Determinants and benchmarking of resource consumption in hotels—Case study of Hilton International and Scandic in Europe

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of resource consumption in 184 Hilton International and Scandic hotels in Europe. An overview of the characteristics of these two brands (upscale and mid-market, respectively), as well as the collective resource consumption in these hotels is presented (2004 data). This is followed by a more detailed analysis of a number of physical and operational factors that may potentially influence the energy and water use in these hotels. A multiple variable regression analysis indicated that, in the absence of climate data, hotel standard, total hotel floor area, number of guest-nights sold and number of food covers sold all affect the energy and water use in these facilities. The survey results further document significant differences in the energy- and water-utilisation in Hilton and Scandic hotels. This indicates that establishing realistic resource consumption benchmarks or models requires classifying hotels (especially those belonging to the upscale brand) into sufficiently specialised sub-groups representing facilities with comparable properties. It is further suggested that benchmarking of facility components may be necessary. The paper concludes with some recommendations on the procedure and criteria for establishing a useful reporting system and benchmarking model.