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My post suggesting a generator was not directed to any one person or anyone’s particular situation. But yeah, if you have multiple sites an extention cord won’t work, one generator per structure would be needed. A generator could power heaters… 
With the generator and the big can of gas, I wouldn’t need to move out guests which would be a big challenge and significant loss of income during this time of the year.
Do you mean a generator that powers the electrical outlets inside your listing? If so, don’t bother. It’s not cheap or trivial to install a generator that will power the A/C outlets in your grid-powered home, and if you consider how often you would use it, it will never pay for itself when used in your Airbnb listing. I would not expect this in an Airbnb unless it was typical for the area in general (e.g. in Lagos in the late 90’s, it was common for houses to have backup generators because the power would go out for several hours several times a week).
If you mean a portable generator where you can directly power some specific appliances (probably via extension cords), then I’m as curious as you are if anyone thinks it would be of value. It certainly could provide emergency power for a space heater and lights, but would it keep a guest from checking out, wanting a refund, leaving a negative review, etc., and for how long?
When I built my new cabin we changed it so the grid power comes to the new cabin first and the other two buildings feed from that. I installed a 200 amp transfer switch at the same time as well as the propane line to the generator spot. The transfer switch was $900 and another couple hours for the electrician to wire it in. Everything is easier in new construction vs doing it after. So now I just need the generator, a 22KW Generac whole house generator is about $4500 so the whole thing will cost about $6000.00 when its all said and done. We do get power outages where I am at, snow weighs down trees which fall on the lines, SCE turns off the power when it is windy to cut down on fire dangers. Last winter one neighborhood was out of power 3 days up here. We were in the dark on Thanksgiving this year.
AirBnb will refund guests for no internet so clearly no electricity can cost a host as well.
RR
I wasn’t doing short term or even long term renting at the time, but I recall pretty well when we lost power for 3 days. After 48 hours into the power outage of everything, traffic lights, fuel stations, groceries, etc., I bought the Honda referred to earlier.
I didn’t wire it into my system, although have a friend who did exactly that.
I just wheel out the generator out of the garage pull a couple cords from it to junction boxes and then out to the important items. Refrigerators, a/c for the apartment, router/modem TV, garage door opener, sound system, etc.
As said, I’ve not had an extended outage since I began STR, but I could easily power the apartment so that it would be 90% operational. I did so when I used the apartment as an office.
Montreal used to conk out regularly. But to your point I bought an antique oil lamp last week! Glad everything is ok!
Guests and fire, just no.
RR
In Alaska, we all have freezers. This time of the year, they’re full of last summer’s salmon and halibut and this fall’s venision and moosemeat. I didn’t hunt this fall but the son of a friend showed up yesterday with a boned venison hind quarter as a Christmas gift. Of course freezers can make it through a cold spell just fine. A full freezer will stay frozen during the summer for at least 24 hours before anything will start to thaw as long as you don’t open it!
Guests who might want to leave can get a refund 100%. Electricity is an amenity and even if its not in your control you are still liable. Even if it’s a whole neighborhood. Once I had to refund 100% refund to a guest who came during hurricane and there was no power . He left and i had to give him all money back according to Airbnb.
I have battery operated, darkness and motion sensitive lights throughout the house. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FNJ34YN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I put them on each stairway, one by the front door, and one in each hallway. I also had some LED string lights that I hung in the bathroom. They lasted all night for several nights on the same batteries!
When California shut off power a few months ago, one of my guests commented that he almost forgot that the power was shut off, because he could still easily find his way around the house.
I like the idea of lanterns for in the guest room. If we have another fire season like the last one, we are going to need them! We got off pretty easy, as we were only without power for 3 days.
This happened to me last winter. I contacted the guests and told them the ETA of when the power company said the power would be on but this it might take a little while for the home to heat up . Guest wanted to rehouse. It happened again this fall but the guests were already check in and on their honeymoon. They decided to wait it out (They were from Northern Canada on a small island that loses power all the time.). Got chilly but power came on. They where very forgiving but I gave them a $50 gift card to Whole Foods. (They said it was a favorite of their and they were planning on stocking up before the drove home.) So both times it worked out with no penalty to me but I did lose the income from the first booking.
This sort of problem is very rare here but we did have a 100 year freeze in 2006-ish. There were rolling blackouts across the city but my power never went off. I speculate it was due to being on the part of the grid that has the hospital down the street. I’d probably be more concerned if it went off in the summer and there was no AC. I have a small light that plugs in via usb but has battery back up in the Air room. In temp extremes I’d just offer to let the guests cancel and move elsewhere in the city, or in my case they would probably hit the road and go on to their next city. If I thought it was temporary I could also offer them use of my part of the house and wood burning fireplace if they wanted to stay. In most cases outages will be brief and guests will be understanding but taking the loss on a cancel is cheaper and simpler than many options.
RRR, Mine is an old fashioned owner occupied Airbnb. The oil lamp is in my room. There’s smoke detectors in every room and 2 fire extinguishers. No more dangerous than the emergency candles.
We bought several little “candles.” They look and feel like wax, but they are actually rechargeable LED lights with their own USB cord. Each charge lasts about eight hours. They come in several colors and sizes, ranging from short votives to pillar candles. There’s no flame. All you do to turn them on or off is to flip them over. They give off a lot of light and are completely safe.
We leave one of the little ones in each guest room and guest bath, two or three in a basket on the coffee table in the family room, and a few others elsewhere in the house.
Here are two of them. These are about 2 inches tall.
Yes! Thank you! Those are what I was talking about. I think they will be nice to have in the apartments and at the entry even without a power outage. I don’t have the fire-fear that a lot of hosts have, but I really don’t like candle wax or candle soot so don’t want real candles anyways.
If you are booking through the year - in a climate that has extremes of heat and/or cold) you should invest in power backup and have room heaters (we have nice looking electric stoves). Then, if you can, go the extra step and have extra blankets, hot chocolate, a fire if you have a fireplace etc. and turn this into an opportunity to charm these guests.
I think this is great advice for a lot of hosts, particularly for those with cabins and more rural locations. I also understand that it makes sense for California hosts more generally as well, because they have a unique situation with their power company and the yearly fires. However, I think @KKC is correct that it can also be cheaper and simpler to just lose a booking (or pay for them to go out to dinner until the power comes back on).
I was really worried last night because none of the guests had arrived yet. It strikes me that it would really unfortunate for them to check-in in a dark, cold house that they have never been to before. It would feel creepy and weird and that really stressed me out as I spend a lot of energy on the “first impressions”.
If guests were already checked-in when it happened, it wouldn’t be so bad. If they were in the house, I would offer to buy them dinner or a movie and let them know when the power was back on. And if they were out, I’d send them a message letting them know the power is out and the estimated time for it to be back on. I could compensate them somehow if needed, but it’s just as likely that they’d say, “Oh, we aren’t coming back until late anyways”.
The prospect of heating this huge old house with 4-different apartments in it by generator seems impractical. It’s also highly unusual to lose power in the middle of major US city for more than just a moment. Of course, if it becomes an ongoing issue, I will have to re-think it. For now, I’m going to get the electric candles and maybe a couple of lanterns and plan on sending the guests out or getting them re-homed, if they prefer.
Thank you to all, it was a very informative discussion and made me think about something I hadn’t. I also always enjoy seeing just how different everyone’s listing and hosting style is 
We have the extra blankies, but I don’t think we are zoned for a genny. We are within 50 miles of Niagara so power failures don’t last long. But just in case there’s a fire pit in the back. Needing emergency marshmallows though
I have a small relatively quiet generator that I have used a couple times at the farm private room shared house listing. I have extension cords going to the fridge the living room (which includes the modem and router) and the guest bedroom (I don’t both with one to my room). That way the guest can have light and a fan (or heat but it has only been an issue during hurricanes so no heat needed). The first one ended up the guest couldn’t get to the house because the roads had been blocked. Luckily my whole house listing was empty and so I redirected him there. It was about equidistant from where he was to there as to my house. He ended up with a HUGE upgrade for a week or two. He was an insurance adjuster who wanted to get a jump on assessments so preferred being as close to damage as possible anyways. He actually came back again and booked that whole house listing since it was so good for him. That house has never lost power with a guest. It is actually in a country subdivision whereas my farm house is really in the boonies.
The second time I provided the guest one of those super bright slide up LED lanterns and asked him whether he wanted me to set up the generator and extension cords for him (the generator I already had in lance but would need to run cords). He declined and said that he would just make sure his fan was on and lights were off so everything would be good when it came on and didn’t wake him. It had gone off at like 2pm and was due back on at like 2 am…ended up coming on at like 10 or 11 pm if memory serves. That guest commented how much chi he loved the lantern and how that was perfect for what he needed. I will note that I have county water and there was sufficient hot water in the tank For him to have a hot shower.
So, I think having a small generator ($600 was what mine cost and it is semi portable and has wheels and works with easy start) is beneficial for those that have short (or long) power outages but most higher end (price wise) listings would more often than not benefit only if they are shorter outages since longer ones would likely be better off rehoused at least during the outage.
In my case at the whole house I could move my generator there (it I were ever to have an outage) but if I had more than a couple people sleeping together or if it was projected to last more than 24 hours, it would be best to rehouse them. In my farm house I use the generator if I don’t have a guest here if it’s going to be a long one so it’s no matter either way.
This is what I have at the house, four of them in an easy-to-find location so guests can find them in the dark. The one time I had guests and it looked like a storm was coming, I set them out on the dining room table. Just remember to check the batteries occasionally!
