Occupancy type - transient vs. resident

I would push back on the comment that “residential occupants are any occupants which reside in the project building, regardless of the length of stay” for your short term staying personnel in your narrative. This does not jive with the way that hospitality projects deal with their guests who are considered transients, which seems to be what you have. Since you have actual occupancy data, you have a good justification to make your case. Consider looking at Addendum ID#100001069 - https://www.usgbc.org/leedinterpretations/LISearch.aspx?liaccessid=10000... - for additional thoughts on hospitality occupant calculations and the use of historical occupancy numbers.

The LEED interpretation mentions that hotel guests should be treated as residents ("Fixture use assumptions for hotel guests follow the fixture assumptions for residential occupants"), and the day use guests (who are not sleeping there but maybe there for lunch? I'm picturing a resort type hotel with amenities to attract visitors) are considered visitors. Brooke - it sounds like your description is that the soldiers are sleeping in the barracks, and therefore would indeed be using the showers and other fixtures like residents, correct?

Residents makes the most sense when you think about how they use the building. For most projects, transient occupants are only there for a short amount of time in the span of a day (think clients visiting a consultant's office for a meeting, or students in a university building for a class) and only half of them are expected to use the flush fixtures once a day (0.5 uses/transient-day). I think most folks who stay in hotels use the potty more than 0.5 times/day, right? :-)

I want to clarify that the reference I made above is to an addendum item, not an LEED Interpretation.

I am working on a hospitality project now and hotel guests are treated as transient occupants. A difference is made between the peak transients and daily average for SSc4.2 vs. WEp1/c3. Look at the linkages to the credits on the Pif3 form for more on the connections.

Peak is calculated at 100% occupancy times 1.5 people per room for a hotel times the number of rooms. Daily average is calculated at 60% occupancy or historical data (per Addendum) times 1.5 people per room for a hotel times the number of rooms. Day visitors (like people who are at the hotel to attend a conference but are not staying there) are added to daily average transients of the hotel guests as calculated above. You might want to also check out another addendum - ID#100001070 - https://www.usgbc.org/leedinterpretations/LISearch.aspx?liaccessid=10000... for more on fixture usage assignment for WEp1/c3.

One key to classifying a particular user group as transients or residents is to look at what each approach assumes about water use, bike racks, parking, and energy use and see if that fits the likely use of the building. You can always use different fixture groups to reflect different water use, so you might need to dig into the WEp1 guidance document to see how retail customers and transients have different water use assumptions such as # of flushes per day.

These usage patterns can make a difference in whether we're providing enough facilities to meet the "level of service" for LEED, but we've also seen inaccurate FTE assumptions change the balance of plug loads, internal heat gains from occupants & lighting to the point where energy performance took a hit, or water treatment systems had problems.

So, after reading both LEED addendas, I am still confused! Should hotel guests count as tranisents or residents?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

If the occupants are staying over night, they should be considered residents, regardless of if they stay one night or 6 months. The "resident" classification defines how the occupant will use the space. Someone staying overnight will use space the same way as someone staying for 6 months. Remember that the occupancy calculations look at the occupancy of a building over a typical 24 hour day. Transients would be any visitors that are there for a few hours or less, not staying over night. Note that for transients, retail customers and students/visitors have different plumbing fixture usage rates.

I understand you need use the fixture usage patterns for residents for hotel guests for the WE credits, but in terms of Plf 3 form only do you list # of average hotel guest under Transients or Residents?

They should be counted as residents.

How would you determine the visitors (not hotel guests staying overnight) for a hotel?  

On past projects we have been successful delineating this type of visitor (ex people who are at the hotel to attend a meeting or luncheon but are not staying there) as simply being added to peak and daily average transient calculations. For meeting rooms we used code occupancy as peak and then used occupancy rates provided by the owner to get daily average. For example if per the owner: Average meeting room usage is 50% occupied we would take the peak occupancy divided by 50% for the daily average. Other transient visitors might include vendors, restaurant customers, etc. consider these other types of visitors as well. A detailed narrative explaining your methodology will help reviewers understand what you have taken in to consideration. Good luck!

Brooke:

About your comment: Yes - that makes sense from the point of view of the WE credits but looking at Site credits for bicycle storage and changing rooms it is unlikely a guest would bring their bike along if they are only going to be there a few days.
I haven't done any hospitality LEED projects - are hotels guests calculated as residents?
Thanks for your help & opinions!

Either regular building occupants or visitors... how was the issue solved?

And more important, was the bicycle storage credit also solved or awarded?

There are several interpretations (such as ID# 3130) and CIRs that set a precedent for not requiring residential type bike accommodations, or any bike accommodations, for hotel guests not expected to arrive by bike. You do need to make your case, but it can be really brief; cite one of the IDs and just describe the scenario: business visitors flying in for meetings, vacationers doing a car tour of the area, etc. In the case of the Navy residence that started this thread, that's a little more like a dorm and some folks actually might have a bike to use to get around the base or get into town.