Digital Twins for Sustainable Hospitality Facilities Management: A Review and Empirical Investigation

Digital Twins (DT) hold considerable potential to transform hospitality facilities management (FM) to advance sustainability. Amidst the global call for net zero, hoteliers struggle to elevate travelling experiences for guests while cutting carbon footprints. Previous studies investigated various energy modelling and BIM-based FM approaches but the information exchange between the physical environment and virtual data remains predominantly static. This study aims to investigate the role of DT in assisting hotel FM to address sustainability challenges. The paper first reviews existing hospitality FM workflows for sustainability, DT definitions, and applications. Semi-structured interviews are next conducted with 11 industry professionals. The study is novel in designing a DT application framework in hotels. It also contributes by extracting three key themes: (1) business strategy, (2) planning and development, and (3) sustainability; and two key challenges: (1) technical challenges and (2) organisational challenges. The paper’s findings are significant in guiding DT designs in hotels.