Higher energy costs

[jaquo]

@Mihls

I am raising my rates, not a lot but enough to off set the higher costs running it.

@RebeccaF

Why in the world aren’t you raising the rates to completely cover your costs and some profit?

I was wondering that too. Do you mean that increased overhead costs have to be eaten by you the host?

[Mihls]

“ enough to cover the higher costs”
Of course there’s profit built in too!

Pardon any typos. Sent from my iPhone

[SWLinPHX]

@wonderlust

We must adjust our pricing accordingly to inflation no matter where we are.
I prefer doing that than controlling my guests comfort level.

There’s more to energy usage and conservation than just your personal financial cost. I am all for the environment and not wasting precious and dwindling resources, especially when many from colder climates overcompensate and leave the place way too cold or full force even when gone, or with windows open. Funny how people’s habits change when they don’t have the hotel mentality of “don’t worry about waste, it’s paid for”. I’m glad we have our policy for so many reasons. But again we do offer unlimited if a guest wants it for an extra $6/nt. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I believe in keeping rates as low as possible to be fair and not raising rates for all every time a few are abusive or negligent. I am for accountability and responsibility. Seems like too many have given up on that quaint, outdated notion.

[wonderlust]

I guess you can declare it in your listing about minimum / maximum temperature. And it’s up to a guest to decide whether they want to deal with it

[muddy]

@SWLinPHX

I am all for the environment and not wasting precious and dwindling resources,

I agree. I have a propane hot water tank. I actually keep it turned off and only fire it up 20 minutes before I or a guest wants to shower (as a home share host this is doable and it’s a small tank, so only takes that long to heat up). So I usually ask my guests what their shower habits are- if they like to shower first thing in the morning, I’ll make sure to turn it on before I go to bed. And living in a beach town, most of my guests will shower when they come home from a day at the beach. So I turn it on around 4 pm.

It just seems like such a waste for it to be burning up propane for 8 hours keeping the water super hot, when my guests are out and I’m working. On top of that, it’s hard to get propane deliveries here- when my cylinders run out and I call the driver, despite his promises to come that day, he’ll often not show up for 3 days, after calling him every day.

I do have a small barbeque size tank for back-up I can switch over if it runs out.

People told me that leaving the pilot on uses almost no gas, but I found that wasn’t true. When I used to do that, just turning the thermostat up and down as needed, I would go through a 30 kg. cylinder in 2 months. Turning it completely off, including the pilot light, a cylinder lasts anywhere from 6 months to a year.

And as my water comes into the house by gravity feed from a big tank on my roof and I live in the tropics, the water out of the tap is never freezing cold. In fact, in the summer, it gets so hot in that tank that I rarely even fire up the hot water tank from June-October. Even my guests don’t want hot water- around here, you get in a shower in the summer to cool off.