I had exactly that problem at a hotel in Bend, OR. 5 hour limit, and then it would stop and start charging $2 per hour idle fee. 5 hours wouldn't even fill me up, so there was no way I was going to use it and pay idle fees for being plugged in overnight and not getting a full charge. Stupid use policies set by the hotel.
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20000 new Tesla chargers at Hilton
- Thread starter Olle
- Start date
The stupid policy in the hotel I was at was set by the property owner on who's land the hotel sat. The property owner was sold a bunch of nonsense by the slimy Chargepoint salesperson. The hotel was frustrated since they were sick of the complaints by EV drivers. They realized it was hurting them more than helping them to have folks see the destination charger listed, then either complain and not use it or use it and complain about either having to get up in the middle of the night to move (without a full charge) or pay exorbitant charging fees.
Hopefully, Hilton will take charge of their charging situation and make it beneficial for everyone.
Not exactly sure how they will solve the issue. I think their plan is to have 4 chargers per hotel which sounds awesome but if they are all in use overnight not many guests will be able to use them.
Most likely at least 6 per hotel. (That is how many Tesla requires to setup billing.)
True, but most people using them are probably on trips, and so they need to charge for hours at a time. But I suspect if they get a lot of use they will expand them.
If they don't have enough for guests to use all night, they don't have enough chargers. Playing stupid sharing games just makes them useless and they might as well not have any.
Hotels need to solve the charging problem, not just make a half-fast effort. Doing all the wrong things is why the non-Tesla charging environment in the US is so bad.
I'm at a hotel now without charging even though there is another hotel nearby with a slow Chargepoint that charges idle fees as well. To me, it makes no difference whether there is a charger with punitive fees to use overnight or no charger at all. I need my sleep at a hotel so I'm not going to stay up all night watching the charging so I can move my car when it is done or. This is particularly bad with Chargepoint junk where you share a 6 KW station with another port - you have no way to guess when it will finish charging since it totally depends on whether someone else arrives later or quits earlier.
This, of course, begs the question about reservations for a charger. Hotel charging won't be serious until I can reserve a room and a charger so I can plan to arrive late and know I'll be able to charge when I arrive. Otherwise, I'll have to have a reliable backup plan in case I can't charge so, it's hardly worth having them provide a charger.
Good idea to be able to reserve the charger as well. I would certainly book at a more expensive rate if they can guarantee an available charger. Paying for the convenience of not having to hunt for a charger and spend time there captive would be worth it to me.
Just stayed at a Marriott. They had 10 charge locations. 3 of which were handicap spots.
Each had a key on the side.
Get key from front desk (leave Drivers License for deposit)
Plug in car
Turn key on. Starts charging. Turn key back and remove key.
It keeps charging until unplugged or car stops using juice.
Return key to desk and retrieve DL.
Edit to add: they were clipper creek model evse.
Each had a key on the side.
Get key from front desk (leave Drivers License for deposit)
Plug in car
Turn key on. Starts charging. Turn key back and remove key.
It keeps charging until unplugged or car stops using juice.
Return key to desk and retrieve DL.
Edit to add: they were clipper creek model evse.
RTPEV
Active Member
Interesting system for controlling access to guests only. Strange that they require your driver's license as a "deposit" considering they probably already have your credit card info. You probably are not going to need your driver's license until you are ready to unplug your car, but still seems a bit onerous.
I've stayed at a Holiday Inn Express where the manager had the "key" and had to come out and turn on the breaker that serviced the station. Not a huge deal, but did take them away from the desk. If it was busy, it would probably not be great.
I also stayed at a Hampton Inn with a ChargePoint station that basically had a super expensive cost (to deter non-guests from using it), but the front desk had their own card that they could use to offer free charging. But again, the reception person had to go outside and swipe the card. AND, there was no signage on the station indicating the need to do that. The first time I stayed there I was charged $2.50 for about 3 minutes of charging. Lucky I checked with the desk upon checkin and they told me that they would swipe their card.
It sounded to me like they only hold it for how long it takes you to activate charging. So just collateral for the key for ~10 minutes, but once started it continues charging.
Last summer I drove from the Bay area to Reno then Glacier Natl Park and back. 16 days total and I stayed at about 5 hotels with free charging plus one with 120v outlets.
They were all setup so that anyone could drive up and plug in except one that advertised Tesla destination chargers and assigned you a parking spot if you asked (6 rooms, 2 chargers). The others were mostly various Marriott brands.
They were all setup so that anyone could drive up and plug in except one that advertised Tesla destination chargers and assigned you a parking spot if you asked (6 rooms, 2 chargers). The others were mostly various Marriott brands.
Stayed at a new Hilton property that was actually two Hilton brands directly next to each other that share a parking lot. Two EV chargers shared between both hotels. One J1772 and one Tesla destination charger. First night Genesis charging on J1772 but Tesla charger was free. Used adapter and charged my iX on Tesla charger. Second night Mach E on J1772 Tesla Model Y on other one. 27 Tesla Supercharger stalls within a mile of hotel. Almost no CCS chargers in Dallas. One single Magic dock site in the state which is closer to FTW. Pathetic CCS charging in Dallas TX.
100%. A few months ago I was looking for a hotel with charging because I was low. No one over the phone could tell me if a charger was available. So I ended up driving to the 4 hotels in that area that had chargers. The ones with plugs available had no rooms and the ones with rooms had all chargers in use. It was a major PITA and an hour wasted.
I also see is hotels not enforcing charging spots. I lost count of how many hotels I stayed that had chargers ICEd. The hotel never cared when I told them.
All this sounds good in theory, but the uncertainty of getting a charge at night when booking a hotel in advance needs to be close to zero for this system to work.
Perhaps, as the era of free destination charging comes to a close, hotels will find some motivation to both maintain their equipment and keep non-revenue vehicles out of the spaces. But, then the value of the destination charger does become reduced in places where supercharging is an option.
I suspect that Hilton's purchase of large numbers of chargers is not to provide free charging. I expect that they will be using the Tesla destination charger billing service and setting rates for their use. Perhaps certain 'premium' customers will get free charging as part of a loyalty plan, but, I expect there to be a charge for most.
I also see a lot of other hotels in plugshare with fee-based chargers listed now.
RTPEV
Active Member
This is not really true:
Granted, only the green ones are open (purple are planned, red is construction, gray is temporarily closed), and of the open ones, some are car dealerships that may or may not be friendly to non-customers, but there are still quite a few 7-Elevens, EVgo sites, and more reliable options.
Eric33432
Member
When I have booked hotels that have EV charging, I always check to be sure there is nearby supercharging in case the chargers are full or not working. But it is nice to get a full charge overnight so you can start out full and get on the road without delay. (I have never encountered a full or not working situation in my limited experience, nor seen one ICEd yet.)
I wonder what the consequence of parking in front of an ICE car and blocking them would be? Probably not good. Put a note on the ICE car to call you when they need to leave?
As hotels seem to like to charge a lot for simple things like laundry service, high room service "service fees", etc., I have been surprised that every hotel I have stayed at that had EV charging did not charge for it. I think it is because they really have not figured out this can be an additional source of revenue.
This is telling and, although they tend to be slow, the MBAs running hotels will eventually realize that having charging is as essential as having Air Conditioning, Color Televisions, and Ice Machines.
In the short-term, it was an hour wasted, however, you reminded someone of the demand so it will eventually pay off for you and other EV drivers. For this, I thank you.
Although it takes longer, asking to speak with the manager often has more impact.
If L2 was as fast as an EV could charge, then I would agree. But, with the growing prevalence of DC fast charging, EV charging is becoming as essential as gas pumps at hotels.
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