Hotel ACS Subsystems
An ACS, like any other system, must primarily help the hotel generate revenue. To do this, it must either provide a certain level of comfort and convenience for guests (and comfort, as we know, comes at a premium) or help the hotel cut costs.
It is precisely the second task that the energy-saving subsystem is designed to solve, which is why it is in the highest demand among other systems in the hospitality sector.
The logic behind its operation is very simple: after a guest or a staff member enters the room, they must insert their card into a special device mounted on the wall inside the room, typically next to the entrance door. As long as the card remains in this device, the room has electricity, and the air conditioner, TV, and power outlets function. If the card is removed from the energy-saving device, the room is automatically de-energized, leaving only the minibar and the hallway lights powered.
In addition to pure energy savings, such systems enhance fire safety, as fires caused by faulty mobile phone chargers left plugged into room outlets rank among the leading causes of hotel fires.
The implementation of this subsystem can vary significantly:
- Mechanical energy-saving controllers or “card switches”
- Semi-active energy-saving subsystems
These utilize devices “with a baseline of intelligence” – the energy-saving controller detects the TYPE of card inserted into the pocket. If magnetic stripe cards are used in the hotel, it will detect the mere presence of the stripe, but not its content. The same applies to contactless cards. If the type of the inserted card matches the “required” type, for example, a MiFare standard card used in the hotel is inserted, the power will be switched on. Tricking these energy-saving switches is already more difficult, and most guests won’t even bother with it, so while the price of the energy-saving device roughly doubles, the efficiency increases manifold. The energy-saving software is completely independent of the ACS and can be purchased from any supplier – the main requirement is to match the type of cards used.
- Active energy-saving subsystems
This is already an integral part of the ACS, as an active energy-saving controller (AESC) must be able to read data from the key, primarily to clearly differentiate between guests and staff. In most cases, these AESCs already feature 2 controllable power relays and can split the load based on the principle of “allowed for the guest – allowed for staff.” For instance, a maid’s card won’t be able to turn on the air conditioner or the TV.
Additional functionality is also possible: one relay can be dedicated exclusively to the air conditioner and ensure it automatically shuts off when a window or balcony door is opened (requires window-opening sensors) and/or periodically activates the air conditioner for a set number of minutes even in the absence of a card (keeping the room temperature automatically maintained at an acceptable level).
There are other application options for AESCs:
• arming/disarming the room security alarm and/or providing a visual signal of guest presence in the room (a indicator light in the hallway);
• access control to additional (paid) services inside the room: upon check-in, the guest pays for a service, for example, using the mini-bar, and their card is granted access to the 2nd relay of the AESC; when the card is inserted into the AESC, the lock installed on the mini-bar door automatically unlocks. Guests who have not paid for the service (as well as staff members) will not be able to open the bar with their card.
The cost of an AESC varies within very wide limits depending on the functionality and the parent ACS. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly define the range of tasks that the energy-saving subsystem must solve and weigh them against the price of the solution.
For example, a more expensive AESC that is capable of solving the access control problem for mini-bars may turn out to be a much better solution compared to a cheaper but less functional counterpart.
Active energy-saving subsystems with a room presence detection subsystem represent the most advanced option available on the market today. The hotel gets two ACS subsystems “in one bottle,” and in our experience, the presence detection task itself can turn out to be the most critical. Some of our clients made the decision to purchase the entire ACS based primarily on the ability to solve the room presence detection task.
I already mentioned this subsystem in the previous part of the article and will only reiterate that, by the very “physics” of the process, it can provide a level of presence control that no online lock can match.
The objective of such a subsystem is to monitor the presence and duration of stay of people (guests and staff) inside the room, primarily to prevent cases of “off-the-books check-ins.”
To achieve this, a number of conditions must be met:
- The AESC must display card presence in the pocket in real-time, specifying not just its type (“guest” or “staff”), but also indicating the name of the employee who owns the inserted card (the guest’s full name is generally not displayed, but the duplicate number of the guest card is recorded if multiple guests reside in the room).
- The AESC must record information about card insertion/extraction into the ACS audit trail, indicating the cardholder’s data and the time/date of the event. This allows for comprehensive analytics for any operating period of the system.
An additional bonus of utilizing a presence detection subsystem is another ACS subsystem – message transmission. Using an online AESC, staff can leave any operational notifications: update the room status to “ready for check-in” after room cleaning, report identified malfunctions to the technical service (electrical/plumbing/air conditioning issues), submit requests (“restock the bar,” “clean the room”), etc.
The cost of this type of energy-saving subsystem will be the highest among all options considered. Furthermore, at present, such an offering is available from only one supplier. Nonetheless, depending on the list of tasks that the ACS must solve according to the approved concept, these drawbacks may fade into the background.
By the way, any of the options considered requires a room electrical supply layout specially designed for the installation of energy-saving controllers. Often, during hotel construction, designers attempt to apply an “apartment” power supply layout without taking hotel specifics into account, so alongside developing the ACS concept, one must not forget to align the ACS project with adjacent engineering designs at the facility.
Concluding the topic of ACS subsystems, it is worth noting that time & attendance and photo-verification subsystems are also in demand in hotels, but they are typically secondary in priority to the energy-saving subsystems described above. Moreover, their choice highly depends on the decisions made within the ACS concept regarding the system of access to service and technical premises of the hotel.
So, we have defined our choice of cards, requirements for guest room locks, and subsystems.
And now it is finally time to remember that a hotel consists of more than just guest rooms, so in the next part of the article, we will talk about dividing the hotel into zones with different access rules for various user categories, as well as operational functions and tasks that do not relate directly to guests and guest rooms.
—
A. V. Katrenko
Commercial Director
“Smart Security” (Russia)
To be continued in the next article…
){kind=link}