To ask guests to pay for air con?

Absolutely not problem saying “you’re very welcome to use the fans for free. Electricity is extremely expensive here, if you’d like to put the air con on, please could you make a contribution of £15 per night to help us pay for it”.

I can’t see anything wrong with that at all.

Someone has to pay it and if they’ve saved £1000 on accommodation and they have a choice if they want it on or not, then it should be them.

why on earth would you pay it?

Btw is that you, A?

I think you should charge them for the air con and the cleaner but mainly I think you should've done that before, when you were discussing arrangements.

As long as they know in advance I can't see why not. That way they can budget it into their holiday funds.

I think it's fine to charge...just let them know now so they can budget for it

Do not do this

When use ils cottage we pay cost of electric/gas and cleaning and we are grateful for the bargain!

They aren't close enough friends to just tell them how much it costs to run the air con, so why have them stay in your home?

Exactly.

I beg your pardon? You’re very gauche for someone who is claims to be cosmopolitan. Part of my family is from a tropical country, part is from a Mediterranean country, I’ve lived and stayed in places all over the world. Some places have aircon and some don’t. If it was a dealbreaker for me, I would enquire before booking.

What is '50p per hour electricity'? Do you mean 50p per kw hour? If so a small 3kw AC unit would use £15 over 10 hours use. If they leave it running all day it would cost OP £36 just for the AC.

I live in the Caribbean and surprisingly very few solar panels and the electric is extortionate.

It depends on your financial situation I guess but I think the guests should have been given the heads up long before they booked the holiday.

On the other hand, if this is a second home they are staying in, I think you should suck up the cost and perhaps just ask them to be mindful with the usage - ie not leave it on all day.

No, I don't think it's any of those things but then I'm not generally prone to extreme reactions

It's one of a number of options to address the possible issue. We have little information to go on in this situation, the guests may be perfectly happy to pay the additional cost, we don't know, the OP is musing about options.

If water was a costly resource then yes, it would be equally valid to think about how to not incur additional costs when providing someone you aren't close friends with with a free holiday. I don't see anything controversial in that. Most of us don't have unlimited funds to do all the things we might like to

They are not her family. Regardless of any other opinion. She has not invited her family to stay. She said they are ‘friends that they are not close to’. And we don’t know if they invited themselves or not which does change things. We need clarification from the OP.

Aircon is far from standard in most of the tropics. The houses are generally built such that it is close to useless. Where you lived, or your personal homes, were the exception not the rule.
Now I'm wondering if I inadvertently horrified visitors with the provision of a meager fan. Dear me.

Surely an hourly rate is meaningless without knowing the energy consumption…? I’ve got AC units that are 3Kw, and so at 27 cents an hour peak cost (France) that’s nearly 70p an hour. I can easily imagine that being more on an island.

But I agree when you have more than one home you need to be resolute in standing your ground about visitors. Not so much close and family - I don’t mind them using places if I’m not. It’s the people who are more acquaintances than friends that can be the least backwards in coming forwards. And often, by the time you take into account flights, car hire (they’re definitely not borrowing my car!) it’s often not the cheap holiday they’re expecting!

Having said that, if I’ve invited someone to stay with me I want them to be comfortable, and if we are talking somewhere tropical I think most of us unaccustomed to living in that environment would expect air-con.

Get out more! You're a clown. I've lived in many countries that are classed as tropical or subtropical desert, hence why I think it's a bit of a joke to invite family that live in the UK to come stay then revoke the aircon, which is generally needed for people not used to tropical living, non nationals of a tropical climate.

You don't think telling OP to take fuses out of aircon so it doesn't work isn't petty, spiteful and miserly?? Why go to that extent? That's ridiculous. What next, removing the plumbing in case they use too much water.

But the OP hasn’t offered to host her family, they are not family or even close friends. So until we know how this trip has come about it’s hard to call whether she is BU or not. It’s definitely a bit late to spring this on them though.

BEFORE booking the flight.

Well then you need to get out more - because many houses worldwide, particularly period houses, don’t have aircon. Some places don’t even bother with fans as nationals are used to the heat.

There’s no obligation to tell them there’s no aircon before they arrive, there’s no obligation to have it.

Exactly.

Not really because unless I was offered to stay with friends, I probably wouldn't be going to a tropical island. Just like if family visited me where I currently live ( below freezing) I wouldn't then dream of charging them for the heating. I would just presume it was part of the package /hospitality. Like I said maybe the family don't usually spend a lot on holidays so to pay for flights then be told an additional £15 a night to sleep in comfort is asking a lot imo. Transparency is always best, from the beginning.

You must live a very sheltered life if a discussion on someone getting a free holiday but being asked to pay for an expensive resource is nasty, tight and miserable

How low is your bar for horrible 😂

Goodness, what am I reading? People telling the OP to take the fuse out of the airconditioning, to prevent her guests from using it? What nasty, tight and miserly people! This thread is horrible!