Towards the development of a hotel-based e-bike rental service: Results from a stated preference survey and techno-economic analysis

Konstantinos N. Genikomsakis, Nikolaos-Fivos Galatoulas and Christos S. Ioakimidis

Energy, 2021, vol. 215, issue PA

Abstract: Holiday cycling refers to the occasional use of bicycle during holidays as an alternative mode of transportation for exploring a destination, comprising a promising line of business for rental services of both conventional and electric bicycles (e-bikes), not only in countries with well-established cycling culture, but also in other tourist destinations. This paper advances the notion that a hotel-based e-bike rental service significantly contributes to the guests’ perception on the environmental quality and friendliness of the hotel, particularly if the e-bikes are powered by renewable energy sources, as a tourism product offering in the context of sustainable mobility. To that end, the present work employs a stated preference survey among hotel guests in the city of Mons, Belgium, to capture and analyze the user profile characteristics and preferences. Based on the survey results, it simulates two alternative implementations of the e-bike charging station with a well-established energy systems analysis tool and evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of the proposed service under different usage and pricing scenarios. The findings of this work show that all scenarios lead to positive internal rate of return and return on investment, rendering the proposed e-bike rental service a promising business venture.

Keywords: Electric bikes; HOMER Pro; Hotel guest; Rental service; Stated preference survey; Techno-economic analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544220321599
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:215:y:2021:i:pa:s0360544220321599

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.119052

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().