Radisson Collection Hotel, Tallinn CEO: How to Achieve Guests’ 5* Comfort Excellence While Meeting the Sustainability Targets??

Introduction

In spring 2022, the Baltic's first top-class Radisson Collection hotel opened its doors in Tallinn, offering over 300 rooms, a 1000 square meter conference center, a luxurious SPA facility, and two top-notch restaurants. Alongside all the amenities, it is always a priority to ensure the utmost comfort for the guests, which includes exceptional indoor climate, ventilation, and temperature to ensure the guests' comfort. To ensure an outstanding indoor climate for guests at all times in a busy building while saving energy and the environment, Tallinn Radisson Collection Hotel implemented the R8 Digital Operator Jenny, an artificial intelligence (AI) based system.

Renovation and Goals

The renovation of the Radisson Collection building began at the end of the summer of 2020, in the wake of the global COVID pandemic, when the sector faced great uncertainty. Winning the investors' trust required a thoughtfully designed building using the latest technology to offer guests top-quality service while being sustainable and environmentally friendly.

According to Ain K?pp, Radisson Collection Hotel, Tallinn CEO, the Radisson Group's Think Planet initiative aims to deliver service excellence more sustainably, using less heat, electricity and water. This involves several activities, starting from the Green Housekeeping system, which allows guests to choose whether and to what extent they wish to have the room cleaning services. As well as an implementation of large-scale systems, amongst which is R8 Digital Operator Jenny. R8 Jenny maintains the desired indoor climate at minimum energy consumption in the entire building. ? ?

AIN K?PP TALLINN RADISSON COLLECTION HOTEL CEO:

"During the renovation, we aimed to implement technologies ahead of their time, as hotel investments into technology require a long-term approach with a 15– 20-year investment period in mind. We need to be ahead of our time; otherwise, the building, in the technological sense, could become outdated in just a few years."

As with any new buildings and significant renovations, energy efficiency and sustainability were vital for the Radisson Collection. At the same time, savings cannot come at the expense of guests' well-being, as the building's indoor climate, ventilation, and temperature are essential requirements for the hotel guests and the base ground to begin offering other hotel services and amenities. "If a guest is feeling hot, cold, or stuffy - you can smile all you want, it will be no use," says Ain K?pp. ?

Implementing AI in Rooms

Implementing the R8 system has helped the hotel cut costs while offering guests a better indoor climate. In hotel rooms, R8 Jenny proactively adjusts the building management system’s (BMS) setpoints based on building dynamics, including room related ventilation and heating accordingly.

Leveraging AI During Events

While in hotel rooms, we are talking about the movement of just a few people, a much more significant challenge is the hotel's public areas, where guests move and frequently stay in both large and small groups, especially if we speak in terms of large international conferences.

"For example, during one of the first major conferences, we immediately noticed that during the break, as soon as the doors to the conference hall opened, the air was fresh and cool, even though hundreds of guests had been sitting there for a couple of hours," says K?pp, noting that the hotel staff also noticed significantly fewer technical issues and errors that occur during events.

This is primarily thanks to the R8's artificial intelligence, which autonomously manages the building's systems, anticipating and solving issues. ?

Achieving Excellent Indoor Climate

An excellent indoor climate requires state-of-the-art technical systems, which were installed during the renovation of the Radisson Collection. The R8 technology allows to make the most of these systems. In particular, by collecting data, R8 Jenny helps to control the building's heating, cooling, and ventilation systems as efficiently as possible in response to the outside temperature and account for the number of people in the hotel and their movement across premises.

For instance, at the Tallinn Radisson Collection hotel, R8 Digital Operator makes about 10 thousand individual adjustments to the building's technical systems every month, which amounts to 99% of all changes. This means that only 1% of the time a person needs to intervene; the rest is done by AI-based technology.

Managing The Building’s Performance Proactively

The R8 user interface provides an analytical overview of the building's performance and energy consumption and is convenient for technicians to use while helping analyze the collected data. ? ? ?

In large buildings with high occupancy, it detects technical issues otherwise not visible to the human eye. For example, a radiator starts to heat up when the building is already using energy to cool down due to hot weather. R8's artificial intelligence Jenny can detect such issues and disparities before, for example, a hotel guest notices them. This way, the hotel team can proactively correct these issues or malfunctions. ? ?

This is a significant added value in a demanding industry like the hotel industry; preventing guests' concerns is more important than resolving them, as guests expect impeccable service from a top hotel.

Getting Ready for the Grand Opening

R8 also played an essential role in the opening of a building that has undergone a significant renovation, as already in the first weeks and months, its analytical engine allowed to monitor whether the building's systems were correctly set up and whether there were any faults or anomalies in the structure that the construction company should rectify. ? ? ?

Balancing the Power Grid

Another exciting value of the R8 Jenny is its ability to help balance the power grid - it synchronizes the power grid and the building's systems. By doing so the building reduces energy consumption when the load on the grid is higher than planned or, conversely, uses energy while the grid is in surplus in a profitable way.

In Conclusion

According to Ain K?pp, sustainability, and energy saving are primary common goals for hotel management and an expectation from guests, owners, and investors' point of view. ? ?

AIN K?PP TALLINN RADISSON COLLECTION HOTEL CEO:

"While hotel guests are increasingly environmentally conscious, from the perspective of the hotel operator and investors, it is a question of direct cost savings. What is certain is that in the hotel industry, as in many other sectors, savings cannot be achieved at the expense of guests’ comfort. It is important to determine where energy consumption occurs without being directly necessary, beneficial, or necessary for comfort."

According to the Radisson Collection team in Tallinn, the R8 system can cut monthly energy and heating costs by approximately 10%, translating into significant savings per square meter.