Gas and Electric PAYG

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rotaman
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Joined: Sun May 15, 2016 7:50 am
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Gas and Electric PAYG

Post by rotaman »

Is anyone on 'pay as you go' gas and electric meters at there
Holiday lets, I found that when I was paying quarterly guests
must have left all the lights on and central heating on day and
night when I worked out how much power they used, thou I
think its open to abuse, has anyone had similar problem and
what can be done about it, Rotaman
canal boating 'the fastest way to slow down'
newtimber
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Post by newtimber »

I think most people don't like putting money in the meter and want an 'all inclusive' price - and you just increase your prices to cater for this. Some people will use loads of electric and some will use less - just like some people will pay by credit card or book through a commission OTA which will cost you more and some will pay by bank transfer.
zebedee
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Post by zebedee »

I would agree totally with Newtimber.
It’s worth investing in LED light bulbs and energy efficient appliances even if this is a phased approach. This will give you savings in the long run.

(The exception to above may be the cost of using a tumble dryer. We were recommended by the inspector to install a payment meter for our Visit England 4* property with a tumble dryer. The dryer is situated in a stone out building so not an eyesore in the kitchen. But for all other electricity I do believe it should be included in the rental price)
Fingerscrossed
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Post by Fingerscrossed »

zebedee wrote:I would agree totally with Newtimber.
It’s worth investing in LED light bulbs and energy efficient appliances even if this is a phased approach. This will give you savings in the long run.

(The exception to above may be the cost of using a tumble dryer. We were recommended by the inspector to install a payment meter for our Visit England 4* property with a tumble dryer. The dryer is situated in a stone out building so not an eyesore in the kitchen. But for all other electricity I do believe it should be included in the rental price)
What does everyone consider to be fair usage of electricity? We have an inclusive price. Our recent guests arrived in 3 cars (same family) which we thought odd. We discovered the reason was that they brought every electrical device (and other belonging) from their home including electric bikes large tv fans laptops each etc. Aside from the usage, we have to have our property electrics checked and appliances tested periodically to comply with regulations, so how is this compatible with all these additional devices. Obviously we provide tv DVD etc etc
zebedee
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Post by zebedee »

Hmm, I think to bring even a large tv as well as so many other appliances is unusual (thank heavens!).

I would have suggested putting something in your terms and conditions about insurance and the need to PAT test equipment; at the moment it is reasonable for people to bring a laptop as well as computer games consoles IPads etc. We don’t ask for them to be PAT tested do we? It wouldn’t be manageable.

I know it can look worrying seeing all that equipment but will it be significant overall year end?
SPJ
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Post by SPJ »

Have you tried asking them WHY they brought all that stuff? Very bizzare. Eg: did they bring their own big TV because they thought yours wasn't big enough? In which case their consumption was probably no different to what it would have been anyway. Or did they bring it so that they had a second TV, say, in the bedroom?

I think these days that sort of behaviour is very exceptional. So many families these days just use their own phones and different members of the family watch different things on their phones.

Fans, these days with global warming I think increasingly will be a "must have". So, again, part of the normal costs of running a gite.

Electric bikes - interesting one that. Same perhaps with electric cars? Maybe in future we may have to include a clause saying costs for recharging cars and bikes will be deducted from their security deposit. How you monitor that, don't know. Anyone any suggestions? Or is the cost minimal and not worth bothering about?
Drax
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Post by Drax »

SPJ wrote:
Electric bikes - interesting one that. Same perhaps with electric cars? Maybe in future we may have to include a clause saying costs for recharging cars and bikes will be deducted from their security deposit. How you monitor that, don't know. Anyone any suggestions? Or is the cost minimal and not worth bothering about?
We have had some concerns that with the increasing ownership of electric cars we could have a guest with an electric car who may decide to charge their car using our FHL 'ordinary house electric socket' which may cause internal electrical problems/fire risk in the house
This being so we recently had a cable fitted ready for an external electric car charging point to be installed later on this year.
This will enable guests to charge their cars from the drive-way using a 'bona-fide' and safe charger.
I have read that depending on the size of the charger (a7kw charger seems a popular size) it costs about £8.50 to fully charge a car giving a 200 mile range.
If this is correct I wonder if it is worthwhile charging electric car owning guests extra because it is highly unlikely that most guests will be covering 200 miles a day during their stay.
Or do we just surreptitiously increase the rental rates for everybody to cover this add-on overhead like we have broadband installed for our guests use?
It will be interesting for other views on this subject.
Keep your powder dry.
newtimber
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Post by newtimber »

I think it should be viewed as a marketing expense. People who use your EV charger are only going to be searching for places with chargers, so if you didn't have the charger, they wouldn't have booked.
Drax
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Post by Drax »

newtimber wrote:I think it should be viewed as a marketing expense. People who use your EV charger are only going to be searching for places with chargers, so if you didn't have the charger, they wouldn't have booked.
You do have a point newtimber and one that we had already thought about. If we install the charger potential guests with electric cars could find our FHL more to their liking, thus we attract more potential bookings.
Keep your powder dry.
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

There’s a real need for a payment method that fits our business. If we install a charging point that’s available for Joe Public to drop by and use at will (which we couldn’t anyway) it’s viable for the electricity resellers and there are subsidised options for points with payment via apps and maybe cards. Those options aren’t available, as far as I’m aware, for restricted use. (Unless anyone knows differently? Things are changing fast!)

Currently the small number of guests with EVs means that the cost of giving them free charging may be worth swallowing, but as EVs become more popular it is easy to foresee the cost of that subsidy adding somewhere between £1000 and £1500 or more to the annual electricity bill for one property. It’s clear that small accommodation owners in our industry won’t be able to subsidise some guests to that level.

We can’t legally charge people for electricity at more than the real per unit cost to us, which raises problems of course; I don’t know whether we could add a fixed weekly charge for the use of a charging point based on it being a facility, rather than based on usage but it’s an interesting thought. Ideally though we need points with a payment system, or at least connected through a suitably smart PAYG meter. Persuading a manufacturer to come up with something for our market might be one for PASC to get their teeth into when other issues have subsided a bit.
rotaman
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Post by rotaman »

Thank you for your thoughts and in-put its a very interesting topic and one that effect us all and has to be manage right, I have a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, utility room, with washing machine and tumble dryer, also have a 7 seater hot tub in the garden, I also have smart meter for both gas and electric, before guest arrive I make sure there over £30 in each £40 in winter months, I leave the top-up cards for the guest should they need to top up the meters via there debit card using there mobile phone 'its easy to do' and its in my term and conditions prior to booking, in the past I have had guest that have use the hot tub at night then go to bed and leave the cover off all night of cause the heater in the hot tub kick-in to maintane the temperature, the other matter is the central heating on all day and night with windows open, leaving out side lights on during the day etc, Since I have put a limit amount on the meters I had no problem since, most guest leave with a small amount of credit still on the meters larger group guest top up a little for use ..... it works
canal boating 'the fastest way to slow down'
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