Automated heating settings

[Callum73]

Hi everyone, 

I wanted to ask for host views on heating during the winter months. I'm reopening my AirBnB up for the season in the UK and now offering the entire house rather than room rental. 

What do hosts do around heating? I have a HIVE thermostat which I can control from my phone.

I was going to set up a schedule for the week's stay with heating coming on in the morning 6am - 10am and back on at 5pm - 10pm. If the temperature fell below 18 degrees it would kick in during the day. 

I want to avoid locking the thermostat but wanted to try a schedule approach. I can then tweak things on my phone if the guests needs are different. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Callum73 in the evenings we set the temp at 21 degrees. Occasionally guests would ask for higher temps which we then set remotely. As high as 24 was needed for some guests.

18 sounds a bit low if they are in all day but is sensible as a starter as long as they can ask for it to be varied.

we did put a lockable cover on our controls when heating costs were stratospheric and never had any complaints.

[Callum73]

Thanks @Mike-And-Jane0. I do have a Hive thermostat that has a digital lockable feature. I'll think about using that and upping the temperature. I guess I want to avoid guests just leaving it on all day. 

[Greystone0 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Callum73  - we have NEST thermostats and mostly use them to set temps when the house is vacant. For guest arrival we try to set at a minimum of 65/66 (18) with some main spaces at 67/68 (19.4). 

Outdoor temps this week were -15 (-26)  for extended periods of time and so it's cold in our neck of the woods.

Our thermostats have an 'away' function so if guests are out of the house the temp is automatically 'less', based on how you set it. This could be a possible idea if your version has such a thing.

We have our thermostats 'locked' for a range of 55-70. If guests want higher than 70 (21.1) they would need to contact us.  

We find that when it isn't totally freezing out and stupid cold, many guests prefer a cool bedroom and so when we set a bedroom at 66 it gets turned down to 60, for example, and then we have guests that no matter what they think they need everything set super high, 70.

If you have guests staying for more than just a few nights then giving them control (versus) a set schedule might be welcome. But if they are just there for a night or two then the schedule might be the more ideal option.

just some thoughts. good luck!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Greystone0 May I ask what make of control system you have? The ability to lock in a range of temperatures is extremely attractive.

[Greystone0]

Hi @Mike-And-Jane0  - we have Google NEST thermostats.  These allow for an individual thermostat to be locked but allow a range of temp to be adjusted at the thermostat.

Google NEST is being fazed out and all of it is going to turn into "google home". Don't know what that means for our NEST style thermostats or what I would suggest looking into at this point in time. But presumably 'google home' will offer a comparable item (google bought NEST but now are rebranding it all).

[Tom4999]

We allow guests to control the heating but we can monitor it and adjust it on our phone also. I have found that it does not matter what temperature I set it to, the guests tend to either switch off the heating then turn it back on at 28 or 30 degrees then turn it off again or just put it to 30 degrees. It drives me nuts. If you do not give them control thy complain if you do give them control they have no idea what to set it at. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Sorry had to vent lol. I will be reading very intently what other people are doing.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Tom4999 Indeed - we had one guest set the temperature to 30 degrees and to run 24hrs per day. At this point we bought lockable covers for the control system

[Bhumika]

Hi @Callum73 , hope the suggestions from hosts have been helpful! How are you planning to manage the thermostat settings after discussing with fellow hosts? I'd like to hear your insights in this regards.

I also wanted to share a similar thread where hosts have shared ideas on 👉 How to encourage guests to use heating responsibly? 👈 I am tagging them here in case they'd like to share any additional advice. Hi @Caren21 @Photini4 @Chad548 @Caren245 , would you like to add any more suggestions for host @Callum73 ? Thank you all!

Regards,