Products that might help hosts

[Robin4]

We see many posts from hosts who want help in dealing with situations relating to hosting problem guests.

Two of the most common issues are....

1/.....How can I stop guests wasting power, running the Air/con all the time or at an extreme temperature.

2/.... The guest has stained my linens, how can I clean.

There are two Aussie products which are available around the world which will solve either of these issues.

OK, to the air/con issue first.......

For the past two years I have been using this air conditioning remote control to control the unit in the listing cottage.....

It overides the main airconditioning control and allows the host to set a thin band of temperature range which the guest cannot overide!

I am just in the process of upgrading to the next stage which incorporates a motion sensor. If it does not detect movement for 10 minutes, it turns the air conditioning off!

It's called Airconoff and it is available for a very reasonable cost via this web site....

https://www.airconoff.com.au/

To the bed linen issue.

I have had to deal with all manner of stains from blood to make up, to wine and food ....beetroot being a fairly bad one!

I have only come across one product that easily removes all these common stains and it is called Sards Wonder soap and it is available in the US or the UK on this site.......

https://www.aussieproducts.com/searchprods.asp

 I am going to post more of these tips if hosts find them helpful.

Cheers......Rob

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Cormac0 

Great article! Thanks for sharing~

In Korea, it's typical to maintain indoor temps of 25~26°C in the summer and 20~21°C in the winter. 

I could never understand the types who keep the AC at 20°C in the summer and wear a cardigan and then heating on at 26°C in the winter wearing shorts. Completely crazy~~~

[Robin4]

@Cormac0 

Yeah thanks for that Cormac.

That is a very good article and the dozen or so points there do represent good practice and I support every one of those.....as far as dealing with your own personal system is concerned!

In my working life I was a mechanical services contractor. I had a team of 27 employees, about one third of my business involve design and install of heating and cooling equipment and the other two thirds involved service, both scheduled/breakdown and routine replacement. Although I retired almost two decades ago I have kept up with newer developments and still understand fully the principals of not just reverse cycle but gas, hot and chilled water, and combustion!

While this article of yours Cormac is a great guide for design and maintenance it does nothing to address the foibles of having strangers in your space....and more particularly paying strangers!

They don't give a sh*t whether the filter is clean or not! If the thermostat will make the airconditioner heat to 30c on a 6c night....good-oh, wind her up!! Guest don't give a da*n about running costs....that's what they are paying you for and they want good ol' value!!

Almost all hosts wish their guests would not be environmental vandals, but that is like wishing for a lottery win....a guest like that doesn't come along often!

You have to take the 'abuse' part out of the hosting equation and this device I have provided a link to does that. It will control the temperature range of any heating or cooling device that has a remote control. As well as my reverse cycle unit it also controls the electric wall panel the guests use through the night!

It wasn't until this last week that I was aware that this remote control was available outside of Australia but obviously it is now available around the world and I strongly support its use.

We need to cut down on wastage any way we can and this will go a long way to help!

Cheers......Rob 

[Mike1034]

@Robin4I have replaced my thermostat with a Smart Thermostat. Ecobee is the one I used. The other popular one in the US is Nest. With the smart thermostat, you can monitor and control the AC/Heater through WIFI access to internet. Essentially you can control the house temperature whereever you have access to internet with your smart phone. You can set smart thermostat an access code. Nobody can change it without the access code.

The other advantage of smart thermostat is that you can put temperature sensors in different rooms so that the thermostat can help to achieve different temperature in different room to certain extent.

[Robin4]

@Mike1034 

Hi Mike, there were a couple of things that influenced my decision to use the Aircon-off, and promote it here.

Both the Ecobee 4 and the Nest are available here in Aust, the Ecobee 4 appears to be the better product, it does more than the Nest does and has better reviews and, for the equivelant model, is considerably cheaper.

I understand that hosts who reside somewhere other than where the listing is will be drawn to this technology because of the ability to set either of those units can be done via a smartphone....remotely!

They also have multizone capability, geofencing and voice assistance...none of which I needed.

All of this comes at a cost and the Ecobee 4 is three times the cost of the simpler 1731 unit I use.

I did have another thought Mike which may or may not be relevant.....guests would become annoyed if they felt I was spying on how they use things...shades of 'big brother'. This way I just tell them they can turn the air con (or the wall heating panel) off or on but, the temp settings are set by the master controller and they seem to accept that! They think is mechanical and just happens without my interference! 

$45 US gets you into an  Aircon-off  that lets you control the air con units temperature range and with no wiring involved it can be set up by anyone in less than a minute.....guaranteed.

Mike, I could drive a Mercedes......but I am happy with a Honda...do you know what I mean!

Cheers......Rob

[Mike1034]

@Robin4I like your analogy of a Honda vs Mercede :-).

BTW, Ecobee 3 lite is a much cheaper option. It costed me US $135 with the controller and two sensors to get it. I have a rental 60 miles away. Therefore, Ecobee is the only choice for me.

[Ann489]

@Robin4  I use a Honeywell wifi thermostat in our guesthouse that I can check and control from my phone.  The thermostat also allows you to lock it so guests can adjust the temperature only with a certain range.  I love it!   😉    Now if I can only figure out how to save water!

[Robin4]

@Ann489 

Ann, I have gone away from instantaneous gas hot water because, as long as someone wants to stand under the shower........ they have hot water!  Also in my area we are not on a reticulated gas supply service so, our gas is via LPG bottles which is considerably more expensive than town gas!

I have installed an 80 Litre mains pressure electric water heater to the cottage bathroom and that gives the guest about 12 minutes of hot water at mains pressure before it starts to go cold. It heats up again in about 10 minutes but it does stop guests just showering as long as they feel they want to!

But, to help you with your problem, there is a water saving device on the market through Amazon for around $10 US called a 'Waterpebble'! It sits on the floor of the shower alcove and tells guests when they have used enough water. It comprises a pebble shaped waterproof object that has three blinking lights in it. It senses when water is being used and turns on and after a set amount of time the blinking light turns from green to yellow to red.

At 10 bucks it isn't a 'sheepstation' and if it tempts guest to use less water....Anne you are ahead. Here is the Amazon link to it!

https://www.amazon.com/Water-Pebble-WPEBBLE-Waterpebble/dp/B00OTWBZEK

Cheers......Rob

[Ann489]

What a fantastic idea!  Thank you, @Robin4 ....I will order one of those!  🙂

Ann

[Sam669]

An old post, but I came across it after a Google search. Some of the information is incorrect. You can't give you existing remote to the guests. You must give them the Aircon Off remote. The basic version limits the range of temperatures they can choose, while the pro model has a placebo setting that lets them select temperatures outside the range, but it still sends the signal within your min/max to the air conditioner.

The remote isn't able to magically change what's happening inside the airconditioner; it can only control what signals it sends to it. Ie, you must use the new remote for it to work.

Do no give the old remote to your guests!