Fast chargers in Hotels.

[Power Hungry]

Hi all, ordered MYRWD in Brisbane on Friday and spent the night at Marriott hotel. I asked concierge if the had charging infrastructure and was tol I need to bring my one 240v lead. i checked and overnight on that type of charger will only put about 30% in. So I tried searching for hotels with fast chargers and found lots of results but they were all booking sites and had no specific details on chargers. Basically if I was staying overnight i wouldn’t get enough charge to get me home from Marriott. I’d have to stop again and top up,

is there a list of hotels with charging infrastructure in hotels etc? I can’t find one.

 

[Hairyman]

PlugShare does show hotels etc with charging available and the type of charger. You are unlikely to get anything faster than 3 phase AC charging from a dedicated charging unit, so for a 3/Y 11kW. Having said that, that is fast enough.

 

[Power Hungry]

Isn’t that 70km per hr?

 

[Hairyman]

Isn’t that 70km per hr?

Something like that depending on your consumption. I think if it more in terms of battery capacity, but you’re right to think of it in terms that best suit your planning. Anyway, even if you turn up on your last electron and absolutely want to leave with a jammed full battery, it is less than 6 hours for an SR+ and under 7 for a LR/P - so overnight while you sleep.

 

[Power Hungry]

Something like that depending on your consumption. I think if it more in terms of battery capacity, but you’re right to think of it in terms that best suit your planning. Anyway, even if you turn up on your last electron and absolutely want to leave with a jammed full battery, it is less than 6 hours for an SR+ and under 7 for a LR/P - so overnight while you sleep.

Blimey, I just checked Brisbane on PlugShare and could only find one ‘cheap’ hotel. I have to admit that I find a lot of this confusing.

 

[Hairyman]

Yeah, it takes a while to get your head around the new strategy for managing travel.

2 of the last 3 accommodation places I stayed in were just wall sockets, but I was there for days and could walk everywhere, and the other had a Tesla HPWC so the car was charged within a few hours. Either way charging the car wasn’t a hinderance.

Penetration of EV charging into hotels is still pretty variable. Stand-alone fast DC charging is an alternative when you go for a breakfast coffee before you leave, or when you are out to dinner.

 

[raynewman]

Try this:
Find Us | Tesla

 

[meloccom]

I use the Expedia app as you can filter hotels for EV charging. The Sofitel Brisbane has EV charging.
Edit:
Plugshare shows it has 2 Tesla destination chargers with 11Kw.
This is enough to give 70Kmh charge rate so would easily recharge any Tesla overnight.
Hotel Sofitel Brisbane
249 Turbot St, Spring Hill QLD 4000, Australia

Hotel Sofitel Brisbane | PlugShare

 

[alliwantisaY]

Hi all, ordered MYRWD in Brisbane on Friday and spent the night at Marriott hotel. I asked concierge if the had charging infrastructure and was tol I need to bring my one 240v lead. i checked and overnight on that type of charger will only put about 30% in. So I tried searching for hotels with fast chargers and found lots of results but they were all booking sites and had no specific details on chargers. Basically if I was staying overnight i wouldn’t get enough charge to get me home from Marriott. I’d have to stop again and top up,

is there a list of hotels with charging infrastructure in hotels etc? I can’t find one.

Most hotels have fairly slow chargers because guests have the ability to charge overnight so it doesn't need to be faster than let's say a Tesla destination charger or 3 phase power point.

If you had driven from Noosa to Brisbane then it's around 150km so you would have used less than half your capacity so only need to top up. If the hotel has a standard 10 amp GPO for charging from (many have better than this) but we'll use worst case then that gives around 15km/hr. If you charged for 8hrs you'd get around 120km which is almost back to full capacity and more than plenty to get home. In fact you might not need to charge at all to get home but it doesn't hurt to top up if you can

 

[bcarp]

2 of the last 3 accommodation places I stayed in were just wall sockets,

How do you approach the hotel about this? Do you ask when you book if they are happy for you to plug in to the wall, or just when you get there? (Or do you not ask at all?)

 

[Hairyman]

How do you approach the hotel about this? Do you ask when you book if they are happy for you to plug in to the wall, or just when you get there? (Or do you not ask at all?)

I just asked when I got there. One already had an entry on PlugShare and the other advertised EV charging, but just had access to a standard GPO. I would definitely not just plug in to a random power point without checking and offering to pay.

 

[Maximillan]

How do you approach the hotel about this? Do you ask when you book if they are happy for you to plug in to the wall, or just when you get there? (Or do you not ask at all?)

I call ahead the day before, I've been surprised at how many then ask when you plan to arrive and offer to reserve the EV parking spot for you.

 

[paulp]

How do you approach the hotel about this? Do you ask when you book if they are happy for you to plug in to the wall, or just when you get there? (Or do you not ask at all?)

You always ask, but you also take some stats with you and try and speak to a senior person at the hotel around the possible market benefit and competative advantage the hotel may receive by better accomodating the rapidly growing ev market. At least next time they may have reasonable infrastructure for you. I’ve had multiple destination chargers installed doing this, so it’s important that you provide a list of suppliers. Hotels typically already have a relationship with an electrician

 

[spades]

Tbh for hotels with their own carparks, wouldn't it be better if they just installed 10A sockets every few car spots? Hotel guests are likely to stay overnights or multiple nights so 10A charging would suffice. Having a fast charger where you're expected to move after an hour or so is more of a pain when you're on holiday. Destination chargers should be treated differently to fast chargers on freeways as their purpose is completely different.

 

[ewoodrick]

Hi all, ordered MYRWD in Brisbane on Friday and spent the night at Marriott hotel. I asked concierge if the had charging infrastructure and was tol I need to bring my one 240v lead. i checked and overnight on that type of charger will only put about 30% in. So I tried searching for hotels with fast chargers and found lots of results but they were all booking sites and had no specific details on chargers. Basically if I was staying overnight i wouldn’t get enough charge to get me home from Marriott. I’d have to stop again and top up,

is there a list of hotels with charging infrastructure in hotels etc? I can’t find one.

There are three levels of charging systems. I can't remember of Australia has 120V power, but I'll assume so.

Level 1 is 120VAC and can take 48 hours for a really empty battery
Level 2 is 240VAC and can take from about 6 hours to more, depends on the capacity of the charger and they vary.
Level 3 is usually 300+V DC sharging and is commonly known as DC fast chargers. It chargers a battery in about 30 minutes to an hour.

DC Fast chargers are best placed at locations near a lot of traffic and located in free parking and easy access areas with access to food and bathrooms. They are mainly used for long distance travelling.

Level 2 charger is what many people have at home and there are probably dozens of them near wherever you are. They are good for locations where you spend and hour of more, like restaurants, theaters, or hotels.

Level 1 charging is easy at home and is also great for airports, where you will be leaving your car for a few days.

A fast charger at a hotel is not the best placement. You plug the car in and then keep it blocked overnight. That makes everyone who wants to use it mad. That's why a L2 charger is much better at a hotel.

Now, there may be DC Fast chargers, aka Superchargers located neat a hotel, only because road hotels are located next to food as well.

Some hotels may have L2 chargers, some will actually publish them as amenities, but they are hard to find and at least in the US, Plugshare will chow them. It's just hard to associate a hotel with a charger.

And I've had a couple of hotel where I found and outside socket and with hotel permission, I just plugged in using the Tesla Mobile Connector. 50 miles overnight helped many times. But at more than one, I was there for a week and even with short local trips, I was fully charged by the end of the week.

 

[moa999]

No 120V charging in Aus. We are a 230V country.

While I agree a 10A (2.3kW) socket is probably sufficient for most to get a decent top-up (but not a full charge if arriving from zero), I'd prefer proper wall chargers (Lev 3) supplying up to 7kW (single phase 32A) or as high as 22kW.

Why?

1. Rewiring is likely needed anyway.
While a hotel might have some external sockets, they aren't designed for EVs, more likely for cleaners
- you probably have multiple (up to 20) on a single circuit, possibly including room sockets in older properties. A few EVs plugin and the breaker pops.
- you probably have to stretch a cord over a walkway which is a trip hazard

2. The wall chargers are more flexible - they can share power. So if one car plugs in they might get 7/22kW.. if more plugin they get lower power till someone hits their limit.

3. You can outsource billing to a third party provider, rather than going with an antiquated flat rate or read a meter approach (assuming not free)

 

[Vostok]

While a hotel might have some external sockets, they aren't designed for EVs, more likely for cleaners
- you probably have multiple (up to 20) on a single circuit, possibly including room sockets in older properties. A few EVs plugin and the breaker pops.
- you probably have to stretch a cord over a walkway which is a trip hazard

If the sockets were 15A not 10A then the wiring rules are different and each socket would have its own breaker. 15A overnight charging at hotels/motels would probably solve >80% of charging needs. Obviously sockets should be installed right next to each car spot so no trip hazards with extension leads.

Dedicated EVSE is fine too but considerably more expensive to install and it is a rationed and shared resource so drivers need to be considerate and promptly vacate the spot when done. Which is not the case with 15A sockets.

The shared EVSE solution might work OK when EVs are less than 10% of the fleet, but at numbers grow, it becomes much harder to scale.

 

[Vostok]

There are three levels of charging systems. I can't remember of Australia has 120V power, but I'll assume so.

Level 1 is 120VAC and can take 48 hours for a really empty battery
Level 2 is 240VAC and can take from about 6 hours to more, depends on the capacity of the charger and they vary.
Level 3 is usually 300+V DC sharging and is commonly known as DC fast chargers. It chargers a battery in about 30 minutes to an hour.

We are a 230V country and we don’t (or shouldn’t) use the L1/2/3 terminology here. Charging is classified as AC or DC, with a power level in kW.

 

[jamesgo]

Admittedly it's like asking the hotel to give you petrol for your non EV car, so you shouldn't rely on it being available everywhere.

 

[spades]

1. Rewiring is likely needed anyway.
While a hotel might have some external sockets, they aren't designed for EVs, more likely for cleaners
- you probably have multiple (up to 20) on a single circuit, possibly including room sockets in older properties. A few EVs plugin and the breaker pops.
- you probably have to stretch a cord over a walkway which is a trip hazard

2. The wall chargers are more flexible - they can share power. So if one car plugs in they might get 7/22kW.. if more plugin they get lower power till someone hits their limit.

3. You can outsource billing to a third party provider, rather than going with an antiquated flat rate or read a meter approach (assuming not free)

Obviously when I made that comment, I was expecting a hotel to lay new cables and sockets, not reuse existing ones meant for cleaners. But I'm still going to argue that providing 10 x 10A sockets that are appropriately speccd (cable and circuit wise) is better than 2 fast chargers. In this case I would state that quantity of bays trumps speed of charge for hotels.
If they're a proper hotel, they would just not bother with getting a third party to meter the chargers. They would just include it as part of the hotel service. A typical car may only cost them an average of $20 per charge? That is nothing. If they increased their hotel fees by $1 per day for every customer that would more than pay for the daily power rates and sparky costs. Getting a third party biller will cost them more than incorporating the power costs into their hotel fees.