Hotels that measure water: guests see their consumption, the hotel sees its leaks

How it works

Each consumption point has a flow sensor. The data are sent encrypted to the hotel system, which processes them and returns them to the guest on a screen in the room (smart mirror or TV) and to the maintenance team on a dashboard.

The same data serve two different people: they give the guest information to decide; they give the hotel an alarm when an empty room is consuming water, the typical signature of a leaking cistern or dripping tap.

The calculation: where the saving comes from

With typical reference flow rates —a 9 L/min shower and a 6 L/min basin tap—, an 8-minute shower uses 9 × 8 = 72 litres and each minute with the tap running, 6 litres. If the on-screen information shortens the shower by one minute, that is 9 litres less per shower; in a 100-room hotel at full occupancy, with one shower per room per day, 9 × 100 × 365 ≈ 329 m³ a year.

Leaks add up to more than behaviour. A cistern that does not close properly can lose tens or hundreds of litres a day without anyone noticing; with per-room metering it is detected within hours, not on the quarterly bill. These are calculation assumptions, not results from a specific hotel: each installation is sized during the technical visit.

Privacy by design

A room's consumption data are linked to the stay, not to the guest's identity, and are closed on check-out. In Europe this is not optional: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires personal data to be minimised and their purpose to be explained clearly.