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!

[Julie536]

Hi, I know little about electric cars as I have an older car but also an older style property in Estepona, Spain.  I do query the electricity issues as I got a bill for 287 euros from one guest during January one year. Luckily the community administrators have put a fence around the site so this is much more difficult.

By the way - I haven't seen any connections through hotel windows so I don't think we should be paying to fill up guest tanks  🤔  😐  !!!  

After a loss of over 4000 euros in 2021 due to low pricing advised on website and expensive property management, cleaning, laundry, replacement of towels and bed linen and increasing requests by local authorities I think its time to give up.  

Good luck

[Israel202]

I agree after looking at the numbers, that it doesn't seem like good business to operate an Airbnb in areas where there is so much supply. In my local market just north of Palm Springs California, nightly rates are depressed to the point where many are operating at a loss.

[Kristy223]

Hi Brandon. We can track our electricity use through our solar system & can clearly see our guests are using 3kw/hr & at 30 cents AUD per kW that is a lot more than $1 a day. 

[Annette131]

It appears that many people replying here are from Europe and their regular outlets are 240v instead of our 120v, I believe. Also electricity is more expensive there. So both can be correct. 

[Rusty25]

I am dealing with this for the second time…I am considering offering a $20.00 per day fee if you have to charge or just applying a No Charging rule to our bungalows. 
I built super efficient bungalows and really focus on keeping our energy usage low…

final thought…should I give all gas car guest $10 per day for gas?

one more final thought…I pay $20.00 just to park at s 

[Karen570]

Hi 

We rent out a house in France and I have been researching this.  You need to take care as if they are plugged into your domestic supply (as opposed to an official EV charging point) it may invalidate your insurance.   I found the following on line:

"Due to insurance purposes, what’s very important is that guests must never charge their car using a standard outdoor plug or an extension cable linking to a domestic plug. This is not permitted because of regulations regarding wiring, earthing rods and voltage restrictions; it poses a serious fire risk to standard 13 amp sockets and there is a real danger that the body of the vehicle could become live. This forms part of our Terms & Conditions and by booking a holiday via .......... all guests agree to these rules."

I rang our insurers and they agreed we would not be covered if guests did this and there was fire etc.

Would be interested if anyone else has had insurance co say this as nothing on any earlier comments.

Thankss

Karen

[Nicola2996]

Thank you for your input. @Karen570 

I have just had guests who charged their car through the night and then in the daytime without asking and left a cable stretching a long distance to a downstairs window. The only way for me and my grandchildren to exit my property was to walk over the tangled mass of extension cable.

My feelings are that you enter into an agreement with guests to stay at your property. You don't enter into an agreement to charge their car. This is obviously an additional requirement, and unless there is a designated power supply outside, my insurance company also said that my insurance isn't valid.

[Kristy223]

Hi. We have exactly the same situation right now with our current guests. This has not happened to us before either. We have a solar system (no battery) & can track our electricity use at any time & can see they are using 3kw/hr to charge their Tessla. We pay 30 cents per kw (AUD) so if they are charging their vehicle all afternoon & night, this becomes costly for us. I'm not sure what the solution is but thought this could be useful information to share.

[Karen4033]

I am having the same problem right now. I didn't even think of it. My first EV. Guest did not ask - just plugged into an outdoor outlet overnight. I can see my hourly usage online. It is a significant cost. May I ask how you solved this problem?

[Bob297]

@Karen4033 
Talk to the guest and tell them that charging an EV is not included in the rent. Nobody pays the gas bill for guests, either.

[Frank1682]

Offer EV charging with a normal plug as an add on.  Make sure it covers cost of charging during entire stay or figure out a way to meter the power used, or even better install a type 2 charger and charge a premium for fast charging.  This will attract soooo many more people to your property.

these same people could run heat/ac on high with doors and windows open, while plugging in hair dryers, inflatable bounce houses etc.  

EV drivers would pay extra $$$, while normal power suckers will get away with using more power 

Also most EV drivers have adapters to connect to higher amperage washer/dryer electrical connections.  Another thing to think about.

[John7105]

This whole convo seems a bit stingy, honestly.  In the US, trickle charging from an EV is at a rate of 1KW, less than a hair dryer.  Going for 10 hours would cost the host about $1.  Is this really worth all this angst?  As for using the 220V outlet where your dryer is, well that's not an obvious thing which could happen.  There are lots of dryer outlet configurations, and only one of them matches an EV charger plug.  They would have to be within 15 feet or so of the car's plug, which might be pretty unlikely - note there are no extension cords for 220V in the US.  This is an argument not worth having.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@John7105 if electricity is only $.1 per kWh then fine. Sadly in the UK it is about £0.4/kWh.

[Kristine300]

I live in California and pay at least $.33 per kWh, sometimes $.50 per kWh...  I know electricity is much cheaper in Virginia, but in California the charges for charging an EV overnight are noticeable. 

[Katja202]

@Nicola-and-Donal0   A heated discussion. I like 😁. In my opinion it is pretty simple. If you need fuel….you go to the petrolstation. In this case a charging unit somewhere nearby. That is what is normal. The argument of it is new and it is the future doesn’t make it normal that people charge without asking, that’s absurd. The fact that there is a discussion if you need permission to charge, means you no there is a possibility it might be a problem. And every owner of a electriccar knows that the costs of charging are high. So in my opinion if a guest doesn’t ask me to charge his/her car … I know I have a guest who isn’t enteirly honoust. And so he will be treated. The next day the guest will be presented with a bill, with explaination why we give him a bill and if he whises not to pay we will kindly request not to charge the car anymore. We will do al this by Airbnb message service and if guest charges car again we will report guest to Airbnb. This we we only loose one time charging and that is about €15,- in the Netherlands. So i don’t loose money on that booking bit I earn less.