We have an AirBnb in Dallas, which is consistently over 100 degrees in the Summer. We previously had guests set the thermostat to 50 degrees during a heat wave leading to one of the A/C units going out incurring a costly repair bill.
Since then we’ve decided to limit out nest thermostat from going below 68 degrees during the summer months.
This has caused friction between us and our more recent guests, is this a reasonable setting, how would you handle a recurring issue like this?
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What sort of friction and how often? It seems unbelievable to me that any guest would want temperatures below 68 degrees.
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68 seems perfectly reasonable, although of course some people are comfortable at temperatures that others would be too cold or too hot at. 50 is ridiculous.
Maybe make mention in your listing info and messages to guests that the AC is locked at 68 at the lowest, and that if they prefer colder AC, not to book with you.
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I would say about half of the time, many request to unlock the thermostat so that it “cools faster”. They may not understand that it doesn’t work that way. Haven’t found a clean way to explain that to our guests quite yet.
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Thank you for the note, we’ve added a note in our listing and house rules about the thermostat.
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Do you have the AC on at the rental at a suitable temperature when the guests arrive? I have ours at about 77 when the guests arrive and during the house tour, I show them the thermostat on the wall and tell them to set it to whatever they wish.
No guests have ever set it very low - the lowest I have seen is around 72 (which would have me wearing a sweater).
I’d explain it to the guests at that time. simply saying ‘set it to the temperature you want but bear in mind it takes a few minutes to get to the temperature you want. In the meantime, the ceiling fans will keep you cool’.
Does it take a long time to get cool? In my own apartment it’s more or less instantaneous and just a few minutes in both rentals.
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68 is plenty low, insanely low. Don’t let clueless guests cost you thousands in repair/replacement. As advised, list it up front and if they don’t like it they can choose a different listing. If they want to freeze to death send them to the closest hospital. They all seem cold. Also, if you don’t have fans in all the rentals, get them. They can really help.
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Post it under your house rules so if they complain when they’re there, you can remind them that it’s listed under house rules.
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We like to keep the home under 78 before the guests arrive. The listing is a whole home (~2500sqft) so it takes approx. 1.5-2hrs to fully cool to 68 if they desire.
Ceiling fans are located throughout so guests should “in theory” be comfortable while the home is cooling.
Thank you for the advice! We may even add a note to for the AC in our welcome message.
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That puts my 450 and 600 apartments into perspective.
I still don’t understand why anyone would want 68 degrees though - that’s bonkers.
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I’m surprised that you can get your house to be 68 when it’s 100 outside – Good for you!
[As areas get hotter than the sizing standards in effect when the AC systems were installed many AC systems won’t be able to reach the low temperatures that they once did.]
I might say to guests something like:
Set the thermostat to the temperature you want (can’t go lower than 68F without potentially damaging the system). AC won’t cool any faster by setting the temperature lower than your goal; you can’t ‘step on the gas’ with AC to cool faster (sorry).
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People do the same with heat. Think that if they turn the heat up to 90 degrees it’ll warm the house up faster.
There really should be some required course in high school that teaches basic life knowledge, like heating and cooling systems don’t heat or cool faster by turning the temp up or down, they just turn off when they reach the desired temperature.
And they could teach things like how to change out a worn toilet flapper or a sink washer, instead of people going through life thinking it requires a $200 plumber call-out.
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It seems quite reasonable but I would note it in your listing. Of course, I always wonder how accurate my AC and heating unit thermostats really are.
I have an inexpensive digital thermometer that I move around the house and have put in the Airbnb room before. Keep in mind the temp in a shady hallway with no direct air blowing on it won’t be the same as being right in the path of a vent or in a room that gets afternoon direct sun.
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True, each host needs to spend some time in their own rented space to see what the quirks are.
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I too limit the heat/AC
What I do is if it is hot out, I check the AC on my phone and pre. cool the house so people do not feel the need to cool it down faster.
68 is my low setting as well.
RR
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I live in a place with hot, dry summers with temps frequently over 100 degrees. And I’m fat and get hot easily lol. But honestly I’ve never had to set my A/C below 76, and usually 78 is fine. Sometimes I’ll set it just 1 degree below whatever the holding temperature is to get it to kick on because I need to feel cool air. All that said, 68 seems very reasonable and I can’t see why anyone would need it lower.
Maybe start making mention of it in your booking message so you’re pointing it out to guests right away and they can cancel if this is a deal breaker for them.
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I have lived in South Florida for thirty years and have never set the AC at below 77.
What is wrong with these 68 people? If they don’t like warmer temperatures, go somewhere cold.
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I have (kind of) the same issue you do. 1,700+ sq ft place, and I keep the temp at 80 or above when no one is there. While IA doesn’t get the heat Dallas does, we run the AC to keep the humidity down. I’ve learned through trail and error to set the thermostat to cool (moved it from 78 to 75 this summer) on the morning the guests arrive to take advantage of cooler mornings. Some people think 78 is too warm, and “We’re not paying the cooling bill anway, crank it down!” So having it cooler when they arrive may save them messing with it.
I had your exact thing happen two years ago next month. We keep our home at 78, but guests wanted it cooler so they cranked it down to whatever, the unit froze up. Since it was older, had to replace the whole thing. That was an expensive weekend, but I’m glad it’s done.
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We’ve ran into this type of thing too in the past. Some things were have learned -
Some guests believe that a thermostat works like an acceleration pedal, the lower you turn the temperature the faster it will cool the house. We’ve explained the error in this thinking more times than I can believe.
A number on a thermostat is sometimes just a number. 68 doesn’t actually necessarily mean it will be 68 degrees, these things are highly inaccurate. You can have a guest who’s thermostat at home they set at 70 degrees and it’s really 68 in the house or 73 in the house. They get to the property and set it to some number and the temperature doesn’t match what they are used to.
Also, the property and A/C depend a lot on what can happen. In some properties setting the A/C to 60 degrees just means it’s never going to shut off because it will never reach that temperature, the unit or the property just isn’t capable of ever getting the place that cold. So for what it’s worth them setting it to 50 degree (never even seen a thermostat that has 50 degrees on it) doesn’t really mean anything more than setting it to 68 if the property isn’t capable of getting lower than 68, it just means the thermostat is acting like a on or off switch.
68 is pretty reasonable. Wait til we start adopting some of the European heating and cooling standards, in some places its against the law to turn on A/C before a certain date
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