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I can monitor as well but don’t necessarily want to go messing with the temps people set at the whole house rental unless they are gone (and I use nest so it works like a charm without needing me any to then) and don’t always know when they have windows and doors open simultaneously.
Personally I would freeze at the temp range you have and would be a very unhappy guest. In summer I would actually save you money by setting temp between 78-85, if I even used the A/C at all. You would likely make me either directly ask you to be able to increase the temp of the heat or I would likely contact air and go elsewhere because I would really be physically uncomfortable most of the time. I might end up costing you even more because if you refused and I couldn’t go elsewhere without losing money I would probably buy a personal heater. Not to mention we wold both not be leaving stellar reviews.
I realize that I may be an extreme but, believe it or not, I am also an energy conscious person as well and would seek to minimize the impact either way, especially when I am not even there for stretches of the booking.
I did have one private downstairs guest suite I booked frequently for an overnight stop while traveling and they included a really nice personal floor heating and fan unit that i gushed over the host providing in the review and even went out and bought one for myself. The only thing that would have made it sweeter was after the first or second time of me staying there they could have had it on for my arrival for an extra personal touch.
There have been dozens of conversations here in the last few years about temperature and there is definitely no one-size fits-all.
I always be sure to show guests the AC control during the house tour and I tell them to set it to whatever is comfortable for them.
Some like it somewhere in the upper seventies (they don’t come to Florida to be cold) but occasionally I have guests who don’t use it at all.
It’s easy enough to make sure that your nightly fee is enough to cover all eventualities regarding AC use. Our electricity usage tends to be more or less the same every year despite what guests are doing. If occasionally we have guests who set it in the sixties (it has happened) then that’s allowed for in the overall annual budget.
I want guests to be comfortable. If I had to stay somewhere where the temperature was below 75 I’d be uncomfortable, I wouldn’t enjoy the stay and I’d never think of becoming a repeat customer.
We want the air to be on at most times to prevent any problems caused by the apartments getting overheated. On the odd occasions they have been empty I’ve set the thermostat to about 78 - 80 just to keep the heat at bay.
Just an hour or so ago an neighbour said to me that it’s ‘hot’ outside. It’s about 85, that’s all. He thinks it’s hot, I think it’s ‘just nice’.
It’s good that you’re open to the idea of a window unit. They are extremely efficient. We had a month where the guests left it on for 24 hours a day for the whole month and it cost about $30 extra on the electric bill. We are in California too where electricity is really expensive.
They seem unsightly at first but I stopped noticing it very quickly. And the bonus is the guests can set whatever temperature they want without affecting us at all.
On a plus side I could plug it in via an energy monitoring smart plug. If I wanted to add it to my House Rules I could charge the guest whatever it went over a certain allotted amount. I’d probably only be inclined to do that if they actually had it on 24/7 as I would be inclined to keep it slightly cooler than my usual in the house when a guest wanted it cooler.
A/C like previously noted as been much debated in the past. While it could be 64 out but what is the humidity? Some individuals are effected more by the humidity than the heat which for them just using the fans might not be enough for them or they have allergies which can be helped by a/c’s when they are indoors. Now opening windows and having the a/c on is ridiculous IMHO and should be brought to task right away. What might be comfortable to you might not be comfortable for them or the sounds of fans drives them crazy.
This was for people in my whole house rental so they had full control of everything. They just liked to be able to look outside (I think) through the open screen door but they also liked to have the A/C on at 71. I’m not sure what else I could do besides tell them to not have the A/C on if they had the front door open and vice versa. It was not in my House Rules, not that Airbnb would support me on it anyways.
Ironically it was because they kept the front door open that the video doorbell was often able to record their conversations and I was able to capture the whole story concoction about how they snuck in an extra cat and the story they would tell if called on it. The thing he thinks that is the worst case scenario though is that he has to pay fees of $150 (he seems to think his 20% long term discount of the $15/night will be only $150 (maybe he only had the extra cat for 15 nights instead of 28?) when actually it will be $12 + the $50 UNAUTHORIZED pet fee and it will be for the duration, unless he wants to provide proof that the unauthorized cat was only there 15 nights. I am literally discovering this now as I have to get the info saved as it is expiring from my cloud subscription simultaneously. You can even hear him say he checked out a day early so that I wouldn’t be able to be there to see it.
Open anything with the door open is not called for neither is the extra pet. My comment was geared towards why people use the a/c even when it is only 64 outside and wanted guests to open windows and use the fans. Everyone has their own internal temperature (especially if they are going thru menopause or pregnancy). So my shared home is set a particular temperature summer/winter but whole home is locked but they can request it to be changed upper/lower within a certain range (70-74 in summer/winter). Being in the middle of the US you wouldn’t think we would get high humidity but we do so to prevent mold/mildew we pretty much require it to be on.
@Militaryhorsegal you must be from the South I’d die if I had to live in a house at 78-85F and humid. I’d take cold showers like every hour. I’d sleep in the bathtub. Very funny how people from the South set the AC. Those from Alaska or Minnesota are exactly your opposite
I won’t have anything against you setting the AC on high in summer or cold in winter. I mind however if a guest sets the heater to 85 when there’s waaaaay below freezing outside. I also mind when a guest sets the AC to 65 when we have a heat wave. But these are the extremes.
These are the conditions I silently set it back to 70. In my office the AC is set to 70 and people are fine.
When I worked in offices I always had a jacket on and a lot of times would wear long johns.
Funny thing was when I was deployed to Kuwait in summer it would be like 125 F outside and they would have AC inside buildings and even tents set so low that I wore a jacket inside. One time I forgot to leave it at my chair when I went outside to walk to the mess hall and tons of people were so shocked to see me wearing and then carrying a fleece jackets round outside!
Years later I just happened to have someone walk by my new office here in NC where my back faced the door and he did a double take and came and knocked on my door. He recognized me simply by me wearing a jacket inside and confirmed it when he saw my hair in the usual military bun. We have always had laughs about it ever since. I am known around the world to be cold in the A/C that most men enjoy and women tolerate or often complain about in offices.
I too have that in my guest house (along with two others in my house).
The Analytics of the thermostat are great for my home (consistent user) BUT can cause NEW problems for a guest oriented environment. I had to turn the analytics off (in the guest house) as it was making temperature settings based on multiple different guest preferences causing current guests to constantly adjust it to suit THEIR preferences.
There is an advantage in that you can remotely see temperature that the guests have it set for and (if needed) adjust it . I don’t adjust it because I allow them to set the temperature to whatever is their comfort level. IF I did see that it was being abused (i.e. set to extreme temperatures when the guest wasn’t present) I might be tempted to adjust it to an appropriate temperature, but have not had a need to.
If you were to add something about temperature to your house rules, I would think you then it would be more appropriate to make adjustments but you might be in for commentary in the guest review.
This is a peeve of mine, too. In July and August, the daytime highs here are above 110F and the nighttime lows are above 90F nearly every day. I’ve had friends and family visitors (all from Europe) that need to have a window or door open all the time and/or sleep with the windows open for “fresh air.” They also tend to set the thermostat around 70F. Unfortunately, they have no idea how A/C works because they don’t have it in their homes.
I don’t know that this has been mentioned before but there is a chance that you are in violation of NC law regarding eavesdropping. And even if your guests aren’t sophisticated enough to use this against you, I wouldn’t use it against them either. In other words, I wouldn’t be shocked if Airbnb kicked you off platform for doing this. I think this is a tool best left in your secret tool box.
I personally have the volume turned down when I look at my Ring doorbell videos so that I can’t listen to what is being said. I only turn it up when there is an issue, like when the police came to my door because someone called them on one of my guests. There they were outside the door talking about Airbnb. It was amusing because of the 3 officers apparently only one knew what Airbnb was. I guess they don’t get a lot of calls about it. Also they were speaking in Spanish so I couldn’t understand all of what they were saying.
Telling people you are recording them is not the same as getting their consent. And using those recordings against them, even if they consented to being recorded, is a recipe for pissing people off big time. Record the wrong person and you might find yourself in civil court or facing criminal charges. Who wants to take the chance?
Honestly, they did consent when they booked knowing about it. I don’t really care if I piss off people that violate my house rules (in addition to common sense).
I believe legally, as stated above, they are not consenting to you listening to all their conversations every time the doorbell is triggered.
I get that. You do you. I’m simply trying to point out for your own protection that you might not want to tell people…people on a forum that anyone can read or people that work at Airbnb…that you are doing it.
Agreed with this – don’t make guests solve your problem. Also, people forget and/or aren’t accustomed to remembering to shut it off every time they leave the house. I’m guessing the AC isn’t sufficient or they wouldn’t be opening the windows. Maybe look into upgrading your system. Look into getting a Nest which will shut things off (or adjust the desired temp) when it doesn’t sense people in the house. We have an alarm system that lets us set a minimum AC setting and it will auto shut off when a window or door is left open. If your bills are really so high, you need to find a different solution than putting that burden on guests.
I’ve stayed at homes where when you get there they tell you you can’t turn the AC below a certain setting, when that wasn’t in the listing. I personally need it to be pretty cold when I sleep so I would bypass those imposing strict rules when it comes to AC (especially in a warmer climate).
I’d die if I had to live in a house at 78-85F and humid. I’d take cold showers like every hour. I’d sleep in the bathtub. Very funny how people from the South set the AC. Those from Alaska or Minnesota are exactly your opposite