Imagine you're a PGA golf professional. You're not well-known, but you finish high enough on the leader board in enough tournaments to make a decent living.

You have the same expenses as the tour's household names-travel, meals, hotel stays, caddie fees, and family support. But you probably can't afford all of the top-notch services the best players can, such as full-service travel packages for your tour stops.

Small hotel franchisees and independent hotel operators find themselves in a similar situation. Their concerns are the same as larger chains, in that they must pay employees, stock inventory, buy furnishings, and deal with heads-to-beds issues.

Also like larger hotels, smaller operators have little time to manage the costs of the one thing hotels couldn't be without: utilities. But unlike larger establishments, they often don't have the capital to spend on full-service solutions that manage utility expenditures.

That's about to change. Some energy management companies are providing a solution that gets smaller operators in on the ground floor of energy management. In fact it's so easy to use, all they need is a fax machine or a scanner.

The best part: It offers all the auditing benefits of a full-service solution, but keeps bill paying services in the ...