London Hotels Encouraged to Get Energy Efficient

Utility company London Electricity has produced a comprehensive document containing over 40 money-saving ideas for London hotels that, if implemented will significantly boost their profits.

It seems rather like turkeys voting for Christmas when electricity companies offer free advice to customers explaining how they can cut their electricity bills, but London Electricity’s head of business marketing Tony Galloni explains:

“Supplying around 6,000 hotels and restaurants in and around London has allowed us to get a good handle on how energy is used in catering and hotel industry. A little bit of thought on managing energy will result in savings that will lead directly to increased profits for the hotels. With global warming such an immediate issue we all need to give attention to how energy is consumed, and ensure that we can do it as efficiently as possible. Hotels consume vast amounts of energy because of the fact they operate over 24 hours, and guests remain largely unconcerned about the amount of energy they use while staying in the their rooms.”

The cost-busting guide, available to any hotel manager in the capital, contains 40 tips on how hotels can cut their utility bills. Many are described as “low cost and common sense” by the authors, such as turning the hotel heating down 1° C to get a 10% reduction in heating bills. Other ideas include: replacing all standard tungsten bulbs in the hotel with low-energy ones that use one-fifth of the energy, and ensuring that water heaters are regulated so that just enough hot water is produced for the hotel’s guests and isn’t warmed simply to just go cold again. Other suggestions include things done as second nature in most households; switching off electrical appliances such as TVs in the lounges when not in use, and killing the power to the photocopier in the business centre or office when not needed. Plus, there are many other ideas contained in the guide that hotels in London would be advised to adopt, if not to increase their profits then at least to cut excessive energy consumption.

London Electricity estimate that an average medium-sized hotel in London – one that contains 100 rooms, swimming pool, restaurant and a bar - would save in the region of £7,500 per year if they adopted all the recommendations incorporated in the guide. That sort of figure should appeal to all hotel owners; from those running family-owned establishments to big-name, multi-national hotels that could increase their corporate profits by millions if they applied all of London Electricity’s recommendations across their entire hotel chain.