Growing revenue is the more popular topic. Cutting costs is the more effective one. With energy the reason is simple: every euro saved lands in the result in full, while an additional euro of revenue first has to pass commissions, cleaning and levies. Even so, utilities are the line item owners review least often, usually because they are treated as fixed costs. They are not fixed costs. They are a function of occupancy, guest behaviour and a handful of technical decisions.

Why utilities behave differently here

In a long let the tenant bears consumption and therefore has every incentive to limit it. In a short-term rental the owner bears consumption and the guest has no incentive whatsoever, because the price is fixed regardless of how far the window was left open. This decoupling of use from cost is not malice, it is system logic: whoever does not pay does not optimise.

A second difference compounds it. A permanently occupied flat has steady consumption. A holiday rental has peaks and vacancies, and it consumes during vacancy too, because it is heated, aired, dehumidified and regularly entered. Consumption therefore correlates more weakly with occupancy than you would expect, and that is exactly where the opportunity sits.

The four drivers

  • Heating an empty property. The largest item in German properties. Between departure and arrival the heating often simply stays on, because nobody thinks about it or because the flat should be warm for the next guest. Both can be automated instead of left running.
  • Hot water and laundry. Towels and bed linen are a hidden energy item, especially with 60-degree cycles, half-filled machines and tumble dryer use under time pressure on changeover day.
  • Always-on loads. Second fridges, exterior lighting, standby devices, electric towel rails and, often enough, a boiler supplying hot water around the clock to an empty property.
  • Guest behaviour. Windows open with the heating running, air conditioning overnight, lights in every room. Small amounts individually, a relevant sum across a year and many stays.

What actually works, and what does not

The most effective measures are unspectacular and attack vacancy rather than the guest:

  • Heating control with a time profile. Smart thermostats that drop to a base temperature automatically after departure and come back up a few hours before the next arrival offer the best ratio of effort to effect. A sensible setback rather than a full shutdown matters, so you do not create a moisture problem.
  • Bounded guest control. Not out of distrust, but because an open range from 16 to 28 degrees serves nobody. A reasonable corridor preserves comfort and limits the swing.
  • Review laundry logistics. Full machines, appropriate programmes and, at a certain number of units, a comparison with an external linen service. That comparison favours the service more often than owners expect once labour time is counted in.
  • List the always-on loads once. An afternoon with a plug-in power meter finds two or three devices running to no purpose in almost every property.
  • Record meter readings monthly. The cheapest measure of all. Without a time series you spot a fault on the annual bill, which is up to twelve months too late.

What usually gets tried first achieves little: appeals in the house rules with no technical support, swapping functioning appliances for more efficient ones without a payback calculation, and turning down the comfort temperature. The last one saves money and costs reviews, and reviews are more expensive.

You save energy during vacancy, not during the stay. Anything that makes the stay colder gets paid back through your rating.

The metric that matters

Utility cost per let night makes the topic manageable, because it puts consumption and occupancy into relation. An illustrative example with freely chosen figures: 3,000 euros of annual energy cost across 180 let nights works out at roughly 16.70 euros per night. Cut consumption by twelve per cent and it is 14.70 euros, around 360 euros a year that stays in the result in full.

More interesting than the absolute value is the trend across months and the comparison between several units. When two similar apartments at comparable occupancy show markedly different figures, there is almost always a concrete technical reason behind it, and you only find it if you know the number at all.

Communication instead of control

Guests respond surprisingly well to reasons and badly to prohibitions. A short, friendly note in the digital guest guide on how the heating works, and that windows should be opened fully for a few minutes rather than left permanently ajar, works better than any list of bans because it is practically useful. For properties managed by RM Hospitality, consumption trends therefore run alongside revenue and occupancy in the monthly owner reporting in CENTCOM. Not because energy is the most exciting topic, but because it is the line where attention translates into margin most directly.