NATIONAL REPORT—If you’ve driven a new car in the last few years, you’ve likely noticed it delivers a steady stream of performance data.
From engine health, remaining oil life and fuel economy to tire pressure and safety systems, real-time insight is at your fingertips. If something needs attention or it’s time for maintenance, the vehicle sends an alert to your phone or dashboard display.
Now imagine running your hotel with this same level of visibility, optimizing not just for performance but also resource efficiency.
Behind the scenes, hotels operate like equally complex machines: hundreds of rooms, thousands of daily transactions and multiple systems that must work together seamlessly to deliver outstanding guest experience. While the hospitality industry has lagged other sectors in technology adoption, the shift toward full digitization is accelerating.
While we’re not quite on par with the auto industry yet, the digitization of services and workflows, proliferation of cloud data storage, and growing ecosystem of connected devices are opening new possibilities for hoteliers.
Rising Pressures Require an Integrated Approach
In an industry where margins are already thin, efficiency is critical.
Labor remains one of the top challenges for two-thirds of operators, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Payroll already accounts for around 50 percent of operating costs, yet nearly half of properties still report being understaffed.
Energy is the single fastest-growing cost in the lodging industry, with the average U.S. hotel spending about $2,200 per room per year on energy alone. It’s also one of the largest contributors to a property’s environmental footprint, making efficiency a key lever for both cost control and sustainability.
Considering these costs, even marginal improvements in energy efficiency and resource optimization can have an outsized impact on both profitability and sustainability goals.
As PropTech solutions mature, hoteliers can now use a single pane of glass at the management layer to integrate data feeds from energy, staffing, occupancy, revenue and engineering to gain insight into the health of the operation. AI can take that clarity a step further, providing data-driven recommendations to optimize performance and manage costs.
Real-time Visibility Drives Operational Excellence
With the property management system (PMS) serving as the base operating system, connecting energy management, access control, equipment monitoring, maintenance ticketing and housekeeping workflows creates a fully integrated ecosystem to share operational data.
Instead of operating in independent silos, integrating these systems creates a single dashboard for property performance that allows operators to answer critical questions in real time, such as:
- Are certain housekeeping tasks taking longer than expected?
- Which maintenance issues require immediate attention? Which can wait?
- Are certain PTAC systems consuming more energy than others?
- Are security events occurring in specific areas of the property?
Just as a driver uses real-time vehicle data to monitor and optimize vehicle performance, integrated hospitality systems give operators the same capability to optimize the performance and efficiency of the entire property.
Just-in-Time Preventive Maintenance
Modern vehicles rely on sensors to monitor wear items like oil quality and brake pad life, allowing drivers to conduct maintenance at the right time—not too late or too soon.
With real-time visibility, hotels can apply this same strategy to shift from reactive to just-in-time preventative maintenance.
Sensors in HVAC systems, elevators, and thermostats can continuously monitor performance. If something begins to drift outside normal operating parameters, staff receive an alert and act before a failure occurs.
This shift from reactive repairs to predictive maintenance has been shown to reduce repair costs by 25 percent, equipment breakdowns by up to 75 percent and cut downtime by up to 50 percent, while also extending the lifespan of critical infrastructure. Instead of scrambling to fix major equipment failures during peak occupancy, hoteliers can address issues before they become more expensive.
This approach not only reduces costs and downtime but also minimizes unnecessary equipment use and extends asset life, reducing waste for more sustainable operations.
Maximizing Energy Efficiency
In modern cars, fuel efficiency is a rapidly developing science. The drivers’ data and even their driving style provide analytics to help boost fuel economy, lower consumption and cost.
Likewise, in the hotel world, reducing energy consumption, cost and environmental impact are top priorities for hoteliers.
Integrated Energy Management Systems allow hoteliers to manage energy consumption intelligently. When connected to the PMS, EMS platforms can automatically adjust heating or cooling based on occupancy, reducing consumption in empty rooms without sacrificing guest comfort. This ensures energy is used only when and where it’s needed, reducing both operating costs and unnecessary consumption.
Smart systems can account for seasonal changes and daylight exposure. For example, in colder months, operators can prioritize guest placement on the sun-facing side of the building during winter to capture passive solar heat and reduce energy demand cost. In summer, placing guests on the shade side can reduce cooling loads.
EMS can also show comparisons across rooms or properties. For example, if one room is suddenly using more energy, it could indicate a maintenance issue, like a clogged PTAC filter or malfunctioning equipment.
Beyond improving efficiency, EMS systems generate measurable data that demonstrates the financial impact of energy optimization—savings that can be reinvested into additional optimization strategies.
The Road Ahead for Hospitality
Much like the digital systems inside a modern car, the more connected the operational components in a hotel become, the more efficiently and intelligently the entire system can operate.
The goal isn’t simply to add more technology, but to build an integrated ecosystem where systems communicate and share actionable data, allowing operators to see the health of the entire property in real time.
As hotels continue to face rising costs and growing guest expectations, this capability will become essential for success. Just like a car, when operators can see how the entire machine is performing, they’re in a much better position to keep it running at peak efficiency.
About the Author
Colin Barnett is Vice President of Business Development at Nomadix, an ASSA ABLOY company. With over 25 years of experience in the hospitality technology sector, he has played a key role in building and scaling both innovative startups and large global enterprises.
His career spans a wide range of technology companies, from networking solutions to SaaS platforms, giving him deep expertise across the hospitality tech ecosystem. Known for his strategic vision and collaborative approach, Colin brings a strong “people-first” perspective to the industry, prioritizing relationships, team development, and customer success in everything he does.
