Across the hotel sector, owners are under pressure to extract more value from their assets while dealing with sluggish growth and cost inflation. Here, we examine how three different tools - in finance, energy, and workforce management - can unlock measurable returns while reinforcing the human essence of hospitality.
Transform reporting
Every hotel brand structures its P&L differently, yet multi‑brand owners need comparable reporting across all assets to make informed decisions. Asking brands to change their formats is not an option, and manual attempts to reconcile reports are slow, prone to error, and a drain on an asset manager’s time.
The solution, according to Rolf Arndt, managing director of Fairmas, is to build a single owner‑side reporting dictionary that defines every KPI and every accounting structure.
“You need to standardise before you can automate,” he said. “Focus on a common language - a KPI glossary with definitions of GOP, NOP, EBITDA, EBR - that everybody clearly understands.”
Once definitions are fixed, owner groups can establish standardised reporting formats, a unified Chart of Accounts, and consistent scenarios for actuals, budgets, forecasts and rolling forecasts.
Operator data - whether from Marriott, Hilton or IHG properties - can then be mapped into the owner’s models. With rules, checks and exception handling written into the software, the system validates data systematically and normalises inconsistencies.
“This leads to less blaming, because the data is correct, and more talking about what actions to take based on what the data is saying,” said Arndt.
While full integration across ERP, PMS and RMS systems is the long‑term goal, Arndt advises owners to prioritise the most valuable data categories first. “The goal is to shift reporting from storytelling to steering,” he said.
Getting the software up and running is one thing; getting employees to use it is the real challenge, he said: “The value is lost if they do not change their old working habits and keep on using Excel.”
A responsible project manager, not a committee, must embed the new working practices, with full support from the board.
“Once you have all these decision‑grade insights, the software really frees up humans to lead and act,” he said.
Higher asset values
After staff, energy is usually the second largest operating expense for a hotel. Operators tend to think of energy management systems as a means of reducing costs or complying with ESG regulations. However, from the owner and asset manager’s point of view, the value of such systems can be more fundamental.
Michael Serour, general manager of Verdant Energy Management Solutions, explained: “If you are putting an energy management system into a building and you are immediately driving a measurable reduction in energy and operating costs, that trickles all the way down to the bottom line, and if you're trading an asset on the basis of an EBITDA multiple, well, that energy management technology implementation will immediately drive asset value.”
Verdant Energy Management specialises in retrofitting thermostats into existing buildings and is a market leader in the U.S. where around 30 percent of hotels have Verdant thermostats on guestroom walls, according to Serour.
He explained: “There are a lot of energy management solutions that require cabling and all kinds of infrastructure, but when you're thinking about existing assets, you need something that is non-intrusive, plug and play, so that you can see the return on your investment relatively quickly.”
The guestroom thermostats utilise radio frequencies rather than Wi-Fi, eliminating the need to route wires or put holes in walls. Verdant claims that property staff can install its thermostats in less than 20 minutes per room.
Having entered the European market in the last few years, Serour said that the payback periods following installations at two full-service Marriott properties in the UK and France were 11 and 15 months.
In another example, Hyatt Place in downtown San Jose, California, saved almost $600,000 in electricity costs over two years by reducing guestroom HVAC runtimes by 48 percent, while simultaneously increasing the value of the asset by $2.5m, according to a Verdant case study.
Workforce management
While workforce technology is sometimes framed as automation or a way to reduce headcount, for John Lockyer, CEO of Unifocus, this view is outdated.
“When designed well, the technology becomes an alignment engine: aligning demand with staffing, managers with real‑time data, and employees with clarity and fairness,” he said.
“Rather than dramatic operational overhauls, the impact often comes from small, repeated improvements that compound over time.”
In practice, this means using AI to build labour schedules informed by current demand, seasonality, events, historical patterns, guest satisfaction, feedback and labour standards.
“This enables you to precisely forecast staffing needs in granular intervals, ensuring that you have enough staff to meet operational needs without the worry of incurring overtime or under staffing,” Lockyer said.
Managers gain a complete view of forecasted, scheduled and actual hours. They can see overtime risk before it becomes a cost and monitor budget alignment in real time. This is a shift from reactive to predictive scheduling.
“One global hospitality group I spoke with said that, for the first time, they could see labour risk building before it hit their payroll and bottom line, and that's what we're trying to do: get people ahead of this before it happens,” he said. “In a flat‑growth market, precision becomes a growth strategy.”
The technology also changes how managers spend their time. “So, managers stop managing their spreadsheets, and they actually start managing people,” he said. “Instead of spending hours reconciling shifts, they walk the floor, they coach their supervisors, they engage with guests.”
Employees benefit from transparent schedules, mobile shift swaps, time‑off requests, overtime visibility and fair allocation of hours. Real‑time alerts reduce disputes and build trust.
“One regional operator told us: technology didn’t reduce headcount, it reduced frustration,” he said. When teams are more engaged, they deliver more consistent service, solve problems faster, and create memorable guest interactions.
“So, employee engagement is not a soft metric. Guest satisfaction is not a soft metric,” Lockyer said. “They are leading indicators of revenue durability, and revenue durability supports asset value, and this is where human hospitality becomes a measurable return.”
All quotes taken from the session ‘Tools that deliver: Aligning tech with human connection in practical case studies’ at IHIF EMEA 2026 in Berlin.