How much extra would you pay for a Hotel with Destination Charging that you could Reserve?

[RayK]

The worlds is going EV. It is in the best interest of any joint, hotel, motel, burdello, to accomodate EV charging to bring in the customers.

Assuming you meant to type "bordello", I would never, ever, plug in my car there or leave any breadcrumb that could possibly be traced to a location such as that.

 

[SalisburySam]

Can you get a burrito at a burdello?

I won’t pay extra for charging station access…I expect a discount if it isn’t there or working. EVs aren’t new anymore and hotels/motels have had the chance to catch up.

 

[Olle]

With Tesla destination charger now being able to collect money for the owner/operator I’m pretty sure some hotels will soon put them in almost every spot. As an example is the average Parking construction cost for a e.g. a 750 car garage; $9.75 MM, so $13,000 per spot. That doesn’t even include the land. The $400 per plug is minimal compared to it, especially since you are now adding an extra income source for the hotel. Conduit isn’t crazy expensive to run. With the load sharing function you don’t need to assign as much power.

Return on investment is crazy at least for the actual twc let’s say you profit $10 per night you paid it off in 40 days.

 

[sleepydoc]

I did not vote. But I will comment that the hotel/motel will have to eliminate any form of ICEing of their EV chargers. Time and again I have arrived at a property only to see that the EVSE has been ICEd by other vehicles or a construction crew or some guy hauling a boat parking perpendicular with their ginormous pick ups and utility trucks to the parking slots. And the front desk merely shrugs their shoulders, like well sorry about that.

Sure, if you arrive at 3:30 in the afternoon, you are probably good to go. But any arrival past 6:00 or so and you takes your chances at many locations.

that's when you park your car right in front of their ginormous pickup & block them in!

 

[SalisburySam]

that's when you park your car right in front of their ginormous pickup & block them in!

Or to avoid physical injury to your car or yourself, park in front of the facility entrance…let them deal with the issue.

 

[21EV]

I voted for $20 but the real answer is that it depends. If there are supercharger options nearby or en route, what my day looks like for travel, winter versus summer trip, etc.

A tiered pricing strategy where the first hour is free, or a surcharge appears after a lengthy stay might be a solution to deter people from camping with their car. I know of ChargePoint stations that do this near me.

 

[ucmndd]

I actively seek out hotels with L2 charging but almost always treat it as opportunistic - if I can charge the car during downtime that’s always preferred. Great to leave the next day with a full battery and skip that first stop.

But I’ve never RELIED on it, or put myself in a situation where I had to. If it’s not available, not a deal breaker.

I don’t think a personally reserved L2 spot is really the right way to go about it. It’s lazy and ties up resources unnecessarily. The right way IMO:

* First come first serve spots with rules that are actively enforced. Active charging only. Idle cars or ICE cars get towed. You can fix the idle problem with technology by using an EVSE like ChargePoint that allows you to jack the rate way up after a certain number of hours or if the session is idle.

* Valet handles the charging. Dropping the keys and saying “please have it charged by morning” is easy peasy.

 

[Earl]

But I’ve never RELIED on it,

This is certainly the only option if the hotel only has:

First come first serve spots

Of course, if:

Valet handles the charging. Dropping the keys and saying “please have it charged by morning” is easy peasy.

This is but only one type of hotel and, likely, only one type of travel since few of the hotels I'm referring to even offer valet parking. I'm more concerned about hotels one would use on road trips when one is trying to get somewhere, not resorts or extended business stays where one may have downtime with the luxury to be able to

charge the car during downtime

Then there's the issue of:

rules that are actively enforced. Active charging only.

and

an EVSE like ChargePoint that allows you to jack the rate way up after a certain number of hours or if the session is idle.

which will be a total deal breaker for me.

The hotel might as well not even bother to have a charger if I must wake up at 0200 to unplug and move my car lest get charged heinous overage fees.

Active charging limitations should, IMO, only apply to DC Fast Chargers. Even with DCFC, I'm not happy with overage fees, although I understand their need, given some abusers. It is annoying to have to leave one's meal to unplug one's car and move it. This is a detriment to EV usage, leaving an advantage to ICE. Leaving one's meal is particularly obnoxious if the restaurant is not near the Supercharger.

Also, there's the issue of cold weather where it is far better to be able to leave one's car plugged overnight so that it can pre-warm and fully charge by the time one will be ready to depart a hotel to resume travelling.

Clearly, different people use hotels for different purposes but, for my usages, reserving a space with a charger and using it over night is a necessity. Otherwise, its barely worth having a charger at a hotel since I'll seek a different one that meets my needs.

 

[sleepydoc]

The only time I’ve used a charger at a hotel I made sure there were other options because I couldn’t be sure it was functional and not in use. When we arrived there was a sign saying the charger was provided as a courtesy to guests and asking people to be considerate, only charge as much as necessary and to move their car when finished.

That may be the best system, although relying on common courtesy isn’t really a good plan these days. I’m sure the hotel doesn‘t want to have to deal with the hassles of charger reservations, contacting guests who are using it without authorization, etc.

Another potential option would be to have it linked to a room key so you need to swipe your room key to activate it but that would require a more significant outlay on the hotel’s part.

 

[ucmndd]

The hotel might as well not even bother to have a charger if I must wake up at 0200 to unplug and move my car lest get charged heinous overage fees.

Meh, I suppose I view public charging like this as a communal benefit and am one of those rare people willing to accept a little inconvenience to make sure that benefit is available to others when they need it. If everybody did that we certainly wouldn’t need “heinous overage fees” but as we well know a sizable slice of the population is some combination of clueless/selfish/asshole so we need a backstop.

Once I did exactly as you describe - got out of bed to move my car in the middle of the night. It was the smallest of inconveniences, but when I got outside there was a Leaf parked next to me with the charge port door open - the universal signal in the non-Tesla world for “please plug me in”. I was glad to be able to help.

Other times when using j1772 chargers, if there are empty parking spots within reach I’ll leave a note on my dash that says “please unplug me after X:00 if you need a charge”. I’ve had one person take me up on that. Again, happy I was able to help, and could sleep well knowing I wasn’t inhibiting someone else in need.

Now when I use Tesla chargers overnight at a hotel, I leave a similar note with my phone number so people can call if they need the charger. Again, I’ve had someone call once. I unlocked the charge port remotely and they were very thankful.

There are ways to deal with this that involve only the tiniest bit of inconvenience and goodwill.

Active charging limitations should, IMO, only apply to DC Fast Chargers.

We’re gonna have to just disagree on that one. EV charging spaces are for charging. Plain and simple. It might be “annoying” to have to get up mid-hamburger to move your car, but it’s a hundred times more annoying to be waiting for a resource that someone else has inconsiderately made unavailable because their own inconvenience is more important than everyone else’s.

 

[21EV]

EV charging spaces are for charging. Plain and simple. It might be “annoying” to have to get up mid-hamburger to move your car, but it’s a hundred times more annoying to be waiting for a resource that someone else has inconsiderately made unavailable because their own inconvenience is more important than everyone else’s.

I’ve been thinking about this type of scenario quite a bit. DC chargers are set up to just charge as fast as the car will allow (given the capabilities of the EV). The level 2 stations can be scaled up and down by the car based on amperage. But it seems we can approach more intelligently. What if there were more smarts to this so more plugs could be added? For instance a station might have a certain total kW (or MW) capacity that could be dynamically allocated to cars based on the desired battery charging level and the time the car will sit. So you could clock in for a 90 minute charge needing 60 kWh, another user might have 10 hours overnight for that same 60 kWh and still another might have only 30 minutes. My quick math is that the overall station would need to be scaled to 166 kW to meet all of that demand. Versus have three 100 kW stalls that would be overkill or only three 6 kW stalls that would work for only one of those users.

 

[Earl]

EV charging spaces are for charging. Plain and simple.

I actually see Level 2 as being "destination" charging where you are parked at your destination (home, work, attraction, etc). You're supposed to be doing whatever you're there for, not running out to move your car. If the place is for charging, the charging speed should be fast enough to get it done quickly (ie DCFC).
The solution to not having enough chargers is putting in more chargers, not disrupt what you are there for.
Places that want me to pay to spend the night there (apartments, hotels, stores, etc) need to install enough for those who need to charge or we'll go somewhere else.
Stranded assets are nothing new. Stoves, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, etc, spend most of their time idle so they're ready when we are, charging stations should be the same.
A successful apartment building doesn't have one stove that folks have to hope is free. Those with central laundry can't hope to charge as much rent as those with in-room washer and dryer. EV chargers are just another appliance.
These sharing hassles are simply start-up issues as the infrastructure is built out to handle the load.

 

[SVMike]

The solution to hotel destination chargers will happen as soon as most front desk managers own an EV.
Until then they won't understand the problem well enough to come up with the simplest solution for their hotel

(I have used hotel chargers 3 times in the past few months with good results)

 

[sleepydoc]

The solution to hotel destination chargers will happen as soon as most front desk managers own an EV.
Until then they won't understand the problem well enough to come up with the simplest solution for their hotel

(I have used hotel chargers 3 times in the past few months with good results)

When the front desk manager owns an EV the EV charging spot will be occupied by their car!

 

[Earl]

When the front desk manager owns an EV the EV charging spot will be occupied by their car!

That will actually be just fine since it won't be ICEd and you can easily find the manager to get his/her car moved.

I always recommend that the EV chargers be used by the front desk managers if they're concerned about it tying up a parking space since that person is easy to find by an EV driver.

 

[SVMike]

When the front desk manager owns an EV the EV charging spot will be occupied by their car!

Not a problem. If you have 2 or 4 chargers and the manager uses one of them for an hour or two per day, all will be good.
And s/he'll know the difference between a Tesla supercharger, destination charger, L2 charger, etc.