Has your Hosting adapted due to the energy crisis?

[Sybe]

Hi everyone,

Wherever you go, people are feeling the effect of the energy crisis and thinking of ways to be more economical. Hospitality is, of course, no exception. Whether you’re thinking about sustainability, smart meters, your amenities or your overall cost calculation, many of you have shared some ideas on how to make your Hosting business work despite rising utility costs, across the CC. I hope we can encourage and collect more here!

Have you made any changes to your listing, listing or Hosting style to be more economically viable?

I hope we can all share some tips and tricks that will benefit all of our wonderful Host community, as we adapt to our ever changing world. 

Thanks,

Sybe

[Sudsrung0]

Leave one on the pillow @Gillian166 

I'll try to refrain form doing that sometimes we have too

[Gillian166]

My energy bill for mid-winter just for one listing went up by almost $5/day, around an 80% increase. We have solar too but people seem to think solar is some holy grail. Why? It only works during the day and only provides a certain amount of energy, it's not unlimited free energy all day long. And of course, when you need it most - in winter at night - it's useless.  And by the time we've actually paid it off, the tech will be out of date and then you have to start over again, PLUS I reckon in the future we'll all have to pay extra fees to safely dispose of the panels.  We got solar panels on our other house in Qld, the bill went down the first quarter, and then bounced right back up and is now $200 more than last year, plus I am paying monthly payments to the solar company. Our govt is doing its best to outlaw wood burning fires in homes, but this is madness too, because rolling blackouts in winter (that's in all our futures if we continue to rely on solar/wind) will be an absolute disaster for the colder states. 

What to do?
We are going to invest in buying 20t of wholesale firewood this summer, it's a big hit to take but the cost is 30% less and we should be able to sell some of it off to locals in small trailer loads. We might even be able to offset our own costs by up to 70% (with a little of our sweat equity of course). Our state govt is apparently offering farms "free" batteries for solar systems, I need to read the fine print on that but if so, that's going to help too,  in a small way. 

I think I will make a stylish sign for our small a/c unit that reads "this unit isn't designed to run all day long, please only operate when you are in the cottage, and never overnight".  Unless we get a serious heatwave there is no need for a/c as it always drops below 20º at night, in summer. We don't have a/c in the other listings as we are cool climate, so that's one less thing to worry about.  Winter is our bigger concern. We made it through ok this one, I can only 🙏🏻 that by winter 2023 these issues are behind us, but I doubt it.  

 
 Somehow, guests understand this issue in the context of their own home, but not when they are paying to stay elsewhere, so the only real solution you have is: put your prices up. 

[Ola9302]

I guess that's the only way, but it is extremely difficult. On my house this winter the cost of electricity is up 500% compared to last winter. Per month it can vary between € 500 - € 1500 depending on temperature and weather the guests are aware or just simply don't care at all and open the windows with full heating on.  When the total rent for a month is € 1 800 it sort of makes the equation quite tricky. 

I'd love to set the rent to € 1 000 and charge for electricity separately. Then the ones who are aware will save money in the end. If they want to waste energy, please go ahead, but they will pay for it.

[Gillian166]

@Ola9302  omg! those prices are insane.   I think you might have to instigate a sep charge for energy, as you say, those that want to be irresponsible can pay for it. 

[Mariann4]

Hej @Ola9302 

I'm seeing from my Norwegian FB group that hosts are now starting to charge for usage. Especially those who rent cabins. We've had cheap electricity for decades and normally we would for instance allow guests with electric cars charge for free. The cost would be minimal anyways. Now the charger is set with a price and money is requested through resolution center.

We have gotten a subsidised solution here. But it only applies for private homes. Cabins are excluded. So with a normal price of max €0.02 -0,05 per kWh (before taxes, green taxes and renting the delivery line at €0,06 pr kWh) and a warned price of €1 or at worst €2 the cabins can no longer be rented with electricity included. And it's impossible to raise the prices so much. With charging for electricity the guests can choose how to use electricity and firewood themselves. 

Do you have any subsidies on your electricity now? Or do the Swedes have to pay the price at full?

[Trude0]

So the new government came with the information yesterday, about subsidies. If I understand correctly, those in the southern parts of the country (incl Stockholm, where I am),  will get a kind of ”refund” for the high prices we have paid the latest 12 months. But no subsidies for the prices we are about to pay in the coming months, I think. Yet - maybe that will come later, too.

I don’t want to be hosting, and then be giving guests lots of instructions, and worry that they will be running the washing machine, dishwasher and heating continuously, with the windows open. I simply keep mid-Dec-Feb blocked in my calendar. It will not be worth it for me, hosting in the coldest months. I would hate every day.

[Ola9302]

Hei @Mariann4 

I'd say the situation is similar, but comming out from a recent election here in Sweden we actually don't know yet if there will be any compensation/subsidies from the government. So far we pay full price. 

I don't expect guests to find it strange to pay for this separately, but I'd love a more clear way to support it from Airbnb side.

[Gillian166]

@Mariann4  I would love to charge for firewood, especially kindling! people use half a bag of the stuff, when 3 sticks is all a competent person needs to get it going. Drives us bonkers!

[Laurelle3]

@Gillian166 I have read on our local FB host page if they have a fire some ask if they want to use it they leave 1 bag and they pay for extra or buy their own at shops. I  always think of the extra cleaning but it does add atmosphere. Also it goes the same way with outside fire, same again cleaning and it can encourage more drinking, noise that can affect the neighbours but in your case you have space around you thats the benefit of having a property.

[Gillian166]

@Laurelle3  for us the main source of heating is fireplaces, so we aren't going to charge them "if" they want it. We sort of solved the problem by pre-lighting all the fires but if the fire goes out we've found guests can't work out (or read instructions) on what to do, and they waste so much wood. The season is almost done, but i'll have to rethink what to do next year, perhaps my instructions need to be simplified with big text.... 😆

We have outdoor XL firepits and we charge extra for that (we generally use wood off the property for outdoor fires), and I think we only did 3 in the whole season (the wet and miserable weather helped, haha). We might get a few takers in October as it's finally more pleasant to be outside at night.  Even if guests brought their own wood it's highly unlikely they'd be able to get the bonfire going, nor do they understand it takes an hour to start it and monitor it before it settles down into a decent fire.  

[Sudsrung0]

@Gillian166 

Thats exactly what I have done it's a waste of time asking them, 

And I added a cleaning fee for the first time ever, 

[Ola9302]

Isn't the most efficient way to make guests interested in saving energy to also make them pay for it? I mean, basically I'd like to have the option to charge for electricity separately.

[Sudsrung0]

@Ola9302 

We used to charge extra and we were getting bad reviews over it,

We didnt hide it, it was in a couple of places,

And we have a contract the guest sign on arrival then we read the meter together and put it on the contract, so we increased the rate to cover it.

[Ola9302]

How did you actually do it? You had a separate contract for this? And how did you collect the money? Couldn't they just refuse?

To me I can't really understand why someone should make a bad review for that reason. It is not a trick to raise the price. Rather the opposite, they can save money if they want to. 

[Sudsrung0]

We have a separate contract the guest sign on arrival and it covers immigration laws in Thailand,

We would read the meter at the time of check out we collected the cash, nobody refused to pay, 

Lots of people you could tell by the meter they had been turning everything off but others would just carry on regardless and they are the ones who would write bad reviews or something like "Beware of the huge electric bill at the end" we only charged the government rate.

Even my husband used to tell them dont leave everything running 24/7 you will know about it,

Thats another problem leaving all the windows and doors open withe the A/C runing

@Ola9302 

[Adriano78]

@Ola9302your idea is very good but do you really think guests are interested in saving energy?. Many guests are: I pay = I waste

[Ola9302]

That's the problem. They are not. But most people are interested in saving money and as long as they pay a flat rate they don't care.

[Adriano78]

In Spain, the price per kWh increased by around 250% and of course  all consumer prices increased also because of the prices of energy.

Here in Sevilletourist apartments have increased prices by around 20%/30%.

In my apartment now i  put an entrance door opening detector, if a customer leaves the apartment the air conditioning is cut automatically.

I also had to resolve to limit the temperature in summer.

We have very hot and dry summers (about an average of 37c) and 15% humidity.

Unfortunately, the problem comes mainly from the customers of North American who do not have an energy crisis at home and where the prices of electricity are very low.

With 37C exterior temperatures, they put the air conditioning thermostat at 16c !!!. Of course with exterior temperatures so high no AC in the world will be able to lower the interior temperature to 16c without damaging and freezing the compressor.

In my Airbnb summer house rules now I specify that the thermostat will be adjusted minimum at 24c, if  Since this summer in Spain we have a new law, all the premises that welcome the public (shops, restaurants, bars, Tow Hall ....) they will not be able to put the air conditioning less than 27c

[Sudsrung0]

@Adriano78 

Would you mind posting here exactly what you use, the door opening detector I can tell my husband, Make and Model would be great, 

[Adriano78]

@Sudsrung0  i buy the detector on Amazon, and after that, i program myself and build myself a box (i was working in electronics before) communicating with the detector and with the A/c. It is a homemade solution

[Sudsrung0]

I live in Phuket and it has gone up 300% we have that same problems, the compressor freezing they just dont get it, @Adriano78