Ona Alanda: 22% less air conditioning in Marbella, without anyone going up to the room
With the apartments' air conditioning connected to Automatic Climate, they used 22% less air conditioning from August to October 2026. Per booked night, 31% less air conditioning. No building work, and guests keep control of the temperature.
22%
Less air conditioning
31%
Less AC per booked night
4 times
Fewer hours with the unit at full power
At Ona Alanda, an Ona Hotels apartment complex in Marbella, we connected the apartments' air conditioning to Automatic Climate. From August to October 2026 they used 22% less air conditioning, with no building work and without taking temperature control away from guests. To measure it, we compared apartments with our control against apartments in the same complex without it, using electricity meters that take a reading every 15 seconds.
The problem: AC set to 18 °C all night
In Marbella, in the middle of summer, guests arrive hot and turn the AC down to 18 °C. The unit never reaches that temperature and runs nonstop, all night and often the next morning too, with the room empty.
For the hotel that is three problems at once: higher consumption, more wear on the equipment and, if you try to lock the thermostat, more complaints. Automatic Climate tackles all three without the guest noticing.
Photo: Ona Hotels.
What the system does
Smart automatic programmes that correct the AC on their own when it is working harder than it needs to, and smart limits that never lock the thermostat. Guests can change the temperature whenever they want, so they don't generate complaints.
When the system corrects the AC, the unit stops straining immediately: it drops from 1.38 kW to 0.03 kW (the median across all daily corrections). The room then warms up slowly.
Everything runs on the equipment the complex already had and is managed remotely from the Automatic Climate dashboard. The corrections happen on their own, without anyone having to go up to the room.
How much was saved, measured two ways
- With our model. The meters taught us how much each apartment's AC uses depending on the outside heat and the temperature the guest asks for. With that, we calculated how much it would have used without our automations: 22% more.
- Per booked night. Measured AC use divided by booked nights: 5.6 kWh per night with control, versus 8.1 kWh without.
How we measured it
Every apartment in the study has meters on three circuits: air conditioning, water heater and lighting. On top of that we added Ona's booking calendar, to know which nights each apartment was occupied, and Marbella's outdoor temperature hour by hour. With all of that, the savings are not a brochure estimate: they come from what each unit actually used this season.
Month by month
- August: 11% savings according to the model. Per booked night, 8.5 kWh with control versus 10.3 without.
- September: 37% according to the model. Per booked night, 5.6 kWh versus 7.1.
- October (1 to 17): 15% according to the model. Per booked night the gap was much bigger (0.9 versus 5.9 kWh), but that comes down to the type of guest, not the system. That is why the reference figure is the model's: it compares each apartment with itself, so it does not depend on who is staying.
Less wear on the equipment
With control, the AC spent 7% of its running hours at full power. Without control, 28%. That is four times fewer hours at full power: less wear on the compressor and a longer life for the unit.
Photo: Ona Hotels.
What comes next
The next step is connecting the PMS. That way the AC gets ready before each arrival, switches off when the guest leaves and stays on standby when there is no booking.
If you want to see how it would work in your hotel, with your climate system and your PMS, book a 20-minute call.
More cases
Sercotel Granada Suites: automatic climate control across 28 apartments without opening a single door
An aparthotel with limited reception hours that was heating and cooling empty apartments. The full rollout took under three hours and nobody had to enter a room.
Sercotel Granada Suites: the whole hotel fitted with Checkout Buttons in two hours, one minute per room
An aparthotel with limited reception hours that never knew when a guest had left. Now the button updates Opera, alerts housekeeping in their app, posts to the WhatsApp group and switches the climate off.
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