From his decade of work alongside hoteliers in the UK, Euan shares that there are a lot of little ways to find savings at your hotel, and these little savings add up quickly. He recommends focusing first on sustainability. A rule of thumb here is that you don’t need to do things year after year just because you’ve always done them, so if your hotel has offered amenities like newspapers or single-use toiletries, it’s ok to stop providing those items. Euan suggests switching to refillable toiletry containers, and ideally using opaque containers so guests can’t see how much is inside. And if your hotel serves a breakfast buffet, consider shifting to an a la carte menu or pre-packaged breakfast options, since buffets generate a lot of wasted food. At Claire’s property, she takes guests’ breakfast orders the night before so she only prepares what guests will consume.

 Another impactful cost-savings measure is to leverage smart devices to cut your energy costs. Euan recommends using a smart climate control system, such as Nest, so you can control temperature in your guestrooms and public areas from your phone and even program a schedule so you’re not paying to heat or cool a room when nobody is inside. At Be Still Getaways, Jamie also automates climate control so her team can have oversight on heating or air conditioning use at all times. In addition, you can install door sensors to know when guests have checked in or out so you can turn climate controls on or off. But if implementing technology isn’t feasible right now, an easy step to take is to set your water boiler to a lower maximum temperature so you’re not paying for unnecessary water heating costs.

Euan recommends tightening up your linen use to save money on laundry expenses and replacement costs. Whenever you have solo travelers staying with you, rather than putting out two sets of towels, just put one out. Or, if you still prefer to put two sets of towels out, wrap the second one so your housekeeping teams know if that second set has been used. One hotel that Euan worked with took the step of wrapping all their bath towels before placing them in guestrooms so they cut down on unnecessary washing of the largest towels. You can apply the same principle to other linens that are more costly to wash, such as bathrobes and beach towels.

Jamie of Be Still Getaways credits automation for enabling her business to scale to managing 150 short-term rental units; handling check-in manually for each and every guest would be impossible. To make her business work, Jamie leverages her property management system (Eviivo) and smart locks (RemoteLock) to automatically send check-in instructions and door codes to guests. Even the boutique motels in Be Still’s portfolio use an automated check-in process. But if in-person service is a signature element of the experience at your property, you can still find ways to automate pieces of the booking and check-in process. Try to identify any repetitive and manual tasks, like sending templated emails to request guest reviews or ask about airport transportation, that your employees probably don’t enjoy doing very much. Automating these tasks won’t negatively affect your guest experience, but it will positively impact your employees’ morale and free up their time to focus on your guests.

Jaime and Claire have both found cost savings in their businesses by purchasing supplies at discounted prices. They recommend finding vendors for items like linens, consumables, and toiletries that offer bulk discounts. By buying large quantities at a time - or even tapping into business buying schemes that allow several businesses to purchase at the same time - they take advantage of economies of scale to save money without compromising quality.  A group purchasing organization (GPO) like HostGPO can often save your property thousands of dollars on everything from furniture to art and even toiletries without sacraficing quality.

As Claire reminds us, you might save money in the short-term by forgoing annual systems testing or duct cleaning, but when a system breaks or fails, it will end up costing more money than the preventive maintenance would have. Although it might sound counterintuitive to spend money that will save money for you later, preventative maintenance on your appliances and physical building is not a line item you want to skimp on.

When it comes to saving money while running your hotel, which cost-saving idea will you try first? Reducing expenses doesn’t have to mean a complete overhaul of your operating model, but rather identifying a few simple ways to save some cash that will add up to a more efficient business.

This article was created collaboratively by HotelTechReport.com and Eviivo.