Just wrapped up an 18-month portfolio audit for a major hotel chain - 180 properties from Seattle to Miami. Total recovery was $2.34M with ongoing monthly savings of $186K. Biggest pattern was incorrect demand billing on properties that had renovated but never updated their rate schedules. About 60% of locations had some form of billing error.
Hotel chain audit: 180 properties, found $2.3M in overcharges
Arnold, that's an impressive recovery rate! Did you find the errors were concentrated in certain utility territories or pretty evenly distributed? I'm working a similar sized hospitality portfolio and seeing heavy concentration of issues with Xcel Energy properties for some reason.
Nice work Arnold! That demand billing issue is everywhere in hospitality. Hotels renovate sections, reduce load, but nobody thinks to call the utility. I bet half those properties were paying demand charges based on electrical loads they hadn't seen in 5+ years.
Elmer - errors were definitely clustered by utility. ConEd properties in NYC had the highest error rate, probably because their rate structures are so complex. FPL properties in Florida were actually pretty clean. Mitchell, you nailed it on the demand charges. Some hotels were paying for peak demands from before major HVAC upgrades.
This is a perfect example of why portfolio audits are so valuable. Individual property managers would never spot these patterns, but when you look across the whole chain the trends become obvious. Arnold, did you create any standardized reporting for their corporate team to prevent this going forward?