Electricity is the lifeline of every operating hotel and it must be managed with great care as with any other controllable expense.

Energy costs worldwide have risen drastically over the past few years and the trend is expected to continue. Everyday, hotel guestrooms around the world lose millions of dollars in wasted electricity expense, because of the lack of energy management systems.

On an average, 90 per cent of wasted electricity usage in a hotel comes from the guestroom, which is the property's most unmanaged resource. The reasons can be attributed to cooling a room beyond acceptably defined limits or leaving the lights on even if the rooms are unsold or unoccupied. A properly designed guest room energy management system for hotels must be capable of achieving significant energy saving while concurrently enhancing guest comfort.

'At present, more than 50 per cent of the world's hotels are ill-equipped to effect such energy savings and more than 70 per cent of the existing management systems have been found to be inadequate for the purpose.ÿWhile hotel managers are looking to cut operating costs, they should also address the efficiency of facilities management systems, an often-overlooked area of hotel administration.

Although the hospitality industry produces more and more sophisticated means of administrative management, technical hotel management has often been considered of lesser importance. Nevertheless, technical hotel management is just as important as administrative management to make hotel guests satisfied.

It can also be queried why, for example, are administrative matters left exclusively to marketing operations? Today's means in the fields of informatics and technology allow them to be used in services and reception as well and, in business travel, this certainly helps enhance customer satisfaction.

Of all the buildings that exist, hotels are undoubtedly those with the most complex management. Every day, the hotel must satisfy the needs of temporary guests with all their individual wishes related to comfort, safety, telecommunications, etc. Nowadays, hoteliers want integrated room management systems to be part of their modern hotel, to the benefit of guests and hotel investors alike.

The advancements in modern technology have resulted in a considerable enhancement in the style and standard of living of the people. This has resulted in a shift in preferences, causing more and more people to stay in hotels, which are better equipped, provide comfort, and add value for money.

Minxon Hotel Technology, a global leader in facility management systems for the hospitality industry, has designed and manufactured state-of-the-art, innovative intelligent guest room management systems (RMS) that provide a total integrated guest room solution. The system integrates the air-conditioner, lighting that includes digital lighting controls and multi-scene dimming, curtain, music, television, safes, electronic locks, alarm clock, world time, message services, and other guestroom applications.

Minxon manufactures a number of intelligent guest room energy saving systems in over 23 different finishes to match with the interiors of any hotel. The company offers additional finishes such as shining gold, silver and bronze.

Minxon's regional manager for the Middle East and Africa, Benny S Malayaatil says that the system provides efficient, low-cost room control solutions and increases guest comfort through faster target temperature attainment and centrally controlling room lights, curtain, television, music, etc.

He elaborates: 'The company has been continuously upgrading technology to meet the current market requirement, thereby helping hoteliers to capture additional operating efficiencies, deliver superior guest experiences and at the same time save on energy costs. The front-end SmartGuest software, graphics, integration drivers, micro controller programming are all developed at Minxon New York (US), wall accessories are manufactured in Milan (Italy), and controllers in Taipei (Taiwan). Minxon also is an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for RMS products to several building automation manufacturers in Europe and Canada.

Minxon products are FCC and CE certified and with their modular plug and play design, can be easily installed and maintained. The bedside panel, thermostat and all other wall accessories are treated with a special scratchproof material for a lasting finish. Minxon has recently launched a new range of touch-screen bedside panels, LCD display intelligent bedside panels and touch-screen IR (infrared) remote controllers for a chain of luxury hotels. Minxon PDA networking is also available as special orders for housekeeping to retrieve the room status including the mini-bar.

Minxon provides a comprehensive package of guest room technology required by a hotel. As a testimony to its quality and utility, the Minxon range of products has been introduced and adopted by most of the international hotel groups, including Westin, Hilton, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Ritz, Sheraton, Formosa Regent, among others. Its clients range from the most prestigious five-star hotels to specialty limited-service properties.

Minxon systems range from a very low-cost standalone system for a budget hotel to advanced centrally controlled systems for luxury four and five star hotels.
Says Malayaatil: 'We pride ourselves in producing affordable, innovative easy-to-install and maintain intelligent guest room systems of the highest quality that are in accordance with international standards. With each project we discuss the usage concept and the objective with the future hotel operators at an early stage and offer consultancy services as required.'

These new solutions from Minxon have permitted the optimisation of hotel services without swallowing large amounts of energy and operating costs. ''All resources must be put to work to satisfy the guests' comfort needs. Comfort can be perfectly controlled and defined, aimed at matching individual needs while giving consideration to the guest's requirements in terms of thermal, olfactory and technical comfort and offering the hotel economical advantages. This means that a well-managed and optimised customer database greatly helps from a technical point of view, not only in independent hotels but also in large hotel chains and to the business traveller who wants to find a little kingdom in each part of the world. This is of great importance representing an essential element of customer satisfaction.

Still, from the hotel guest's point of view, every technical system has its limits, especially when it is not user-friendly. The hotelier should consider this fact and have a guest room management system as user friendly as possible so that the guest can comfortably adjust the environmental conditions and have the flexibility to dim the lights to a required lux level while at the same time operate other functions from the bedside panel.

Minxon's integrated central control of guestrooms is made easy through its intuitive, easy-to-learn SmartGuest software interface. In addition to real-time control of energy usage, the system is used to gather and manage information from the intelligent room controllers installed in each guestroom. These data are automatically processed by Minxon front-end SmartGuest software, which generates historical trends and reports for use by hotel front office, room service, housekeeping, engineering and other hotel staff. Minxon SmartGuest runs on a Pentium IV PC using a Windows platform, which supports any number of existing PC (personal computer) terminals within a hotel over a conventional TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/internet protocol) or Ethernet network. The central networking wiring can be by using the standard CAT-5 Ethernet cabling from each guestroom controller or a daisy-chained between guestrooms.

The SmartGuest has an in-built maintenance reminder software which will alert the operator, when a fan coil unit (FCU) filter would require cleaning, an FCU belt would require replacement, a lamp would require replacement or if any schedules are over due.
SmartGuest can be interfaced with every major property management system, building management system, PBX, and other systems as necessary. This expandability feature allows properties to better protect their investment and ensure expansion capabilities as required.

The SmartGuest, which runs on a Windows platform, manages a wide range of in-room facilities. These are not just to achieve thermal comfort for the guest, through the use of thermostat controls, says Malayaatil. The guest room system can also be interfaced with the front office system so that a permanent record can be generated of the guest's preferences.  If guests do not want to be disturbed, for instance, they no longer have to hang a notice on their door which might be removed, they can transmit their wishes to the front desk and also have them displayed outside the door.