Lay My Hat

The have a guest booked for 21 nights May/June. She is there for the duration with a turnover of 7 guests during the stay, so several bed configuration and linen changes which ive charged her a small fee for the cleaners extra work.

She now emailed me that shes probably going ng to hire a hot tub and asking my permission to do so.

Ive not confirmed as yet, but before thinking it through Ive only asked how big it is. Ive now thought on it a while and a load of Qs have popped in my head.

Location, our garden only has 2-3m of grass around 3 sides of the pool and the only other area would be in the car port or dining loggia area. So potential damage to grass where its sited and chemical damage or tiles broken under weight.

Hiw much water will it hold?.... At my expense

Power, extra electricity, and from which point?....at my expense.


....I think i know where im going with this.

Has anyone else had experience of a hired hot tub? I do own one privately, so understand maintenance, etc

They will also leave it switched on 24/7 probably and leave it uncovered for hours even when it's not been used meaning it will consume a lot of power heating up the water.

I would want to know how many kwh's the tub uses on full power, the supplier should be able to tell you this. Knowing that and knowing how much youre paying for your electricity per kwh you can work out how much it will cost. I'd assume it's switched on 24/7.

Do you read the meters on changeover days? This will give you an average weekly rate of consumption. Knowing this you can charge the difference before they leave or take a deposit in advance and adjust what's left if anything afterwards.

The hot tub supplier should be able to give you an idea as to how much it costs to run, i'd add 25% just in case they are telling porkies.

A couple of thoughts: if you’re on private drainage it’s a straight no as you really don’t want to kill your septic tank/treatment plant with 1000 litres plus of chlorinated water, and if you gave them permission to hire you’d probably be responsible if the waste water was just dumped on the ground.

Second point - electricity supply. It’s the same as if you give permission for someone to charge an EV, if you allow them to use your electricity supply you’re responsible for that supply being suitably RCBO protected and certified for use outdoors; that’s a big responsibility.

If there’s overspill from the tub would it be contained in your own land or run into a neighbouring property? Guess who’d be responsible...

PS - just realised you’re in Portugal, so I don’t know if the safety regs for using electricity outside are anything like those in the UK.

If a hot tub is so important, and it would seem to be, why didn't they book a place with a hot tub.

I would say "Sorry" and "No" with my nicest smile. I'd probably fall back on an insurance excuse or water consumption being restricted etc.