What do you fellow hosts think about a guest with a Tesla charging their car with your electricity? Otherwise they perfect guests. I’m probably not going to say anything but I feel they should have asked permission.
As there are more and more EVs, hosts should really come up with a plan as to how they are going to handle EV charging and add the info to their listing info.
Depending on where you are located and how much electricity costs, you need to start with finding out how much an o’night charge would cost, on average. It may be less than you might imagine. My friend who has a Hyundai Kona, and plugs it into her standard household electricity, says it costs her about $6/Canadian ($4USD) to charge up overnight. (One thing to check out is if charging on the closest plug to where guests park could overload a circuit. My friend has a dedicated circuit for the plug she uses to charge.)
There are various approaches- you could just up your nightly rate across the board by a couple of bucks, which isn’t likely to affect your booking rate, to cover the times you get a guest with an EV. Or have a separate fee for EV charging.
Also keep in mind that some guests are heavy consumers of amenities and utilities, and some aren’t. Some guests may cook all their meals at home, some may mostly eat out. Some take 5 minute showers, some take 20 minute showers. Some use up all the toilet paper you left, you thinking it was way more than enough for the number of guests and nights booked, some use less than you are used to. Some leave the heat or AC blasting when they are out all day, some respectfully turn it down. It seems to balance out.
So a guest might use up $10 worth of electricity charging their EV, but be conservative in the use of utilities in other ways, so they haven’t really cost you anything extra.
As far as your current guests are concerned, yes, it would have been respectful of them to ask about plugging in the EV, especially since they don’t know if it might overload a circuit. If they just have a short stay, and considering you say they’ve been perfect guests otherwise, I wouldn’t bring it up with them. If they are staying for weeks or longer, I would have a relaxed discussion with them about it.
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I have free EV charging since I have an EV. I offer an adapter if they have a Tesla. I encourage people to use the charging since the few dollars that it costs me in electricity is more than offset by the fact that I get guests who come specifically because I have an EV charge system. It’s an amenity filter that can be used for searching and I’ve had a number of guests who found me using that amenity search.
I’ve found that folks who come to my area with their EV tend to not need to charge very much; you’re visiting this area specifically to be in this area so an EV that has hundreds of miles of charge in them are normally not needing charging for the week. One big plus is when people rent an EV and need to return it fully charged. They just love the fact that they can leave here fully charged to the drive to the airport.
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I know a little about electrical power and EVs. I put a 10kW solar system on my house by myself early last year and I have a level 2 40Amp charger. I’m 70 years old, so I’m proud of that. I also drive a Chevy Bolt EUV (all electric) and a plug in hybrid Rav4 Prime. And I’ve been a super host for 8 years. But this is the first time anyone has charged their car on my dime. It’s not the cost it’s just bad etiquette. You guys are right, I should have something in my notes that discusses this. I really like the idea of offering free charging to get more bookings. I need something, my home has been booked about 80% of the time until this year. Now it has dropped off to almost nothing. Anyway, thanks for the posts and conversation, food for thought. Oh, how does your setup work for your guest’s charging. I have a cable that I drag out from inside my garage, but my guests don’t have access to my garage.
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It is a little different in the UK. We have warnings prohibiting guests from plugging EVs into the household supply as ‘granny’ charging completely invalidates our insurance due to the high fire risk of overloaded electrical systems. So we installed dedicated chargers at each property that I can control remotely and also view exactly how much each charge costs. For us, we could offset the cost of installation against income for tax purposes so it seemed a good business investment. However, in the five years of offering this, I can count on one hand the number of guests who have booked with us because of it and actually used it! And the costs in every case were minimal. So no I don’t charge extra. As Muddy says, the costs even out.
It seems to me that you could specify in your listing that self-charging on the household power is prohibited but EV charging is available if required - needs to be requested at booking (and is only available at a time you offer, if you are willing to allow use of your own charging cable in the garage). That way you would pop up in the EV search results. You could then also specify a separate charge that would apply if you wanted guests to cover those costs.
In the UK there are a few companies that install pay as you go charging points for ordinary properties, so the hosts don’t actually have to deal with any of that - the guests just pay with their credit cards, but the hosts set whatever rate they want to receive from the company to cover the power costs and the company then sets a slightly higher rate so they get their profit too. It is still far cheaper for guests than using commercial charging points here in the UK.
This is illegal in Connecticut, where I live. I have a ChargePoint level 2 (40 amp) mounted outside (they are weatherproof and waterproof) so it is ‘plug in’ ready. I also have a Bolt.
Locally we have lower rates before 3pm and after 9pm and all weekend, so it is very easy to plug in at the lower rate times, but the difference per charge is a few dollars so I don’t tell my guests to work within time periods. And the mantra of EV owners is ABC (always be charging) so I leave my car plugged into the charger when I’m not using it so if a guest has an EV it’s fairly obvious who takes priority lol.
EV owners understand the timing, need, etc. of their specific charging situation; since my L2 system charges at the rate of approximately 30 mph of charging, three hours on the charger gives a significant amount of energy for the user to use. And since charging can happen while you’re sleeping, having lunch or taking a walk, people approach charging much differently than the usual ‘going to the gas station and standing by the pump’ to ‘fill up’…
I have it in my house rules that we don’t offer electric car charing but then post locations nearby where they can charge their car. There isn’t an electric plug in a location where they can charge so it’s not much of an issue.
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It’s rude not to at least ask. I like Lynick4442’s solution. Say no… Then tell them where they can go…
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When I said “Cable”, it’s a level 2 cable with J1772 standard charging connector connected to a level 2 charger. I think it’s water resistant, but I wouldn’t want to leave it outside.
I did it, I updated my Airbnb amenities to include a Level 2 charger, then in the comments I wrote that it’s available IF the guest requests it ahead of time for no additional cost as long as they charge between 10AM and 2PM (When my solar system is producing enough power to almost cover their charging). I have no way to enforce those charging hours however 
Just reiterate those charging hours when you message with guests when they book and maybe post it next to the charger. “Rules” that are only mentioned in the listing info can often be missed or forgotten. I suspect most guests will respect it.
Absolutely, they’ll “say” they didnt read that, even if they did.
I’m confused by your statement about using your solar system power to cover their charging. Don’t you sell back energy to your provider?
I don’t know about @Paulcalif’s solar system, but not everyone with a solar system produces enough energy to sell back energy to the electric company.
And some solar users are not hooked up to the grid at all- they store any excess energy they produce in batteries.
In Mexico, excess solar system energy is not bought by the electric company- if you produce more energy than you use, you only get a kw credit banked to your own electric account, to be used at times when it’s cloudy or raining for days, or you use more energy than at other times, like running AC in the summer. So there would be no advantage in having a beefier solar array producing more energy than what you yourself consume in a year.
Yes, I do sell it back but I am on a newer rate program where they charge a lot more for their electricity than they pay me for mine. In the early days of solar it was equal, they paid the same as what they charged, but those days are gone, at least where I live. But I produce enough power that my electricity bill is close to zero where it had often been well over $350, and much higher in the summer months. The entire system cost about $17,000, so pay back will only be a few years. If I hadn’t done all the work myself, would have been a LOT more, II was quoted $45k for a smaller system. The hardest part was putting brackets on a tile roof, the rest was fairly easy except lifting the heavy panels to the roof
You might be interested in this home backup battery:
I would say free charging depends on how much the rental is. If it is over $300 I offer free charging. I have a 50amp level 2, with .45cent kwh rates. So it could be up to $40 per charge depending on battery size / stay length.
Wow, cool battery pack, must be super expensive. I would love to have batteries on my system but the return on investment is too long, at least for me, I’ll be 71 in a month. If I was 30 and planning on keeping my home then maybe. I also have a natural gas whole house generator for emergencies.
I think the price is shown at the end of the video as the reviewer is amazed at the quality at the price point. (around $3000?) I only mentioned it because you don’t have the good net metering deal. So most new solar systems get the battery so they can store solar during the day and use it at night. Since you DIYed, I’m sure you know this. But every MONTH batteries are getting cheaper. Maybe you could get away with a much smaller version if you have low usage. You can also charge the battery backup with generator during winter storm and use the generator more efficiently as none of the power created with gas is wasted. (Excess charged battery. Then when full, turn off generator and use the battery for 24 hours or whatever.)
They now make solar generators, which also could be an option. There are various sizes, depending on how much wattage you need, and apparently run really quietly.
Honestly, I stopped watching about 90% through (it got late). $3000 is an amazing price but would require additional equipment to connect. As it stands now, my electric bill is $0 except for fixed costs. So, no $ advantange for me.