Hello all you helpful people, I’ve just joined and this is my first post, I hope one of you can give me a steer on this… We’re off grid or unplugged, as I see it’s called in the States. Although I don’t have a lot of evidence, I get the feeling that there’s a demand for and an interest in off-grid-living in the UK. This is something we get feedback on from our guests who all say they’ve booked mainly out of curiosity around how we live with an absence of mains water, gas and electricity. There’s also been a “contaminated municipal water” scare and various power outages across the country lately which obviously gets people thinking…
Obviously we mention our off-grid status in the property title and description but if one is searching for a property using the “off-the-grid” filter our place doesn’t show up. I’ve used the different variations of spelling within the body of the listing including: offgrid, off-grid and the clumsier ‘off-the-grid’ but Air’s filter bot hasn’t picked up on it.
I messaged cs and the agent said that I should list the place as a unique stay, however, the accompanying drop down menu doesn’t have an off grid option so I’ve had to list it as ‘other’. On reporting back to him his reply to that was that ‘off grid’ isn’t a property type and he couldn’t help further.
Looking at the listings that do come up through that filter I can’t really see any discernible content that would justify their inclusion other than a casual mention of their offgridness within their descriptions.
So I’m curious as well as off grid.
Anyhow, reading back through this it all seems a bit trivial and I’m not sure that any of you guys would know the answer but if you have any insights that might help then I’m all ears. Best wishes from Shropshire, England.
We are off grid too and have been hosting for 9 years. As far as I know there is no way to get into an off grid filter, so it is pretty much up to us to describe our location. I say “solar” because our wilderness mountaintop dark skies location is more important to me for the limited characters allowed in the headline.
I can’t help with your question unfortunately, but I just wanted to say hello - some of my happiest times in the UK were in Shrewsbury. 
Hi there. I’m also an off-grid property, located here in Colorado/USA (by the way, I’ve only ever heard it referred to as off-grid in the U.S. too). To my knowledge, I’ve never been picked up by an off-grid filter. In fact, I just did a search as a potential guest and there’s no off-grid option under the unique stays filter. I believe the closest would be earth house, which is probably in reference to an “earth ship” house. Different since those structures are built with passive power specifications. Or maybe nature lodge, which to me is more about where the property is located rather than any tie-in to the grid. It makes a lot of sense to have the option of off-grid as awareness builds and, as you point out, some prefer that type of home for safety or redundancy reasons. A lot of my guests come from major metropolitan areas where power is in abundance and there are no compromises when it comes to habits. It can be hard to manage these types of guests because they always insist they don’t use any electricity at all but then, as my solar guy points out, people grossly underestimate what they use. I definitely have some stories! Ha ha. Anyhow, I’m glad to know there are others on here with off-grid listings because I find there are unique advantages and disadvantages to hosting with an off-grid property. Would love to stay in touch and share tips! Cheers
@Kitty_Norris - I think this is confusing me because there is an “off-the-grid” filter with a large selection of properties on it but as you say no apparent way to get on there!! I wonder what metric air are using to choose their selection?
Hello jaquo, we’re not far from Shrewsbury, up on the northern edge of the Long Mynd, near Stiperstones and I have to say we’re very happy here too. Where are you now?
I’m now in South Florida. 
I’m from Yorkshire originally. I know the Long Mynd well.
I’m very much “on the grid” but super curious about how you resolve this!
I looked at a bunch of the OG listings out of curiosity and the amenities lists where interestingly long on a few, including some wifi. That surprised me.
I did notice a lot of “off grid” “off the grid” and the “-” variations, but nothing else stood out, as I’m sure you already know. What a mystery you have to solve!
Hmm… If I click on “I’m flexible” as a guest then “off-the-grid” comes up as an option on the menu, along with all the other property types listed under unique stays, like castles, earth homes, yurts, mansions etc.
But it isn’t on the drop-down list of options under “property type” on settings. I wonder if it’s an oversight on air’s part or a deliberate omission.
On another note I know what you mean about guest’s electricity usage too, it’s hilarious. We’ve had people turn up with air fryers, microwave ovens and electric kettles. I sometimes think they feel sorry for us because we haven’t got all that high consumption stuff. I like the idea of tip-sharing - we’re just working out how to build a compost heap-heated hot tub using the Jean Pain method of heating water - I’ll keep you posted on progress.
Well, as you might have heard, Shrewsbury’s under flood water at the moment around the Welsh Bridge end of town - times like this makes Florida look fantastically attractive!
And a LOT warmer!
I keep looking and the off grid option is not available to me. Strange…
Would love to exchange news and tips with other off grid hosts!
Yes, off-grid wifi is surprising, we used to get our internet via a line-of-site mast from the Lawley Hill about 4miles away. We had a small wind turbine and battery bank up on the hill behind us to power the receiver but the signal was unreliable and the noise from the little turbine was constant and intrusive… and then someone nicked the batteries overnight so that was the end of that. Now we get our wireless connection from a mast about a mile away at Christmas Tree Farm, which is just line-of-site when we have our receiver on top of the chimney. We get a pretty good signal although it’s not that fast - 30mb
I’m going to have another pop at cs and request they create off grid as a “property type” - maybe if we all make the same request it’ll raise the profile and get picked up.
It surprises me that we cannot choose this property type, though an off grid castle or yurt is different than an off grid ranch, campground or house. I chose “ranch” rather than “private home” as we are a private home on a ranch. Perhaps that is why they set it up as they did. I cannot choose anything that indicates that this is an architectural treasure, which it is - an art piece we live in. It is up to my description and my photos to convey it.
I’ve tried to choose Nature Lodge, but my options are limited there too. In fact we are definitely a Nature Lodge, and a Sanctuary. The options are hard to navigate, as the drop downs are too. We are a Unique property, for sure, and I chose Ranch as we are not a boat, a castle, or a lighthouse, etc. Most of us are trying on boxes that we don’t quite fit into.
Your story sort of reminded me of a typical chat and outcome that frequently occurs on check-in. We always have the windows open when guests walk into their bedroom for the first time.
“Here is the aircon remote.”
“Oh we won’t need that. We love the fresh air.”
A short time later … Hmm sounds like their aircon has kicked in.
I had to change bungalow to house as I wasn’t getting any views. There are issues about being too specific in the search as you may never show up as a potential stay.
Kitty, I’m so new to the forum. Is there a way we could start a tips/chat for off-grid hosts?