets?”.
From our perspective, the key to any successful energy management programme begins with visibility. Property managers need visibility of consumption so it can be aligned and justified to operations; call it visualisation of the ‘how and why’ money is being spent on utilities, if you like. Visualisation of ordered information is very powerful because it lets you identify instances that lead to wasted energy, implement corrective actions and measure the effectiveness of the action on the energy consumption and hotel operations. However, we’re also advocating a new concept that we term active-visibility to this notion. It’s not enough to have information as a resource. Information needs to actively seek and find the owner of the energy management programme and direct them to rectifying unnecessary consumption, timely.
We call our solution for tackling active-visibility on energy management REACH™ and here’s how its making a difference.
You’re busy, so we thought of how to manage your time, so you can manage energy.
REACH™ is our solution that transforms utility and energy data from multiple sources into information that can be easily understood and correlated with hotel operations. But as you’re too busy to sit at a desk all day trying to identify energy waste, REACH™ drives notifications on Energy Performance Indicators (EnPIs) straight to your smartphone. REACH™ APP is not a miniaturised dashboard, but rather a personal messenger that warns you with instant notifications when your property’s energy performance requires attention.
Active-visibility on your property’s consumption is key to making informed and timely decisions – even if you or your colleagues are not on site.
Learn how REACH™ can work to make your energy performance better, rewarding and recognised.
