Technology and tourism

17 April 2023

Companies in the Lake Garda accommodation sector are sufficiently technologically advanced to begin reasoning their rates with timely and accurate data on their own consumption and that of their guests.
The new drive towards energy supply is equipping them with energy production systems, as well as lowering running costs, to progressively reduce their environmental impact. Customers are increasingly sensitive to environmental issues and willing to do something to reduce their ecological footprint. This combination of ingredients is the ideal mixture to create a new way of conceiving tourism.
The maximum manifestation of this virtuous path can be the ECO RATE, i.e. a reasoned tariff based on a compromise between customer comfort and the structure's operating costs, with the common objective of reducing prices and environmental impact.
Let us try an example. It is well known that the healthiest temperature for the human body is below 21 degrees in winter and around 26 degrees in summer. From an environmental point of view, we know that for every degree up or down the systems increase consumption by between 3 and 7 %, that 100 litres is the consumption of sanitary water by one person in one day, that the plastic in the rooms comes mainly from disposables and courtesy kits, that if I lower the intensity of the lights I save energy. The fee could include, in addition to bed and breakfast, a room temperature of 21° and 150 litres of guaranteed ACS, but not include disposable products and plastic bottles in the room and access to the SPA. The clarifications regarding the fee allow the facility to save a significant amount in running costs and maintain a good price for the customer.
In addition to correct and attractive communication, the key to the success of this type of fee is the possibility of monitoring and charging guests for any extras resulting from non-compliant use of their room. In other words, the customer must be left free to do as he or she pleases but, as in the case of the minibar, will be charged as an extra when paying the bill. Technology today allows these extras to be accounted for, and communication to prevent customers from misperceiving those charges.
As much as dynamic-pricing adapts supply to demand, so much so that monitoring technology for hotels can provide these systems with timely data and a cost parameter on which to adjust the rate, while maintaining profitability for the establishment. The revolution is already here!