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I have a local guest staying 4 days who has asked, AFTER check-in, to slow-charge their Tesla. I have ZERO idea the cost to me so I said yes, as an experiment & because he asked nicely. Here’s the rub…
I do NOT allow garage access & he asked to run his Tesla cord in there. This is clear in the listing & House Manual (he said he read). I told him to use the porch outlet. He says his cord is probably too short (they were out to dinner; will let me know). I found out the 110 cords are 10 ft long. That’s also too short to run the cord from my garage to the driveway (90% sure it won’t reach; I could be wrong but I don’t care…I’m no garage access!).
I told him I have a 14 AWG 3-prong extension he can borrow tomorrow (almost 1 hour round trip for me!) if he doesn’t have a 12 or 14 of his own (note: he lives very close to my listing & Home Depot is literally 5 minutes away; oh, and there is a supercharging wall 12 minutes away).
I’m not mad…but I do feel stressed about it…like I’m doing something “wrong” by not letting him in the garage or for not bringing the cord tonight. I already hustled to get it ready for same-day booking and allowed 3 kids…2 things I do not normally do (but hey, 1st booking of the year…not going to say no in the midst of Omicron and a slow December).
Would you take the cord tonight? Not have offered a cord at all? Just said “No”? I JUST came off of holiday break and it was so peaceful. Now, here we go. I am grateful for the booking. I was just hoping it’d be a smooth one.
Think I’d be letting him know about the supercharging wall, or guiding him to the local Home Depot. I’m curious as to what the cost is for charging electric cars?
That’s how I feel. If it were me, I would never bother the host other than to ask permission AHEAD of TIME, and then I’d make sure I had what I needed with me. Period. But, then again, I’m a host, so I’m not exactly objective. I just hate this “pit in my stomach” feeling like I’m not “doing all I can” for them/being a good host.
LOL, totally did on that and HD! But I went and offered to bring the cord tomorrow so I’m on the hook if he doesn’t get his own.
Once you break your first “rule,” you’ve signaled that everything is negotiable. I hope after they check out the money from the booking makes you feel better.
I don’t know anything about charging electric cars. I do know, when charging Lithium batteries in our electric golf carts we need a certain size cord. We include an extra approved extension cord with the rental of the cart so they can charge at a friends if they feel they are too far from the guest house and don’t have enough juice to get back.
If they use a regular extension cord it fries the converter.
Given that, I wouldn’t offer any extension cord for some one’s own car or cart. If they are going to fry it, I don’t want them blaming me.
I would have said no. No way I would drive an hour to bring him an extension cord when he never mentioned this when he booked. Is he going to pay for your gas $ and your 2 hours of time? I don’t understand kowtowing to guests like this. It bamboozles me. Why do hosts find it so difficult to say no to unreasonable requests or actually offer to do things like this?
I have heard about $6 a full charge for an electric vehicle.
Yeah, that’s my general feeling but right now my competition is so high. I am coming to despise these corporate/professional STRs & biz is sooooo slow. I really don’t have an issue with the charging as he’s paying a pretty pricey fee to stay.
It’s my fault for offering to loan the cord (it’s an hour round trip, not one-way). I can squeeze it into errands. I just hope they recognize I’m doing them a solid vs being mad I said no to the garage. So far no response so I don’t know. I think that’s what’s really bugging me.
I know it sucks. Especially because I know that drive you’re talking about, but… I always see these kinds of requests as opportunities. This guest is telling you exactly what you can do for him to make him comfortable and happy and that is its own kind of gift. So, yeah, I would take the cord to him as soon as humanly possible.
Yep. And I hear you because the smooth ones are the best ones, but you have a guest so you are on-call (just IMO). But this guest is making it easy in his own way, no guessing what the hell he needs or what will make him happy.
But you did them anyway. And you said that they could charge their car, anyway. And then you said that you’d lend them an extension cord anyway…
The guests will know that there’s a charging station nearby - people who need them don’t just go on their jollies without checking.
But equally , hosts should be prepared too. Presumably most of us have info in the rentals about where the nearest gas stations are? So add charging stations too - it will become increasingly necessary.
Yes, they know where the chargers are the car will tell him. The extension cord was over the top IMO and hopefully he declines and just spends 10 minutes at the supercharger.
When I sent my normal “scheduled” message asking if checkin went well & if the house was meeting their needs I added he should let me know tonight (last night) about the cord and I’d drop it by this morning. No reply, so maybe he did. Or maybe the cord reached the porch.
Me, too. I agree. And I went as far as I was willing to go. So, I know what he really wanted was an effortless (plug in my “off-limits” garage) solution to getting some free miles, which I’m fine with. I offered an effortless (on his part) alternate way to get what he wanted and he’s declined as far as I’m concerned. I just hate the silence (kind of rude in my opinion). But, hey, I think it’s him and 5 females (wife, MIL & daughters) so maybe he’s all “talked out”
Already in the listing & Manual. But he’s local so, as you said, he knew where to go (I even said “you probably know this but…” when I gave the directions to him). I will keep this 14AWG cord at the house in case I decide to allow charging in the future.
I don’t mean to be sexists (if you need to delete, please do) but thus far, I admit to
being surprised that my biggest “give me for free” and “bend over backwards for me” guests (coupled with the least communication!) have been males.
My exact thought. And also, does the guest know the “host” is female?
I’ve stated previously that I’ve had a number of guests who think I’m male due to my name and picture. I don’t know if it’s worked to my favor or not. I’ve had very few problems but the ones I’ve had have been about 2/3rds male and in at least 2 cases I felt that I was marked down on the review because an older male didn’t like being challenged. I did meet them in person so maybe sexism was part of the process.
Overnight is sooo much easier on the guests, they wake up to a full battery and one less thing to worry about.
More than half my guests who charge Venmo me some cash, which is always more than they use Ill dig up my EV Charger paper i leave out…
Ev Charger
As a EV owner I am glad to be able to provide charging not only to my guests and to the broader EV community through PlugShare (feel free to recommend other ways to get the word out)
I provide this free of charge, my only request is that you do not charge between 4PM and 9PM when the electricity rates are higher.
I installed a 50 AMP NEMA 14-50 outlet on the side of my office to charge my Tesla Model 3 using the mobile charger which I leave plugged in all of the time.
If you do not have a Tesla and you have a charger that plugs into a NEMA 14-50 feel free to unplug my charger and plug in yours.
I have future plans that include a level 2 J1772 charger that will be installed in front of my office for non Tesla EV’s. Meanwhile if you need a 110 outlet there are a couple of options on the property for that just ask.
If you would like to contribute to help offset the costs of the charging and infrastructure it would be appreciated, but not necessary. My Venmo is @XXXXXXXXXX
Thanks and Welcome to our cabin we truly hope you enjoy your stay.
Mainly because I don’t have any outside outlets and don’t want cords running into my my space and the STR is on the 2nd floor. About half my guests don’t even rent a car when they stay at my place.
Also, there is a charging station about 1/4 mile away on my street.
I just hate this “pit in my stomach” feeling like I’m not “doing all I can” for them/being a good host.
