How to encourage guests to use heating responsibly?

[Caren21]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this platform and appreciate some help.

I’d love to hear your tips regarding energy use. Despite a friendly request in my house manual to use energy consciously, many guests leave the heating set to 21°C all day and night, even when they’re not in the house.

I can technically adjust the thermostat remotely, but I don’t want to do that without their consent. At the same time, the costs and environmental impact are becoming a concern.

Has anyone found a polite and effective way to encourage guests to use heating more responsibly?

Thanks for sharing your wisdom 
Caren

[Greystone0]

Hi @Caren21 ,

Welcome to the Community Center! 

We are in a similar situation and have tried a few things over time. Here's some conclusions:

- Signage: in theory this should work but in general, we have found that guests don't like being told/asked what to do in a home. Signage works great if you have instructions on how something works. If you read enough reviews,  you will eventually see where guests mention signs in a rental that they didn't appreciate. Our conclusion, in this case was that adding a sign inside the home (about thermostat usage or reminder to turn down or whatever), wasn't going to help us.

- House Manual - this is a great spot to mention but can often go unnoticed by all members of the group.  Related to this is to mention in your listing/house rules.  I would do both regardless of how effective it is in reaching everyone. It isn't perfect but it's a start.

- Guest messaging: adding a reminder or a note to your check in message or pre-arrival message or whatever is another spot to reach guests. We have a series of seasonal or strategic items that we tack on to our messaging depending on the stay. This includes everything from traffic updates if there is an event or construction happening (we get both), seasonal reminders (like AWD recommended in winter), garbage pick up schedule (for longer stays we need to arrange) and so on. 

- and even the most conscientious guest can be careless or forget-full about this. Prior to being a host myself, I probably wouldn't have given this much thought while vacationing with my family. 

- we have learned over time that guests have vastly different ideas of what a temperature should be and thus what being responsible means is also not a standard. Some guest want too warm! Some guest turn down thermostats! Some groups have dueling ideas and you can see the thermostat swing 10 degrees, up-down-up-down, so probably no one is happy. 

- given our experience, we have settings on our thermostats, including a maximum and minimum, and an ECO setting that kicks in when the home is unoccupied. You may have similar and if you haven't should go ahead and set that up. You will get feedback if things aren't quite right and you can adjust. This may help smooth out some of the issues. 

- we manually adjust if needed as well. For example, we ask as a check out item to turn thermostats back down but this usually goes unheeded and so we hop online once checked out to turn down. 

Wishing you much success!

[Caren245]

@Greystone0 

thank you so much, your suggestions are much appreciated. I once stayed in a bnb on Curacao and as most peoples leave their airconditioning on while they spent the whole day on the beach the owner set a maximum amount of electricity that you could use, everything above that had to be paid additional. What do you think of a system like that?

I’m going to start with your suggestions first.

have a wonderful day

caren 

[Chad548]

Hi @Caren21 , one other thing you might try is programming your thermostat. I thought maybe if you can remote adjust it, you can program it to adjust at certain times. Maybe cool down a bit at night and warm up in the morning.

Most of the leaving it at a certain setting is they are on vacation and a thermostat setting/adjusting is furthest from their mind.  People's preferences are different, but if they aren't thinking about turning it down, they are also not thinking about turning it up unless they are cold.

On our thermostat you can lock out permanent holds, but the guests can change the temp until the next programmed temp change.  Then they have to come back and set it again. We have had 1 or 2 comments by guests, but always state it is an energy conservation step programmed in and never had any real issues with that.  We can still do permanent temp changes via the app when  it may be empty for a few days.

We have walked into units with the windows open and heat blasting so we understand.

[Caren245]

@Chad548 

thank you so much for your kind suggestion. I do have to possibility to programme the heating system so I will start with that.

Have a wonderful day

Caren 

[Bhumika]

Hi @Caren245 @Caren21 ,  thank you for responding to the hosts! I saw your replies as individual topics and noticed that you may have unintentionally created a guest profile. To make it easier, I’ve merged your posts into a single thread for you to continue the conversation!

Feel free to reply by clicking the reply button, and don’t forget to tag the hosts by using @ so they’ll receive a notification!

[Caren21]

@Bhumika , thank you, I didn't know that. thank you. Caren

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Caren21 we fitted lockable covers to the thermostat which timed the heating and hot water. We told the guests the settings and then offered to adjust remotely if they needed more or less heat. Not a single complaint received.

[Photini4]

Hello @Caren21,

I’ve explored the solutions shared by other hosts and found one that works well: when guests leave the house for touring, all electricity is turned off except for the fridge and internet. I’ve installed energy-saving key fobs that control the power supply: as long as the key is inserted in the fob, the electricity stays on. When guests leave and take the key out of the fob, the power is automatically cut off.

This setup costs around 200 euros (at least in my country) and has proven effective in reducing energy consumption when the house is unoccupied.

I hope you find this a practical solution which will solve at least part of the problem.

Good luck with your business,

Photini

[Caren245]

@Photini4

thank you so much, that sounds like a great option I will check the system out. Great! I’m so happy with all your ideas. Caren