Electric cars

[Alison143]

I have guests staying with an electric car and they are using our electric supply to recharge the car on a daily basis (3 days) should I request additional payment. As these cars become more common I am sure other hosts may encounter the same problem

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Alison143

Good point - I am not sure how much it cost to charge an electric car, but going forward it would certainly be something to put in your house rules (Electric car charging available at additional cost of £xx per charge).

This time round, if its not a lot then I would let it go as it 's hard to start charging if you already let them do it for free.

[Chris232]

Hi @Alison143

Charging an electric car at home costs about £3.00 for a full charge or 2p per mile. Average overnight electricity rate is 10p per kWh. Fully charging a 30kW Nissan LEAF will cost about £3.00 and give about 150 miles of range.

Chris

[Jayne8]

Thanks Chris, that's very useful information. We had our first enquiry about charging an electric car yesterday. I seem to have quoted too high at £5. The guest did not go on to book. Can anyone advise about how to apply this charge? 

Jayne

[Jane850]

I think the cost is higher now, plus it's unlikely guests will stick to Economy 7 hours.  If people are doing a relatively high amount of sightseeing as they tend to in my area then the costs could soar.  I don't like the thought of charging extra and can't at present think of a way around the problem.  A 150 mile charge won't take long to use up, could even result in daily 'plug ins.' I had wondered about lowering my daily rental and charging for electricity used.   Difficult tho' to then actually make the charge.  Ideas from others would be good. The only way forward that I can see is support from Airbnb in finding a way to charge.   I have already had people with electric cars.  They didn't ask me permission.  I found out through neighbours telling me.  I do routinely have the meters read at beginning and end of stays, and yes there was a sizeable increase in consumption.  

[Judy29]

I have a lovely couple for the weekend with a rather large electric car.  I was out for about 30 minutes and returning discovered that the guests plugged their car into our exterior electrical outlet.  Did they wait till I left home to plug in??? I checked for emails or any kind of message and nothing.  I was a bit upset and called a neighbour who has a Tesla to see what the cost was to charge up.  I think I was mostly upset that they assumed it would be OK.  At first I unplugged it, but then thought that would reflect as being negative without going to discuss this with them.  I thought to phone airbnb...but thought I should be able to figure this one out alone.  This is a new issue as being in the BnB business for 30 years always comes with surprises.  So, with the help of my husband, we figured out which electrical breaker to just shut down the power to the exterior outlet.  Just that simple.  

When the guests returned later that afternoon, I overheard their conversation..."its not charging".  Im not sure they realized that there was no power.  As my husband said...."they cant complain if they didnt ask first".

[Judy29]

With my first experience of this, this weekend, I just shut down the breaker so the exterior outlet had no power.  Just that simple.  Time to do some homework and see if it is worth upcharging a guest for this service

[Desmond-and-Annette0]

Hi, we are just getting a booking from a guest with an electric car. They have asked to charge their car over night so we said thats fine. We found it difficult to figure out what to charge. So what we have kind of found out that most of these cars  are between 20wk and 40kw. We are thinking about charging per unit of electricity used per kw battery.. 

[Barbara2472]

Hi everyone, 

I currently have a past guest staying at my cabin for a second time. He is very respectful and a great guest overall. However, this time he has an electric car, and he did not tell me about that. He is staying at my home for two weeks! Ugh! I like having him as a guest, however this is definitely an added expense. I'm not sure how to approach this. I believe it will cost me a minimum of $140 for the two weeks...

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated. Feeling a bit used right now.

Thanks in advance!

[Bob297]

I drive a Tesla for over 7 years and find it logical that the host asks for compensation for charging the car.
a host doesn't pay for the gasoline of the guest's car.

I would think carefully about whether to allow it. Your installation must be capable of charging an electric car

[Pierre2275]

But when do we get a filter element that says "electric car charging available"? I wonder why it is not yet there! Of course, with possible cost implication.

[Gwen386]

I am thankful for this conversation because as others have noted, this had not crossed hosts’ minds. I’m lucky in one sense because guests’ dedicated parking space is about 2 bus lengths from my house. Due to this conversation, however, I will add to my House Rules that free charging stations are available at Giant Grocery Store (address), 2.7 miles from the vacation rental.