Water and Electricity Conerns

1

Hi there,

I am about to start my airbnb adventure as a host… I am a abit concerned with water and electricity consumption. Since the stays in the apartment are short let, I will be paying the monthly bills.

What if someone leaves the AC 24/7 running or likes taking long baths?

Your help would be appreciated!

2

I think, realistically, you have to double your bills, and then make sure that the fees you are charging are sufficient to more than cover the added utility costs. Otherwise, you aren’t going to make any money.

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3

Agreed. When you are calculating your costs prior to developing your pricing structure, be sure to add more than you think for utility bills.

4

Will need to see how to calculate that as its a new block and haven’t received the first bill yet

5

What kind of rental are you having? Room in a home, entire home, studio apartment in back of your home?

6

You may as well figure that folks are going to leave the AC running 24/7. Few guests are saavy enough, or ecologically aware enough to turn it down while they’re out for the day. Likewise long showers. I assume in your country people take short (5 minute) showers. Other places think nothing of 15 minutes in the shower (and longer if they are ladies washing long hair).

7

I just disagree. It’s not just an assumption she has to live with!!!
It’s like saying well people are joust going to bring extra guests, have loud parties and stay past check out. So just live with it.

She can stop this from happening with her next guests by saying she reserves the right to enter the room to turn it off “in the rare circumstance that you leave it on by accident.”

The guests broke her rules and are disrespectful. Why should it be any different to leave the air on as it is to break any of her rules?

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8

Oops, I thought I was still in the Diamond thread. But the same ideas apply.

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9

I agree that there are ways around this, but asking guests to act like reasonable humans doesn’t always work… for those cases it’s nice to have an A/C and/or heating system that can be controlled remotely, e.g. a nest thermostat that you can impose reasonable upper and lower bounds on, and that will notice if the guests have left the house, and turn itself off.

@tumasgts i really recommend looking into something like this - it might cost a bit to install, but will save you in the long run if you’re hosting full time.

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10

Hi there,

I am renting out an apartment

11

I found a system that you connect it after your electricity meter. What this does is you will have pre paid cards with electricity units you can use per day. Now if you need more units you will have to top up the card and have more units. It might be a way to control the electricity usage

12

I worked in an office once years ago that had a similar system. You didn’t have to pay, but there was a dial that went up to 30 minutes or so. Once office hours were over, if you had to stay late to work you had to turn the dial every 30 minutes or the lights and other electrical would go out. It made sense, so the office wouldn’t have to pay to keep a bunch of lights on all night.

13

Just like the lights on a tennis court!