Chiseldon House Hotel provides luxurious hospitality in a beautiful old Georgian country house. The building has been extended a number of times and now has 21 guest rooms as well as restaurant and meeting facilities. Before installing Genius Hub, the whole building was heated, wasting enormous amounts of energy on heating empty rooms. We interviewed partners John and Mark to discover how Genius Hub has helped them cut their energy bills significantly while improving comfort for their guests.
How did you control your heating before?
“In Winter, the heating was turned on in the whole hotel, even for just for one guest. Before we had Genius Hub, radiator valves were constantly being adjusted and staff would reset them to 3 after checkout. We were heating a lot of empty rooms.”
Why did you choose the Genius system?
“Genius Hub was the only system that had the level of control that we were interested in. Plus, it’s a great value. With Genius Hub, we had a product that offered far more than the competition, at about a quarter of the cost of other commercial systems. What was most important to us was the ability to be able to control everything from the reception desk, and to quickly respond to an individual guest’s request.”
“In those days, Genius Hub was a relatively new player in the market, and they were clearly developing the product and continually improving it. We saw that as a real advantage because we were keen to get the care and attention that you often get from smaller companies.”
“This is important to a business of our size. We are pleased to say that the service has stayed excellent, even though they have grown significantly since then.”
How do you use Genius Hub?
“Bedroom heating is controlled directly from the reception desk. This is really convenient because we can just switch the heating on and off as we check guests in and out of the booking system. When reception sells a room, they can turn the rooms on for the guests using the PC. We also always keep an extra room warm for unscheduled arrivals. The ability to control each room’s heating from the reception desk is a huge benefit for us. In particular, Genius Hub allows staff to be responsive to guests who request a change in temperature in their room. Before Genius Hub, someone would go upstairs to adjust the heating, now it is done from the reception desk with a click of a button.”
“However, we found that guests may not notice temperature changing by a couple of degrees so we learned to temporarily ‘boost’ a room for 60 minutes before returning to a more sensible temperature. The customers are always happy with that! We are also learning to manage temperatures throughout the hotel. For example, guests are more satisfied when the corridors are slightly cooler; the bedrooms feel warmer by comparison. It’s great that we can just set a schedule and Genius Hub does the rest. We also look at the temperature readings from the room sensors, so we can easily spot if there’s a problem with the radiator, without having to wait for a complaint to find out. We are selling our hotel on the quality of service and Genius Hub pushes it up a notch.”
Do you have any difficulties with the Genius Hub?
“The only real issue has been our internet connection. When it goes down, Genius Hub just sticks to whatever schedule we’ve set it to. If we want to change it, for example, to switch on a room, we have to run to the room, which isn’t as convenient. We’re getting a tablet with WiFi to put at reception, which will connect directly to Genius Hub even if we don’t have internet access, which will be a good solution. To be honest, our only regret is that we don’t yet have every part of the hotel controlled by Genius Hub. However, Genius Hub has developed and we are extending the system throughout the whole property. Genius Hub gives us so much control over the guest rooms and we will be pleased to extend that experience to the entire hotel.”
Has Genius Hub cut your energy bills?
“Effectively it has because our occupancy and the unit cost of energy have both gone up dramatically, but our heating costs have stayed the same. We have definitely got a two-year payback on the total cost of the system, including installation.”
“What’s even more important is that we now have a far more acceptable level of heating throughout the building, and can be responsive to customers. For us, the comfort of our guests comes first, and Genius Hub has definitely improved this.”
