Just wondering if other hosts are being asked by guests to “slow-charge” their electric cars while staying with you. Best i can tell, it costs me about $5.00 for a car with a 40kW battery to fully charge overnight. $5 won’t break the bank, but at the same time I don’t give away a gallon of gas to my non-electric car driving guests. Also, probably one of our largest overhead expenses already is the additional electric usage as we are all electric in our listing. Any thoughts?
Here are previous discussions for reference:
https://airhostsforum.com/search?q=electric%20car%20charging
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I think it would be reasonable to request $5 from guests but I’m pretty sure that the guest will be annoyed and will write you a bad review. Sometimes we have to pick our battles. I would not charge. Maybe you can just increase your rate a tiny bit to compensate for the extra expense.
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Take a look at this article on safety aspects.
Guests might expect you to provide the ‘extension cord’ but regardless it appears there are some [slight?] risks for you for not doing so. Probably best to provide the appropriate cord and identify outlet from which the cord should extend. [I’d label it.]
If you decide to charge that ought to be in your listing’s rules.
If you decide to permit slow charging or not, supplying cord or not, I’d be interested in Hosts’ input here on whether that is ideally stated in the listing.
I’d be curious on your calculation of your costs. If it’s really $5 (per 24 hours?) I agree with @Ritz3 that guests will likely find that charge off-putting. Does the cost change by season or time of day? Here, our electricity rates from our utility triple from Nov-Apr.
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I don’t know if you’re located in the U.S.
Here over 80% of all lawsuits at short-term rentals arise from trips and falls.
It would be ironic – wouldn’t it? – if the guest, a visitor or one of the registered guests tripped on the cord? Or a contractor? Even trespassers might be owed a duty of care for a ‘man-made’ hazard. In the U.S. a lawsuit is not out of the question.
Make sure that the cord doesn’t become a trip hazard.
You might want to contact your insurer (assuming that you are insured for this commercial use) to ask what considerations apply.
I did a little research and as a rule of thumb you multiply the amount your power company charges you per kW time the kW size of the cars battery for a “slow/overnight” charge.
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I agree - annoyed at a perceived “uncharge” that no other guests incur. Or… raise our rates to cover this very occasional expense and have all guests pay more…and probably get dinged a star on our value rating. feeling like a lose/lose right now. I really feel like the guest should ask if they CAN charge their car overnight while staying here and then offer to pay the nominal additional cost. It’s like a guest seeing you have a 2 1/2 gallon can of gasoline by the side of your garage and asking if they can pour it in their car! Who would expect that that would be ok?
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So let’s say it’s $5 once a month which you can easily cover by raising your rate $1 per night. Why not do that? Or yeah, just don’t worry about it until it becomes a common request.
You’re annoyed at the “uncharge” but isn’t that really true of many guests? What about the guest who takes two long showers a day compared to another guest who doesn’t even appear to have taken a shower? The guest who manages to drop some bit of trash into all 6 garbage cans versus the one who only uses one? Guests who check in late and leave early certain use less energy than the ones that check in at the beginning of the check in window and check out at the end.
Some guests are just more enjoyable than others.
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Well, let’s say that it’s $5 a day and the guest stays five days, so $25.
Since it’s a slow charge and little additional mileage is gained I would guess that the guest would want to charge it each night of the stay.
The Host might still absorb the charge but might be a little more than it appears to be here.
That’s for sure true, but their usage of amenities isn’t really pegged to “enjoyable”, as far as I think of that word. Economical, perhaps.
There are definitely guests who cost you less to host, for the same amount of time, though, and it all seems to even out. Some of my guests cook extensively, some eat out all the time. Some use one bath towel in a week, some use 3. Some use a roll of tp in 3 days, for others it lasts a week. Some bring all their own toiletries, some use what I provide.
And it definitely takes less diligent cleaning time after a bald guest stays than after those women with long hair.
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I don’t allow charging mainly because I don’t have an outside electric plug and I don’t want wires hanging from the 2nd floor STR. I do however provide locations within 1/2 a mile of my place of where electrical charges are located.
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That’s really the best option for listings in an urban area. There’s one a little over a mile from me and a Tesla one less than 5 miles away. Like any other amenity, not every home will offer EV charging. Those who can may have a competitive advantage in some markets. But no one should feel pressured to offer it.
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I agree, some guests are more enjoyable than others. Some guests are less costly than others. Some guests are just better guests. But i guess i see this a little differently than using three towels or taking two showers…or our personal favorite…one couple, one night, every single bed used! But all of those things are included in our listing and we “signed up” for the guests to use them. We have a sauna - not the cheapest thing to operate but it is listed as an amenity so we don’t mind at all when it gets used. We do not list recharge your e-car in our listing. To me, its much like a guest asking/expecting/telling me they are going to have dinner on us when we don’t advertise that we serve meals.
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I do, it’s actually in the title of my listing.
It costs me less than $100 A YEAR to offer it. Send those Tesla drivers my way.
RR
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I don’t understand the fuss over guests charging cars unless you live where the electric is super expensive. Not everyone drives an electric vehicle, so if it costs $5/charge, why not just add $2 to your nightly rate? An extra $2/night isn’t going to stop anyone from booking.
I can see having an extra fee for charging if a guest books for 3 weeks or more and is charging daily, but if you have 8 nights in a month where people are charging electric vehicles, adding a couple bucks to the nightly rate will more than cover it.
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Just had a bald guy who was totally manscaped I’ll bet. Perfect guest! Lol
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I agree with @muddy - just add a few bob to your nightly price then every time you get guests who don’t want to charge their car, you’ll be making an extra drop of profit.
These days, now that electric cars are common, most of my guests have an app to tell them where the local charging stations are. It’s a good idea for hosts to have the app too so if a guest doesn’t have one, the host can immediately tell the guests where the nearest charge port is.
The most commonly used one as far as I can tell is ChargeHub.
By the way, the site has a customisable map on the site that you can embed into your own website showing charge stations in your locality. Another helpful host tool. 
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We provide that willingly! Why not? I had $600 piwer bill last month at least people driving ev will not over indulge themselves by leaving heat on high all day while they are gone…although we have a smart system to control that also!
Many people who drive EVs aren’t doing it because they care about the environment.
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