Tech Talk

Recent posts

Definitely Doug 11/17/23: The Hotel TV Dilemma
Posted: 11/17/2023

In case you missed the memo, people no longer watch television the way that they did ten years ago. Not at home, and not at hotels. Nielsen reported that streaming services cornered 34.8% of TV screen time in July 2022, when they overtook cable for the first time.

Property management systems (PMSs) fundamentally have changed very little since the 1980s. And many hotels still use systems that were built in the eighties, nineties, or aughts. Since then, massive technology changes have occurred: the mobile revolution, cloud computing, distributed ledgers, AI-based large language models, Web 3.0, and other innovations have fundamentally changed both the technological capabilities of software, the way it is designed and built, and expectations for user experience.

Read More +

Definitely Doug 10/20/23: Gluing It All Together
Posted: 10/20/2023

Hardly a day goes by that hotels do not express frustration about the inability to tie together key data sources and technology systems. This is not a new problem; it has been around for decades. Progress has been made on many fronts to be sure, but digitalization has created new issues much faster than solutions.

Read More +

What’s the Buzz Among Today’s Hoteliers?
Posted: 10/17/2023

What’s on the minds of hoteliers? What’s keeping them up at night? And what makes travelers happy and eager to return? Some of the best places to have these candid discussions are at the industry’s conferences and events, and this year’s lineup has not disappointed. From AAHOACON and BITAC, to HITEC and The Hospitality Show, I’ve been traveling steadily, attending 13 events since January.

Technology has become an indispensable part of the guest experience. As travelers increasingly expect tech-enabled convenience, hospitality businesses must continue innovating to meet these demands. While WiFi was once the primary tech offering for hotels, today's guests want more. Integrated proptech solutions are becoming the new standard.

Read More +

comment on this article

Technology Innovation Brings Electricity to the Hotel Industry

04/25/2014

by Trevor Warner

Hotels’ total energy consumption costs can be 6 percent of the operating cost and utilities cost continue to rise. While energy management focuses on the amount of consumption, cogeneration allows the hotel to have greater control on the cost of consumption. While other energy-reducing technologies have produced limited results, cogeneration appears to be a technology that will meet expectations. It’s a technology that has significant corporate investment behind it so we expect to see continued research and development to improve the technology and lower its pricing.

Cogeneration, known as combined heat and power (CHP), is the production of heat and power from a single-fuel source. A cogeneration plant looks like a shipping container and inside is a power plant that takes natural gas and converts it to electricity. In the process of creating electricity, heat is generated that can be used to supply the heat necessary for the property to operate.

The CHP plant supplies 95 percent of the electricity needs of the property. Hotels typically stay on the grid for the remaining 5 percent in the event of an outage or a need that might outpace the output of the CUP plant.

The primary reason for a change to cogeneration would be financial savings. An additional benefit is creating a more reliable and improved power supply. In large cities such as New York and Los Angeles getting off the grid can often be a greater priority than the financial savings.

The typical profile for a hotel that could install cogeneration would be:

100 or more rooms
High electric rates
Hot water heating system
High use needs such as on-site laundry, heated pool or local climate extremes

Cogeneration is not new. The first systems started to go in around 2005. The early adopting hotels were more about green exposure or had extremes under the typical profile that made significant financial sense. The draw back was always the upfront expense of the CHP plant. The payback was there but not quick enough for the property to recoup its investment. However, as the technology has continued to develop, the purchase price continues to drop. The current payback for the investment is right at three years and it is expected that timeline to continue to decrease.

The other significant change is the evolution of the business model. Like any product, it takes time for the companies who sell and install the product to develop and mature. This evolution is now creating opportunities for shared savings, financing, and guaranteed pricing. We have seen a significant increase in companies who will install the CHP plant and charge the hotel a set rate below the cost of their current spend. While hotels enter significantly longer contracts to implement this guaranteed savings solution, their upfront financial exposure is reduced to zero.

I’m just waiting for the residential version or better yet, the Mr. Fusion so I can install it in my Delorean.