Assessment of renewable power generation applied in homestay hotels: Energy and cost-benefit considering dynamic occupancy rates and reservation prices

Abstract

Increasing the revenue from hotel operations and decreasing the stress on utility grids from hotel energy consumption are two priorities for the modern tourism industry. Dynamic occupancy rate and hotel reservation prices influence their operations revenue, while occupancy rate also impacts real hotel energy consumption. Renewable power generation as an effective measure can benefit hotels not only by decreasing electricity purchases but also increasing some extra income from selling electricity generated from renewable sources. This study investigated the effects of renewable power generation on energy and the cost-benefit performance of hotel operation prices under different occupancy rates and reservation prices. A two-stage energy and cost-benefit performance assessment and a novel comprehensive cost-benefit assessment model were developed to examine these research issues. The impact of the renewable power generation system (i.e., a photovoltaic-battery system installed on the building rooftop) was considered on the hotel energy and cost-benefit performance. It was found that the novel cost-benefit assessment model accurately quantified the overall hotel profit by calculating its energy consumption cost with the PV-battery system under different occupancy rates and reservation prices. Three typical homestay hotels located in Sanya were tested and assessed. The results showed that PV-battery systems effectively decreased the amount of electricity purchased by hotels. Besides, the renewable energy penetration was above 57.98% in various cases. The overall hotel profit increased by a maximum of 31.4% since renewable power generation was used under different occupancy rates and hotel reservation prices.