@Lori145 we also have a place in the desert near Palm Springs. Our power company lets you see your previous days power usage on their website. I had been tracking the usage and the outside temperature spiked to about 118 degrees for about a week. The power usage skyrocketed and the bill was $678. I knew something was wrong because no way should we be using that much power. Well of course, on Labor Day weekend, the AC unit decided to stop working on Sunday afternoon and it was lik 119 degrees outside. The AC company was great, Adam from Airflo came out the next day(holiday) to look at the system. A wire had shorted out and burnt a hole in the Freon line and escaped all the coolant. The previous AC was installed in 2006, so it was old. It was a 3 ton unit and was very inefficient. I ended up upgrading to a 5 ton compressor because I didn’t want the same problem of the unit struggling to cool the house. I also installed the Ecobee3 WiFi thermostat. The Ecobee thermostat allows you to remotely control the thermostat temperature, turn the system on and off, set a certain temperature or temperature range. The Ecobee also lets you lock out the guest with a password, so they can’t play with the settings. My power bill went from $678 to $195. They power company also gave me a $135 bill credit for buying the WiFi thermostat. Now I control the AC for the guest. I set the range at and tell the guest the AC doesn’t go lower. Obviously guest were just pushing the AC down to the max cold and using gobs of power. I also replaced every light bulb in the house with LED light bulbs. My power consumption is now under control and tightly regulated. I have calculated that the house uses about $2 a day when it’s empty and $10 occupied, in power. I just factor that into the rate. Just another example, I just put in a new pool heater. $300 a month to heat both the pool and the spa. I factored that new cost into my rates and I raised my rates to cover it. This is not a charity. This is a business. The guest has to absorb all the cost associated with the business. Competition is so tough on Airbnb. In my market, host pitch tents in their yards and charge $100 a night. Now I have to compete with these listings too?
