Guests Charging Electric Car Without Permission

[Nicola-and-Donal0]

Hello lovely community!

My first time on here.  We have a family staying in our apartment and as soon as they arrived yesterday they started charging their car.  it was plugged in for hours and possibly over night.  They are with us for 3 nights so I'm sure they'll be charging it every day.  We have nothing written down pertaining to charges for this so I guess i'll just let this one go, even though I feel it's super cheeky not to even ask!  My question is, can i build it into our rules that it's disallowed for future guests?  It's impossible to monitor if we allow it but charge for it.  They could be charging over night and we might not be aware or charging when we're not home.  How do other people manage this?  Thanks in advance!

[Bob297]

@Collin116 
If guests charged at my outlet, they could easily use US$ 30 a night.
I don't pay my guests' gas bills either.

[Ruxandra10]

Hi Collin, I know this is an old thread and apologies to jump in here again, average price in America may be 14 cents per KWH but in other countries it's more than double that and some regions don't offer off peak rates. I have a property in regional Victoria, Australia, by the beach.  The standard rate is 37cents per KWH (off and on peak). For a 100KW charge for a Tesla, that is $37 per day.  If the group travels in 3 cars (my house accomodates up to 12) and stays for a week that amount is not something to sneeze at - it's not cheap.  

[Richard3335]

see reply below

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Nicola-and-Donal0 

This is a very different response from the others. A different perspective. Perhaps it will speak to some. 

We are completely off grid. It takes all the power we can make to run the house, the 360' deep well, and keep it all going to expectations.  If someone wants to charge their car, we all may hear the 25KW diesel generator running to do so, at the going price per gallon for delivered diesel, plus wear and tear on the generator which  needs rebuilding after a certain number of hours. If it were possible to charge an EV, we would have one ourselves.

[Wendy329]

I’ve put on my air bnb page that we do not allow guests to use our domestic electric if they have ev cars. But suggest they use the Zap Map app as that shows all charging points on the island I live on. So I presume it’s a worldwide app?

Its working! We’ve still had guests with ev cars, and they all toddle off to the nearest point.

tbh I just don’t get it. Would you pull into a petrol station and sit there with the pump attached to your car for half an hour!!!???? So why do it with an ev!

[Dave1336]

Happened to me for the 1st time.

I'm not happy.

Going to turn off all the outside outlets.

Not like I go to your AirB&B and take the gas can from your shed and fill my car.

[Giovanni1508]

What’s next? Charging people to use a hair drier or charger their phone? Plus, guests are already charged fees like crazy. The service fee. Taxes. Most hosts charge a “cleaning fee”. Rather than adding insult to injury, maybe just let someone charge their car? To fully charge an EV it costs about £5-£10 and I highly doubt the average guest would be able to run up your bill much more than something like keeping the A/C a bit colder than you’d like. Charging using a regular outlet (level 1 charging) is extremely slow and meant for topping off the battery here and there, not sucking down a full charge in a matter of hours. Charging a bunch of fees left and right is the easiest way to make a potential guest skip over your property and go elsewhere that’s all inclusive and with less nickel and dimming. Alternatively, add £2 a day to your listing rate and be done with it. You and your guests will get what you think you’re entitled to. 

[Jim448]

Let them plug in their car. The most they can get from a standard 120-volt outlet is about 1000 watts; leaving it plugged in overnight might take 8 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Here in Vermont, where electricity is expensive, that would cost me $2.08. And they are paying me $250 a night to stay at my place. So I am nice to them. I want them to be happy. I let them plug in.

in fact, we want to encourage people with electric cars to stay with us, and we have an electric car ourselves now. So we installed a Level 2 charger in the garage that can provide 7500 watts, and we let our guests use it. An overnight charge on this device might cost me at most $12. Again, a small price to pay for a feature that attracts nice guests and keeps them happy.

Hospitality is "the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers."

[Richard3335]

I have rural-based accommodation in Australia, and commercial recharging points can be 20 - 30 km away.

I dont see easy solutions to this problem, and its not just people who recharge electric cars. Some peope run heating and aircon 24x7 and some use very little. This is getting to the point of being a ridiculous situation.

I am considering an approach where I charge guests upfront for an electricity / energy surcharge and offer an incentive refund after their stay, a partial refund based on how much power below the surcharge level they didn't use. Call it an 'energy bond' if you like, and it can address all forms of excessive energy consumed - LPG gas and electricity.

What do others think of this approach?

Do you see Guests baulking at it, or are we all adults now and understand the bigger issues here?