Heating problems

[Olena51]

Hi,

We are a host for almost a year now. Everything going smoothly excludes the heater-related problems. We live in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Our winter is warm but our quests like to have +30C in their unit. We have the same heating source with them and the thermostat is located in our living room.Also, the quest has an electric fireplace in every room and they use it. We keep temperature 25C, but the quest is steel cold and use all fireplaces and bring one more heater to their room, because they feel cold. With all these heated sources the temperature in their unit is more than +30C but they are still cold and asking us to increase temperature. Also, the breaker in their unit is keep tripping because of so many electric items are working and they keep resetting it every day. What should we do in this situation?  It is not the first time when people feel cold when inside the unit is +30C and they want it hotter!!!  They keep resetting the breaker without our permission and this can lead to fire!!! It is any regulation about heating the Arbnb units? What should we do in this situation? Help:)

[Anonymous]

@Olena51  Some hosts have installed smart thermostats that allow them to remotely regulate the heating units.  But this doesn't quite get to the bottom of why guests are consistently claiming to feel cold inside the home even when the thermostat reads at 30C. Are they also leaving windows open, or could there be some heat loss from an insulation issue? A humidity problem? I'd want to get in there next time a guest said it was too cold and feel out where the problem is coming from.

Re: the breakers, I'd find it odd to have to ask permission to reset the breakers every time they trip. Guests already find it inconvenient enough when the electrics are easily overloaded - having to wait for a host's approval to get the lights back on could be the final straw.

[Olena51]

Hi Andrew,
Thank you very much for your response 🙂 We check the temperature in the quests unit and it is was 30C... They are from the tropical country and like the temperature to be very warm.

Also, we had quests who used all 3 electric fireplaces during a very hot summer when the outside temperature was +50C. And our electricity bill was very high at that time. Should we charge quests an extra for that?

Thank you:)

[Anonymous]

@Olena51  Hmm, there's not really a way to simply "charge extra" after a stay. You can always submit a Resolution Request to the guest for additional payment for anything, but if they don't agree to the charge, it's really up to Airbnb to mediate, and they're unlikely to back you up on a charge for using utilities that were included in the listing. So all you get for your troubles is a bad review.

If it's possible to disable the electric fireplaces during warm months and advertise them only as a seasonal amenity, that would be the better option. Those extreme +50C days are the ultimate reminder that we're already in a state of climate emergency, and wasteful use of resources is no longer charming.

[Mike-And-Jane0 · Accepted solution]

@Olena51 we had a recent guest set the heating to 30 degrees 24 hours per day. I have remote control over the heating so when I spot these stupidities I just adjust it downwards.

At the end of the day as long as its a short term rental the guest will be gone and you can just leave an honest review. For just a week or so the financial impact will be relatively small.

I just wonder if the guest comes from a Fahrenheit country and didn't get the conversion right. Perhaps leave a conversion chart near the thermostat if that is the case.

[Huma0]

@Olena51 

I have frequently had problems with guests saying they are too cold. It's not even always guests who come from a warm climate. It often just depends on what they are used to at home. Some people expect it to always be hot enough that they can walk around barefoot in a t-shirt and shorts, or want the heating on and the windows open. 

There's not much you can do about that, other than write something into your listing description and house rules about the heating but, in my experience, that doesn't help much either.

If you haven't done so already, I would follow @Anonymous 's advice and investigate if there's some sort of insulation issue. As the thermostat is in your living room, perhaps the temperature in their unit is not the same.

However, if it's truly over 30 degrees in there, it's more likely that these guests are simply the type who are never going to be warm enough. All I can suggest in that case is that you politely stress to them the safety concerns and how you are worried about all this causing an electrical fire.