SPECIAL REPORT
Turning tech
The Internet of Things is often talked about as a guest-facing technology with the benefit of providing precise information on guest behavior . A bedside tablet that can cool a hotel room to a preferred temperature , turn on lights and activate the housekeeping signal will dazzle the guest – while sending the hotel notes about stay patterns and preferences .
Yet the Internet of Things ( IoT ) can be just as helpful with setting and executing sustainability goals . Recording and tracking a property ’ s environmental impact has moved from good-to-know to must-have . This , coupled with advancements in IoT and lower costs for devices , means the technology is poised to do much more than set the temperature in a guest room . Yes , it requires a larger upfront capital investment , but the energy savings mean a satisfactory ROI is almost certain .
REAL-TIME RESULTS IoT — essentially a super-network of devices such as sensors , actuators and artificial intelligence that connect and share information with each other — can monitor and meter various types of consumption in a hotel , from energy and water to food and supplies .
The data collected from these devices is invaluable to a hotel ’ s bottom line . Similar to data collected through CRM and revenue management software , the consumption data , which often arrives in real time and through a single software dashboard that ’ s managed remotely , can easily identify where a hotel is wasting energy ( and money ) and how to fix it , sometimes in creative ways .
Hilton Worldwide created a custom IoT solution called LightStay that measures , analyzes and manages its sustainability performance as well as social impact like volunteer work and donations .
“ LightStay uses a machine-learning algorithm to predict hotels ’ energy , water and waste usage and costs , and tracks actual consumption against these predictive models ,” explains Natalie Godwin , director of global corporate communications at Hilton . “ Our hotels use the system to manage their performance against prior years and against their peers . Hotels are required to enter data into LightStay on a monthly basis and fill out surveys which yield nearly 200 data
26 hotelsmag . com January / February 2019