Energy management in hotels: reducing consumption without compromising guest comfort

In a hotel, energy is one of the largest cost items after staffing, but it is also the one expense that can be reduced without guests noticing, provided you focus on the right areas.

The constraint is clear: a cold room or a lukewarm shower will show up in a review, and a review is worth more than any savings on the energy bill. That is why energy management in hospitality starts with data, not cuts.

In brief:

• A significant share of internal energy consumption goes to domestic hot water, the item most closely linked to occupancy.
• Baseload consumption remains high even in the low season: that is where the first savings opportunities can be found.
• The right indicator is not absolute consumption, but consumption per occupied room.
• Comfort must be measured alongside consumption; otherwise, the savings will come at the cost of guest reviews.

Where hotels consume energy

A hospitality property's energy consumption is spread across four areas: space heating and cooling, domestic hot water, lighting, and services such as kitchens and laundry.
A useful benchmark: according to industry data cited by QualEnergia, a hotel consumes an average of around 52 kWh per guest-night, while hot water production accounts for approximately one quarter of the property's internal energy consumption.
However, the most interesting finding is different. The same analysis recorded monthly energy costs of over €1,500 even in the low season for a 22-room hotel in northern Italy, compared with around €5,000 during the winter months. In other words, a significant share of expenditure does not depend on guests, but on how the property operates when it is half empty.

The four most common sources of waste

• Air-conditioned rooms left empty. Systems that operate in every room regardless of occupancy, or restart at full power after checkout.
• Hot-water recirculation running continuously. Necessary for hygiene and comfort, but often maintained at constant temperature and flow 24 hours a day, even when nobody is using a tap.
• Common areas and services running outside operating hours. Kitchens, laundry rooms, meeting rooms, and outdoor lighting remain on when they are not needed, typically because schedules have never been updated.
• SPA facilities and pools without control adjustments. Air treatment and water heating are sized for peak demand and kept constant, so consumption does not reflect actual use.

None of these issues requires an investment to fix. However, they must first be identified, and that requires measurement.

Comfort is a constraint, not a variable

This is the main difference compared with an office. In a hotel, you cannot raise summer temperature setpoints by two degrees to save energy: the cost is transferred to your reputation.
The effective approach is the opposite: measure energy consumption alongside indoor conditions (temperature, humidity, and air quality), so every measure can be assessed on both fronts.
If a control adjustment reduces consumption while keeping room conditions unchanged, it is a good adjustment. If it compromises comfort, reverse it before a guest notices.

What to measure

The required instrumentation is described in the guide to smart meters and IoT sensors: submeters on the main utilities, environmental sensors in sample rooms and common areas, and water meters on the relevant circuits.

Measures that deliver results fastest

Ranked by the balance between results and investment:

• Control based on actual occupancy. Switch room heating and cooling to a reduced profile when rooms are vacant, with recovery scheduled before guests arrive.
• Service scheduling. Align kitchen, laundry, SPA, and lighting schedules with actual use, reviewing them at every seasonal change.
• Domestic hot-water control. Adjust temperatures and recirculation to periods of actual use while complying with hygiene and health requirements.
• Lighting. Use LEDs and sensors in circulation areas, where lights are on for many hours and comfort is not at stake.
• Building systems and envelope. More substantial measures to assess using the method described in the guide to building energy efficiency.

According to the industry analysis cited above, individual measures deliver savings of around 12.5%, while combining several measures can bring savings to approximately 22%.

Student accommodation and shared residences

Student residences share the same consumption structure as hotels (rooms, domestic hot water, and common areas), but two differences change the approach.
First, occupancy is much more stable and predictable: planning is based on academic periods rather than sold nights, making time-based control easier to configure.
Second, the people consuming the energy do not pay the bill. Open windows while the heating is on, lights left on in common areas, and long showers have no direct financial deterrent.
Here, the solution is not just technical: submetering by floor or block helps identify unusual consumption, and in some cases sharing the data with occupants can itself change behaviour.
The same indicators otherwise apply: consumption per occupied bed, overnight baseload, and domestic hot water.

The tools

Hotels rarely have a BMS: the cost of a traditional wired system does not pay off in medium-sized properties. This is exactly the context in which UTwin's energy management software operates. The underlying principle—measure before intervening—applies to any building and is described in the energy management guide.
The platform provides smart meters and IoT sensors for energy, water, gas, temperature, humidity, and CO2, collects the data in the cloud, and displays it on the property's floor plan.
The integrated AI remotely adjusts building systems based on outdoor weather and space occupancy, while the integrated maintenance software turns an anomaly into a task assigned to a technician before it becomes a service issue for a guest.
Where a BMS already exists, the platform integrates with it and enhances its automation. Where there is none, it works as a light BMS, with CAPEX up to 70% lower than traditional systems. Hotels and hospitality properties are among the building types where this gap is greatest.

Frequently asked questions

• How much can a hotel save on energy consumption?

  It depends on the property and its starting point. Industry data indicates savings of around 12.5% from individual measures and close to 22% when several measures are combined. A reliable estimate for a specific property requires measuring current consumption for at least one season.

• How can consumption be reduced without compromising guest comfort?

  By measuring energy and indoor conditions together. Focus on things guests do not notice (unoccupied rooms, service areas, system schedules, and hot-water recirculation) and use sensors to verify that temperature, humidity, and air quality remain unchanged wherever people are present.

• What is the right indicator for a hotel?

  Energy consumption per occupied room, which makes it possible to compare periods with different occupancy levels. Alongside this, overnight baseload shows how much the property consumes regardless of its guests.

• Does a hotel need a BMS?

  A traditional BMS rarely pays for itself in a medium-sized property. Cloud-based solutions with wireless sensors provide the same essential functions—monitoring and remote control—with a much lower initial investment.

Where to start

The first figure to examine in a hotel is energy consumption on nights with low occupancy. If a half-empty property consumes almost as much as a full one, that is where the savings potential lies, and it can be recovered through scheduling and control adjustments before making any investment.