With skyrocketing fuel prices eating into profits, hoteliers have few reservations about cutting energy expenses. They're adjusting thermostats, dimming lights in lobbies and hallways, consolidating trips for supplies, and even posting signs that ask guests to "please reuse towels."

While these are all good ideas, they're really just a start. To maintain or even maximize profitability, hoteliers need to go beyond mere cost-cutting and step into the realm of energy budget management. It can be a very effective strategy for reducing operating expenses and is something that, surprisingly, many hoteliers are overlooking.

That's too bad. This year, hoteliers will spend over $5 billion on energy expenses. In fact, utility expenditures represented the fastest-growing expense for hoteliers, increasing an average of 12 percent per year from 2004 to 2006, according to PKF Consulting's Hospitality Research Group. It's likely that energy costs will continue to climb in the foreseeable future.

Fortunately, an energy consultant can help hoteliers reduce operating expenses as much as three to five percent. An added plus: implementing an energy budget management plan can green your hotels, which may help drive revenue by attracting increasingly environmentally conscious travelers.

Better still, engaging an energy consultant is a low-risk, high-return approach that typically has a ...