NH Hoteles’ latest initiative, in conjunction with Siemens, combines research into home automation, state-of-the art technology and environmental awareness to create intelligent rooms in the NH Eurobuilding hotel in Madrid.

The two prototype rooms in the NH Eurobuilding have been fitted out with the very latest technology from Siemens to monitor the water, light and energy (heating and air-conditioning) consumption of guests on a real-time basis. Its technology will make it possible, to be able to adapt lighting, heating and air-conditioning preferences to suit customer tastes, throughout the year.

Even though the switches seem traditional, every room has systems for monitoring and optimising consumption, combined with management and control software called Desigo Hotel Solution which can immediately translate the usage into the equivalent carbon emissions that can be easily viewed from reception. This information will form the basis for future projects to give guests incentives to behave in an environmentally friendly manner.

By seeing real-time consumption in the room, NH Hoteles will be also able to optimise the electricity, water and energy consumption associated with cleaning and preparation work.

The hotel chain plans to install these new intelligent rooms in its future hotel developments. NH Hoteles has set as its objective to find out the real water and energy consumption pattern of its guests and to reward guests who have a more environmentally friendly attitude.

NH Hoteles will analyse its guests’ consumption patterns and compare them with the average consumption in each hotel. This means it will be able to adapt its service to the actual requirements of the public and to design future environmentally friendly rooms for maximum efficiency.

When checking out of the hotel in Madrid every guest will be able to see whether he or she has consumed more or less than the hotel average. This is a further measure being taken by NH Hoteles to persuade guests to use natural resources on a more rational basis and to make them partners in its environmentally friendly efforts.

NH Hoteles has always set itself the objective of providing its hotels with the most up-to-date facilities to achieve greater comfort for guests and also to cut down energy consumption as much as possible. To this end, the hotel chain has set up Siemens facility control systems integrated with its Check-in systems to adapt the heating and air-conditioning to the actual occupation of the room (blocked/not sold/sold/occupied).

These two new prototype rooms in the NH Eurobuilding are one more step in the NH Hoteles policy of environmental reasonability which, in accordance with its Environmental Plan and its strategy of action as set out in the slogan “Wake up to a Better World”, it aims to cut its water, light and energy consumption by 20% by 2012.