We live in malta and at times the temperature has exceeded 40 degrees. Consequently because most of our guests have kept it running for most of the day and the night our electricity bill is over 250 euros for August. Therefore very little profit.
Has anyone else experienced this and if so how have they managed to recoup some of the usage costs. We did not want to put into our profile that we would be trying to charge for the use of the aircon as we do not want to put people off booking with us by doing this
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Are you saying they keep it going even when they are out?
As we are not always here we do not know for certain.
Do you have internet? Get a WIFI thermostat, can control it remotely when guests leave. If you want you can set them to your desired temp, but may cause some guests to be iritated.
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Can you increase the price per night by 10 euro? That way if they leave the Aircon on all day you are covered.
There are also smart systems such as Xiaomi’s MI. You can set this up to switch off the AC if say a window is open or there are no people in the room for a certain period of time.
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We have the opposite problem. For Canadian cold winters our heating bill can reach $800 per month. Our rates are higher in the winter - both the nightly and extra guest rates, in order to cover the additional expense.
You might also want to have something that is temperature controlled by YOU. For example, at my work our air conditioner automatically comes on at 23c and the heat comes on at 19c. You can inform guests of “your system” so there are no surprises, and no turning on the AC when it’s only 21c.
(I just realized that @Brandt made a similar suggestion. I think if you state up front what your parameters are you would avoid some of the irritation. I also like the idea of remotely monitoring and making sure it’s off when guests are out.
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I agree get an automated system and increase your summer day rate to cover.
Hi @Malteser,
Take a look at Using a key card switch to control electricity usage
Using a key card or key switch is probably a effective, though relatively manual, way of handling this. Though to be of guaranteed effectiveness, you’ll need to be giving each of your guest groups no more than one key, in the case of a key switch, or one card, in the case of a key card. Here in India this kind of technology is quite hard to get hold of. I don’t know about Malta, but Europe is generally better than India for all sorts of technology. I don’t have a working system of this kind myself, but it’s on my wishlist.
What I’ve currently done is install a electric meter which is connected to the guest room, so I can see whether the room is using electricity when the guests are out. But the key card/key switch method is completely automatic, so would probably be better.
Thanks for that will look into a card system and let you know how it goes