@Mareen6 A cautionary tale: some friends recently stayed in a holiday rental not far from Berlin that they'd booked a few months prior. The host only informed them after arriving that they intended to charge energy fees separately (it was not mentioned in the listing). They wound up avoiding use of most of the amenities that appealed to them in the first place because they were given no data on how efficiently they operated, and they were afraid of getting hit with a shocking bill. On the one hand, they probably had a fairly low-impact stay, which is good for the environment, but on the other hand it was a disappointing holiday, and the host utterly failed at the basic job of making the guests feel at ease.
This is the worst way to do it.
We're all in a bind here, because it's not just hosts who are struggling to cope with the rising costs - obviously, it's everybody. Your lovely home in Niedersachsen is not catering to the super-rich, so you can expect that your guests are all tightening their belts this winter and watching their holiday expenses much more fretfully than they'd like to. The worst thing you can hit them with is unexpected or uncertain expenses.
So the best suggestion I can offer is to gently remind your currently confirmed guests of all your tips for conserving energy during their stay. Leave your calendar open only for the period of time in which your rates are still locked in, and increase your nightly rate in parity with the increased costs. That effectively conceals the energy crisis in a prepaid value so that guests don't have to think about it during their holiday. The moment your guests feel like costs are being "passed on," your ratings will plummet, and you can't afford that with only 4 reviews under your belt.
